Once your listing is live, clients can find you and send booking requests. Here is how a booking for a service moves from first request to money in your M-Pesa. If you sell products, the same page carries your orders — see Orders & deliveries.

How clients find you

Clients search the services directory by trade, by place and by what they need, open your public page or one of your catalogue items, and tap Book. Others meet you first in the Discover feed and tap through from a post. They see your headline, catalogue, prices, rating, reviews and jobs completed. If you have set working hours, they see your Next available time and pick from your actual free slots, so requests land inside hours you can honour. If you have not set hours yet, clients can propose any time.

Your Bookings page

Open Bookings under Work (on the phone app, the Work tab → Bookings). The page is titled Service jobs (Service bookings in the phone app), or Orders & bookings once you have received an order for a product. Every request appears as a card showing the service, the client's name, the requested date and time, the location, and any notes they added.

Two filters sit at the top: Orders, Bookings or All, and active or all to switch between open work and your full history.

While a booking is live, its card also shows the client's phone number with Call and WhatsApp buttons, and a private line only you can see — First order with you, or how many jobs this client has completed with you before.

Rentor tells you about a new request by notification, email and, unless you switched it off, an SMS to your contact phone (the Text me when a new order comes in switch on Profile & areas).

The pipeline, step by step

Each booking carries a status badge:

1. Requested — a client has asked for a service. You have three choices:

• Accept — take the job. You can enter the Agreed price now, or leave it blank if you will quote after seeing the job.
• Send quote — send a price first. The client confirms the quote before the job is locked in.
• Decline — turn it down. Pick a reason — Not available at that time, Outside my area, Not taking jobs right now or Something else — and the client is told why, so they can look elsewhere.

1. Accepted / Confirmed — the job is on. It also appears on your schedule.
2. Start job — tap this when you begin. The status becomes In progress and the client is told you have started.
3. Mark completed — tap this when the work is done. The status becomes Completed and the client is asked to rate the job.

Answer within 24 hours. A request that sits unanswered for a day is cancelled by Rentor, and the client is told to try someone else.

If you have to pull out after accepting, use Cancel booking and give a reason; it is sent to the client word for word. A booking the client calls off shows as Cancelled.

Getting paid

Clients can pay a booking by M-Pesa prompt through Rentor, and that money settles straight into your own M-Pesa — set that up once (see Getting paid). They can also pay you directly, in cash or to your own M-Pesa, and mark it paid on their side.

If the client paid you directly, tick Payment received (cash / M-Pesa direct) when you tap Mark completed. Leave it off if they still owe you. Either way, a paid booking carries a green Paid badge on its card.

Need a different time? Propose it — don't cancel

If a job clashes with something, don't throw the booking away. On the booking card, tap Propose new time, pick a slot from your real availability and say briefly why. The client accepts or declines — and the original time stands until they accept, so nothing moves silently. Clients can propose a new time to you the same way; you'll be notified and can accept or decline. One proposal is live at a time (a newer one replaces it), a booking can't be moved once you've tapped Start job, and nothing moves inside 2 hours of the start.

Messaging the client

Every booking has its own conversation thread — tap Message about this booking to chat in-app about access, materials, parking or anything else. Both sides are notified of replies, and the thread closes a week after the job wraps up.

Prefer a text message? On any live booking, ✉️ SMS client sends them an SMS — "On my way, arriving in about 20 minutes" goes a long way. Each message uses one or more SMS credits (one credit per 160 characters), and your name is signed automatically. If you run out, tap Buy SMS credits → to top up from your billing page.

Bookings you made yourself

If you hire another provider or order from a seller, those appear lower on the same page under Orders & bookings you made, with the customer's buttons instead of yours. How that side works is in Finding a service provider.

Quick tips

• Answer a Requested booking fast — clients often ask several providers, and an unanswered one is cancelled after 24 hours.
• If you use Send quote, keep it realistic; the client sees it before confirming.
• Keep your calendar honest with working hours and time off, so you are never booked when you cannot come.
• Completed, well-rated jobs build the reputation clients see next time — see Ratings & reputation.

Landlord maintenance work is different from client bookings — those assigned jobs live on your Overview (the Home tab on the phone app). See Maintenance jobs from landlords.