Set up bookings
Appointments let customers book a time with you from your published site - a haircut, a consultation, a service visit. You set what you offer, when you are available, and what happens when someone books.
Where to find it
Turn bookings on in Settings > Bookings. Once it is on, the module appears in the sidebar, where you manage services, staff, working hours and the bookings themselves.
Set it up
- Open Settings > Bookings and switch bookings on.
- Add your services - each one with a duration and a price.
- Add your staff and set each person's working hours.
- Add the booking section to a page in the builder, then publish.
Every setting explained
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Booking word | What a booking is called on your site - "appointment", "session", "visit". Changes the wording customers see. |
| Service word | What your services are called - "treatment", "class", "job". |
| Staff word | What your people are called - "stylist", "therapist", "engineer". |
| CTA label | The text on the button customers click to start booking. |
| Booking mode | Fixed slots offers real times from your calendar and books them. Request a time lets a customer ask for a time you then confirm - use it when availability is not a clean grid. |
| Earliest (hours notice) | Also called the booking buffer, minimum notice or lead time. The minimum notice you need. Set 12 and nobody can book a slot less than 12 hours away, so you are never surprised an hour before. |
| Latest (days ahead) | Also called the booking window or how far in advance customers can book. How far ahead the calendar opens. Set 60 and customers can book up to two months out, but no further. |
| Auto-confirm | On, bookings are confirmed the moment they are made. Off, they arrive as pending and you approve each one. |
| Let customers pick staff | Whether the customer chooses who they see, or you assign it. |
| Require a service | Whether a customer must pick a service before choosing a time. |
| Collect phone | Adds a phone field to the booking form. |
| Collect address | Adds an address field - for work you do at the customer's location. |
| Require payment | No payment books without paying. Deposit to confirm takes part of the price up front. Full price takes the whole amount at booking. |
| Deposit | With a deposit required, how much: a flat amount or a percentage of the service price. |
| Free cancellation window | How many hours before the appointment a customer can still cancel free of charge. |
| No-show fee | What you charge when someone does not turn up. Shown in your policy. |
| Policy text | Your cancellation and no-show terms, shown to the customer before they confirm. |
| Email reminders | Also called reminder lead time. How many hours before the appointment the reminder email goes out. |
| Notify email | Where new-booking notifications are sent. Leave blank to use your account email. |
How it behaves
- Double-booking is prevented for you. Availability is worked out from your services, staff and working hours, so the same person cannot be booked twice for the same time.
- Taking payment needs Stripe connected. Until it is, "Deposit to confirm" and "Full price" cannot complete - connect Stripe in Settings > Payments first.
- Changing a setting does not rewrite existing bookings. New rules apply to new bookings; anything already booked keeps the terms it was made under.
- Bookings are a paid feature. On the Free plan the module is unavailable - see What each plan includes for the monthly booking allowance on each plan.
If something goes wrong
- No times are offered. Usually working hours: check that at least one staff member has hours set for the day in question, and that the service duration fits inside them.
- Times are offered but too soon or too far out. That is "Earliest (hours notice)" and "Latest (days ahead)" - widen or narrow them.
- Bookings arrive but you are not emailed. Check "Notify email", then your spam folder.
- Customers cannot pay. Stripe is not connected, or the account is not yet enabled for charges.