When a seeker wants to work with you, it arrives as a booking. This article covers where bookings show up, how to price and accept one, and what happens when you need to decline or cancel.
How bookings reach you
A booking can start three ways:
A seeker books one of your listings on the marketplace.
A seeker reaches out directly from your profile, without a specific listing.
Althea creates the booking through our matching process, where our care team connects a seeker with the right fit.
You'll get an email whenever a new request comes in. For centers, that email goes to your administrators. The Bookings page in the app is the source of truth, so when in doubt, look there rather than in your inbox.
Don't see Bookings in the side nav? It appears once you have a published listing or your first booking, so a brand-new profile won't show it yet.
The bookings list
The list opens filtered to what still needs you: Requested and Accepted. The status chips across the top toggle on and off, and each shows a count. Turn them all off to see everything, including bookings that are finished or cancelled.
There's also search, a column picker, and export to CSV or print, in the toolbar on the right.
The four states
Requested — a seeker has asked to book. The ball is in your court.
Accepted — you've said yes and the seeker has been invoiced. Waiting on payment.
Booked — paid in full and locked in. This happens automatically; there's no button to press.
Cancelled — the booking won't move forward.
Working a request
Open any booking to see the full picture: where it is in its lifecycle, who the seeker is, what they said, and what's been paid.
1. Set the price
New requests come in without a price. Click Set price next to the price field and enter what you're charging.
The Accept button stays disabled until there's a price, because accepting is what sends the seeker their invoice.
2. Connect with the seeker
Accepting is a commitment, so have the conversation first. Their email is on the booking page with a one-click copy button.
Before you accept, make sure that:
You both agree to move forward
They're eligible for services
You've agreed on pricing and dates
3. Accept
Click Accept. The confirmation window repeats the checklist above and shows you exactly how the seeker's payment will be routed before you commit — your portion to your account, Althea's platform fee separately, or collected by Althea and paid out to you, depending on your setup.
Confirming emails the seeker their invoice.
4. Wait for payment
Once accepted, there's nothing more for you to do on the booking itself. The seeker pays their invoice, and the booking moves to Booked on its own the moment it's paid in full.
The invoice section on the booking page tracks it: each invoice with its amount, status, and when it was sent and paid, plus a running total of what's been paid against what's owed.
Declining and cancelling
It's the same button in the upper right, and it changes name depending on where the booking is:
Decline — while the booking is still Requested. The seeker is notified by email. They were never charged, so there's nothing to refund.
Cancel — after you've accepted. The seeker is notified by email.
Refunds when you cancel
If the seeker has already paid, cancelling makes you decide what happens to their money. For each paid invoice you pick one of three options:
Refund in full
Partial refund — you enter the amount, up to what's still refundable.
No refund — you keep it.
There's deliberately no default. You have to choose for every paid invoice before the cancel button unlocks, so a refund is never skipped by accident. The button then spells out the consequence, for example "Cancel and refund $450.00."
Refunds are issued immediately. Bank refunds take a few business days to clear on the seeker's end.
If the button is greyed out
Cancel is temporarily unavailable while a payment or refund is still settling. Give it a few minutes and try again.
Reading the invoice section
Each invoice on a booking shows:
The amount and a status chip (Paid, Refunded, Cancelled, and so on).
Where the money goes — your account, Althea's platform fee, or collected by Althea. Hover the question mark for the detail.
When it was sent, and when it was paid.
Underneath, a summary line shows how much has been paid of the total owed, and what's still outstanding.