Waiting for a guide to respond

Once you send a booking request, it sits as Pending until the guide accepts or declines it. Here's what that stage means.

You're not charged while pending

A pending request hasn't cost you anything. You won't be charged unless and until the guide accepts and you complete payment — see Request and confirm a tour.

There's no fixed deadline

Guides run their own schedules, and we don't put a countdown on how quickly they need to respond. A pending request doesn't expire on its own, and a guide isn't penalized for taking time to check their availability before answering. If you're booking well in advance, it's normal for a request to sit pending for a while before the guide gets to it.

You'll hear as soon as they respond

You don't need to keep refreshing your bookings page to know what's happening. You'll get an email as soon as the guide accepts or declines, and your booking's status updates automatically.

If you don't want to wait

You're not locked in while a request is pending. You can cancel it at any time from your bookings dashboard and send a new request to a different guide, or to the same guide with different details.

What happens next

• If the guide accepts, your booking moves to Payment Required and you'll get a link to pay and confirm it.
• If the guide declines, you'll see their reason (if they gave one) and your booking closes with no charge — see When a guide declines.

Either way, you'll be able to see the change reflected on your booking as soon as it happens.

Still need help?

If your plans have changed while you're waiting, see Change a booking date or time for what your options are at this stage.