Appointments

How booking works

Appointment booking lets guests reserve a time with you on a public page. You define appointment types (for example a 30 minute intro call), and guests pick an open slot and book it.

You create one or more appointment types and set the hours you take bookings.
A guest opens your booking page, picks a day and time, and enters their details.
Both of you are emailed. The guest gets a calendar invite, a link to manage the booking, and a reminder before it starts.

Bookings stay off your public schedule

Every booking is created as a private event, so it never shows up on your public schedule, your iCal feed, your RSS feed, or your event graphics. It does block the time against further bookings, and it appears on your Sales page.

Appointment booking is a Pro feature, and is included on all selfhosted deployments.

Appointment types

Open the Appointments tab on your schedule and choose New appointment type. Each type has:

Name - what guests see in the list, for example "30 minute intro call".
Description - optional detail shown under the name on the booking page.
Duration - how long the appointment runs, in minutes.
Active - untick to stop taking new bookings for a type without deleting it. Existing bookings are unaffected.

Create as many types as you need. A free intro call and a paid consultation can sit side by side with different hours, prices, and rules.

Weekly hours

Tick the days you take bookings and set the hours for each one. A day can hold up to four ranges, so mornings and late afternoons can be open while the middle of the day is not. Ranges cannot overlap.

Hours are in your schedule's timezone. Guests always see open times converted to their own timezone, with your timezone shown alongside so nobody has to do the maths.

Set your timezone first

If your schedule has no timezone set, slots are worked out in the application's default timezone and the Appointments tab warns you. Set it under your schedule's Details before you share your booking page.

Open times also respect what is already on your schedule. Any event that overlaps a slot removes it, including events synced in from Google Calendar, Outlook, or CalDAV, and bookings for your other appointment types.

Buffers, notice & booking window

Buffer before and buffer after - padding in minutes around each appointment so bookings never touch back to back.
Minimum notice - how many hours ahead a guest has to book. Set 12, for example, and nobody can grab a slot this evening.
Booking window - how many days into the future guests can book. The default is 60.

Where you meet

Each type says how the appointment happens, and only the matching field is shown:

In person - enter the address guests should come to.
Online - enter the meeting link. It is attached to the booking, so the guest gets it with their confirmation.
Phone - enter the number to call.

Whichever you choose travels with the booking: it shows on the booking page, in the confirmation email, and in the calendar invite.

What you ask guests

Every booking collects a name and email address, which is where the confirmation goes. Two options per type add to that:

Ask for a phone number - adds an optional phone field.
Require a phone number - makes that field mandatory.

Guests can also leave notes with anything that helps you prepare. Notes are saved on the booking, so they are there when you open it.

Payments

Leave the price at zero for a free type, or set a price and currency to charge for it. Paid types take payment by Stripe, a payment link, or cash.

Free and cash bookings are held as soon as the guest books.
Stripe and payment link bookings ask the guest to complete payment. The slot is held while they do, and the hold expires if they never pay, which frees the time for someone else.

Paid types need a payment method

A paid type stays hidden from guests until a working payment method is connected, and the Appointments tab tells you which type is being held back. Connect Stripe or add a payment link under Account Settings to make the type bookable.

Refunds are manual

Cancelling a paid booking does not move any money. Refund it in Stripe or your payment provider, then mark the sale refunded on the Sales page. The cancellation email to you shows the amount and reference so you have both to hand.

Approval

Turn on Require approval before confirming and bookings for that type arrive as requests. The type is labelled "Requires confirmation" on the booking page, and the guest is told nothing is booked until you confirm.

Requests land on your Requests tab alongside submitted events. Accept and the guest gets their confirmation and calendar invite; decline and they are told they are welcome to book another time. Either way the slot stays blocked while the request is open, so you cannot double-book yourself while you decide.

On a paid type that takes card or link payments, accepting does not confirm on its own: the guest is confirmed once the payment goes through.

Managing bookings

Switch the Appointments tab to Bookings to see what has been booked, filtered by Upcoming, Pending, Past, or Cancelled. Open a booking to see the guest's details and notes.

Cancel a booking and the guest is emailed. The slot is released, so someone else can take it.
New bookings email you too, whether they are confirmed or waiting for your approval.
Paid bookings appear on the Sales page, where you mark refunds and see the revenue with the rest of your sales.

The booking page

Once a type is active, the Appointments tab shows Your booking page with the link to copy and share. It lives at /book on your schedule, and each type has its own address underneath it, so you can link straight to one type.

A Book a Time button also appears on your public schedule page. Its wording is editable under Customize, like your other labels.

Guests see each type with its duration and price, then pick a day and a time. Times are grouped into morning, afternoon, and evening, with a shortcut to the next available slot, and shown in the guest's own timezone. After they enter their details they get:

A confirmation email with a calendar invite they can add in one click.
A private link to manage the booking, which they can use to cancel while the appointment is still in the future.
A reminder email about 24 hours before it starts.

Good to know

Email has to work. On the hosted platform, guests get no confirmations or reminders until the schedule's Email settings are configured, and the Appointments tab warns you about it.
Reminders only go to confirmed bookings. A request still waiting on you, or a card booking still waiting on payment, does not get one.
The same guest cannot double-book. One email address cannot hold two bookings at the same time on your schedule.
Deactivate rather than delete. Turning a type off hides it from guests and keeps everything already booked.
Not the same as Availability. The Availability tab tracks whole days your team is free to be booked for events. Appointments sell specific time slots.
Plan. Appointment booking requires a Pro plan, and is included on selfhosted deployments.