Your listing has two independent switches that control its visibility, and they do different things.
Published controls whether your listing URL is live at all. If it is off, visiting your URL returns nothing — the listing does not exist as far as anyone else is concerned. If it is on, the URL works and people can reach it.
Public controls who can actually see your listing content once they arrive. If it is off, only your approved followers can see the photos, description, pricing, and everything else. Everyone else hits an access gate asking them to request access. If it is on, the full listing is visible to anyone with the link — no approval needed to browse.
Most hosts keep the listing published but not public. That means the URL is live and shareable, the access gate is in place, and you decide who gets approved. It is the private-by-default approach the platform is built around.
When to use Public mode
Turn Public on if you want anyone with your link to be able to browse your full listing — description, photos, pricing, policies — without needing your approval first. You can still require a follow request before they can submit a booking.
This is useful if you want to share your listing more openly (e.g. in a blog post or social media) while still controlling who actually books.
Draft mode
A listing that has not been published is effectively in draft mode. You can build out your content, set up pricing and settings, and publish only when you are ready. No one will see your listing while it is unpublished.
Changing visibility after publishing
You can toggle Published and Public at any time from your property dashboard. There is no limit on how many times you can change these.
Note
Toggling Published off does not delete your listing or its content. It simply makes the URL inactive. You can re-publish at any time with all content intact.