Instant Book, or asking to book

Which one this listing is

Once you are signed in with a card on file, the button tells you: Reserve, or Request booking. Before that it reads "Sign in to book" or "Add a card to book" — but the note above the button appears either way whenever the host is not accepting everybody automatically.

Reserve means this stay is accepted automatically. You pay there and then.

Request booking means instant booking is not on for everyone here. Usually that means the host reads your request first, and the note above the button says exactly that: instant booking is off for this stay, and you will not be charged unless they accept. There is one case where that note is not the whole story. A host can also choose to accept low-risk guests automatically, and the button and the note look identical when they have — so if your record with that host is clean, you are accepted on the spot and asked to pay on your trip page rather than left waiting.

How a host decides

Each host picks one of three for each of their places: accept everybody, accept low-risk guests only, or read every request.

"Low risk" means you have completed at least one stay with that host, and every other booking of theirs on your record also ended in a completed stay. Anything that ended another way takes you out of the group:

• a cancellation, including one you made yourself
• a request you took back before the host answered
• an earlier request they declined
• a no-show

The record it reads is the one you have with that host, not your Kabora history overall. No stays with them yet counts as not low risk, so a first booking with a host set that way goes to them to read even if you have stayed a dozen times elsewhere on Kabora. Book with them a second time and your record with them counts, whichever of their places you pick.

Longer than the host's maximum

A stay over the maximum is never accepted automatically — and on most listings you cannot even ask. The dates are refused outright, with the host's night limit named in the message.

Only a host who has switched instant booking on and separately allowed longer-stay requests lets you send one. Where they have, it always goes to them to read.

What waiting costs

A request does not hold the nights. They stay on sale until a payment goes through, so somebody else can still book them while you wait — which is why the host is told plainly that answering quickly matters.

Pressing Reserve does not hold them either. The nights are yours when the payment goes through, not when you press the button.

You are not charged for a request. Once the host accepts, your trip page is where you pay.

A card first, either way

Both roads need a card saved to your account. Until there is one, the button reads "Add a card to book" and takes you straight to the payments part of your account.

That is deliberate. A request with no card sits in the host's queue for a day, the host turns down other dates on the strength of it, and only when they accept does anything discover there was never a way to pay. One screen up front saves everybody that.

How you hear back

By email, and on your trip page.

• Your request went in — an email confirming it was sent.
• The host accepted — an email with a link straight back to your trip to pay.
• The host declined — an email saying so, that you were not charged, and that the dates are released.
• A booking that went through automatically — the confirmation email follows the payment, not the button press.

These four come by email, not as a notification in the app, so watch your inbox and your trip page. A request nobody answers within 48 hours runs out: you are told by email, in the app and in the thread, and nothing is charged.