MY FIRST BOOKING AS A HOST. Please Advise

Hi Sid,

You really have to learn and read all the Partner Help for Getting Starting, we cant do it for you.

It should have been done prior to signing up.

1. Payment - By default you will have to collect the payment yourself. As you likely have not setup any other methods. Search for 1> Online Payments , 2> Payments by Booking  
2. If you want to long term handle all payments, consider a service like : https://sumup.ie/bookingie/ and then sign up , request their Virtual Terminal , in order to do payment links, remote card payments etc.  
3. Payments by Booking is the ideal solution for new hosts. BdC doeseverything for you under this service, and its also more secure , as guests prepay BdC, and then you get a payout. See Getting Paid under  Extranet - Finance  
4. Commission and payout PbB charges a %  and then a fixed % for the amount to be paid out via a payment gateway service. e.g. 18% + 1.3%  
5. unable to contact guest - contact BdC support team if you cant wait until she arrives. see guide below.  
6.  Hopefully you had the sense to set up the auto message templates for : 1> New reservation 2>Check-in info 3> How to get here Assuming the guest has all the info to find the place you can meet them and settle the money owed on arrival.  
7. Confirm Booking - all bookings are auto confirmed once the calendar shows a room type as open and has an inventory of 1 or more.

To prevent more bookings for now until you are fully setup and have read everything in Partner Help, I suggest you :

Open the Calendar in List view and select a date range from now until 3 weeks later, and set all room types to closed.

The calendar will be open bty default as soon as you create:

1> room type

2> rate plan and link it to  room type(s)

Dedicated Partner Contact Options - Visual Guide

Your reading list , in order of importance:

By Me

• Dedicated Partner Contact Options - Visual Guide
• How & Why Add your Listing to your Partner Community Profile
• Policies - Additional Fees - Deposits and Cleaning Fees
• Managing Availability by BrookAve ***  very important
• Automatic Messages - Setup Templates in Multiple Languages
• Facilities & Services - Check-in services
• Cancellation Policies - Hidden Preferences - More options

By BdC

• Your first steps with Booking.com
• Working together with Booking.com
• Managing cancellations
• Reassuring guests
• All solutions
• Online Payments Versus Payments By Boking