Take bookings on your site

With the Bookings add-on ($5 a month for your whole team, or included in the Business plan), visitors book on your own site, in its design and in Spanish too. There are three kinds:

• Appointments: a service with a length, booked at an open start time with one person or whoever's free.
• Visits: visitors pick an arrival window, like morning or afternoon, for a visit to them.
• Spots in events: a class with a set number of spots, a waitlist, and optional payment.

You and your customer each get an email. They get a reminder the day before, and a link to move or cancel within your rules. That page also shows a QR code you can scan at the door to check them in: see Check people in with a QR code.

The first time you open Bookings, choose Walk me through it for a short series of questions (your hours, notice, cancellations, emails and a note for customers), each with a common answer already filled in. Or choose I'll set it up myself to see everything at once. Settings is grouped under headings, and Walk me through it there runs the questions again any time.

Turn on the add-on

1. In your dashboard, open Sites and click Bookings on your site's card. (Or open Business and click Bookings in the menu.)
2. Click Turn on bookings.

Only the account owner can, once the site is live and your plan is running. On the monthly plan, it's added to your monthly bill from today. On the yearly plan, it's charged monthly to the card your plan uses. In the editor, Turn it on in your dashboard on the Bookings screen opens the same page.

On the Business plan, bookings are already on, with nothing more to pay.

Until it's on, booking forms send you a request in your Inbox instead, like a contact form.

Add an appointment

1. Click Lists, then Appointments, then Add appointment.
2. Type its Name and a Short description.
3. Under Visitors pick, choose A start time.
4. Set How long it takes, and Time between bookings if you need time to tidy up or travel. Nobody can book in it.
5. Optional: Price shown, like "$40" or "Free", and Where, if it isn't at your address.
6. Optional: under Questions to ask, add each Question with its Answer type (Short, Long, Choice or Yes/No). Turn on Required if they must answer.

Turn on I confirm each booking to say yes or no to each booking first. To stop taking bookings for it without deleting it, turn off Take bookings for this.

Offer visits in arrival windows

For estimate visits and other trips to your customer:

1. Add an appointment, and under Visitors pick choose An arrival window.
2. Set Visits per window: how many you can do in one window.
3. Turn on Ask for their address, and I confirm each booking if you check each visit first.
4. On the Bookings screen, under Settings, check Arrival windows for visits. It starts with Morning (8am to noon) and Afternoon (noon to 4pm). Change a window's Name, From and To, or add more, up to 6.

Put booking on a page

1. Open Pages, choose a page, and on the Content tab click Add a section. Pick Booking.
2. Set Booking service to This site.
3. Fill in the Heading, Intro and any Helpful details.
4. To offer one appointment there, type its name in Show one appointment, as it's written in Lists › Appointments. Leave it empty to offer them all.
5. Click Publish.

Visitors pick what to book, a day and an open time, type their name and email, and click Book (or Request this time when you confirm each booking, or Continue to payment when it takes payment).

Let visitors book with your team

1. Click Lists, then Team, and open a person.
2. Turn on Takes bookings.
3. Optional: add Their booking hours if they differ from the hours in Bookings › Settings.
4. Do the same for everyone who takes bookings, then publish.

On an appointment, type a Team group in Who does it, like "Designers", to offer it only with that group. Turn on Visitors pick who they see to let visitors choose a person, or Whoever's free. If nobody on the team takes bookings, appointments are with the business.

Set when people can book

On the Bookings screen, scroll to Settings:

1. When people can book: During your business hours (from Business info, with its holidays and seasons), or At set booking hours. For set hours, add a row under Booking hours for each day, with its Day, From and To. Two rows on one day leave a break between them.
2. Start times every: 15 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour.
3. Notice you need: from None to Three days.
4. How far ahead people can book: from Two weeks to Six months.
5. Optional: Note above the Book button, like "Please arrive 10 minutes early."
6. Publish.

Holidays in Business info close bookings by themselves. For a day off of your own, see Add time off.

Set cancel rules, reminders and emails

Also under Settings:

• Visitors can cancel or move a booking online: from Any time before it starts to Up to two days before, or Never (they call you).
• Refund payments when they cancel in time: deposits and paid spots go back to the card by themselves. Later cancellations and no-shows keep them.
• Email a reminder the day before: on to start.
• Email me each new booking, Email me each event sign-up (and waitlist) and Email me when a customer cancels or moves a booking: all on to start. Turn off the ones you don't need. The Bookings screen still shows everything, and requests you need to confirm are always emailed.
• Email me the next day's bookings each evening: a list of tomorrow's bookings.

Publish after changing them.

Take a deposit

1. Open the appointment in Lists › Appointments.
2. Set Payment when booking to A deposit, and type the Deposit as a plain amount, like 20. To take the whole price instead, choose The full price and write Price shown as a plain amount, like 40.
3. Click Bookings in the sidebar. Under Bookings add-on, click Connect Stripe and follow Stripe's steps. It's the same Stripe account the online store uses, and the store add-on isn't needed. Only the account owner can connect it. See Connect Stripe.
4. Publish. The publish checks stop you until Stripe is connected.

Visitors pay on Stripe's page. Until they do, the booking shows Waiting for payment and holds the time for half an hour. Money goes straight to your bank, and we take no cut. Refunds you make in Stripe show on the booking.

Take sign-ups for an event

1. Click Lists, then Events, and open the event. It needs a date.
2. Turn on Take sign-ups.
3. Type the Spots: how many people can come. A repeating event has this many each time.
4. Choose Most people per sign-up.
5. Leave Waitlist when it's full on to keep a waitlist.
6. To charge, write the event's Price as a plain amount, like 25, and turn on Take payment when they sign up. It's per person, and needs Stripe, as for a deposit.
7. Publish.

The event's page gets a sign-up form, and event lists show the spots left. When someone cancels, the first person waiting gets the spot. When spots are paid, the first person waiting gets an email to claim it instead.

See who's signed up

1. On the Bookings screen, find Sign-ups. Each date shows how many spots are taken, and how many people are waiting.
2. Click a date to see who's coming, and the waitlist in order.
3. Click Print the list for a sheet to tick off at the door.
4. To write to everyone coming, click Email everyone, type a Subject and Message, and click Send to.

To let someone in from the waitlist, click Give a spot next to their name. They get an email.

See your bookings

1. On the Bookings screen, find Appointments.
2. Pick Waiting for you, Upcoming, Past or Canceled.
3. Click a booking to see the customer's email and phone (click to email or call them), their address, their answers and Their note.

Each booking is marked Booked, Waiting for you, Waiting for payment, On the waitlist, No-show, Canceled or Declined. Event sign-ups are under Sign-ups instead. To save every booking as a spreadsheet, click Download (CSV) at the top of the screen.

Confirm or decline a request

Bookings for an appointment with I confirm each booking wait under Waiting for you.

1. Open the booking.
2. Leave Email (and their name) ticked to tell them. If they paid, leave Refund … if I decline or cancel ticked to give it back when you decline.
3. Click Confirm or Decline.

You can also answer from the "Booking request" email we send you: click Confirm or Decline, then Confirm booking or Decline booking on the page that opens. You don't need to sign in.

Cancel a booking

1. Open the booking.
2. Leave Email (and their name) ticked to tell them. If they paid, choose whether to Refund them.
3. Click Cancel booking.

The time opens again. For an event, the first person waiting gets the spot.

Mark a no-show

1. On the day of the booking or later, open it.
2. Click Mark as no-show.

It's marked No-show under Past, no email goes out, and a deposit isn't refunded. If you clicked it by mistake, click They came after all.

Move a booking

You can't change a booking's time yourself. Either send the customer their link (it's in their confirmation email) so they pick a new time, or cancel the booking and add the new time by hand.

Add a booking taken by phone

1. On the Bookings screen, under Add a booking by hand, click Add a booking.
2. Choose What they're booking, and With, if more than one person does it.
3. Pick the Date and the time: Starts at, the Window for a visit, or for an event, the number of People.
4. Type Their name, and if you like, Email (optional), Phone (optional) and Note (optional).
5. With an email, leave Email them a confirmation on to send one.
6. Click Add booking.

It takes up its time like any other booking, even outside your booking hours. Nothing is paid online.

Add time off

1. On the Bookings screen, under Time off, click Add time off.
2. If people on your team take bookings, choose Who: Everyone or one person.
3. Pick the day in From. For more than one day, add the Last day (optional).
4. For part of a day, set From time (optional) and To time. Leave both empty for the whole day.
5. Optional: a Note (only you see it).
6. Click Save time off.

It works right away, with no need to publish. To take it back, click Remove next to it. To block busy times from your Google, Outlook or iCloud calendar, see Connect your calendar to bookings.

Find out why a time is closed

1. On the Bookings screen, find Why is this time closed?.
2. Choose the Appointment and Who, if there's more than one, and pick a Day.

Every time that day is listed as Open, or with why it's closed, like Too soon: inside the notice you need, Outside booking hours, Time off, Busy in your calendar or Already booked. It uses your draft, so you can try a change to Settings before you publish it.

How customers move or cancel

Their confirmation and reminder emails have a See, move or cancel your booking link, and the page they see after booking has Change or cancel. It opens a page on your site where they can:

• Click Pick a new time, choose one, and click Move to this time. This works for appointments and visits.
• Click Cancel booking, then Cancel booking again to be sure. This works for event sign-ups too.

They can do this up to the time set in Visitors can cancel or move a booking online. After that, the page asks them to call you. You get an email when they cancel or move, unless you turned that off. A cancellation in time is refunded if Refund payments when they cancel in time is on.

Emails about bookings

• You get "Booking request" (with Confirm and Decline) for each request. "New booking", "New sign-up" and "Waitlist", and "Canceled" or "Moved" when a customer changes one, come unless you turned them off in Settings (see Set cancel rules, reminders and emails). Reply to one to write to that customer.
• Your customer gets a confirmation with See, move or cancel your booking and Add it to your calendar, and a reminder the day before if it's on.
• With Email me the next day's bookings each evening on, you get "Tomorrow: 3 bookings" each evening.

Turn off the add-on

In your dashboard, open your site's Bookings page, click Turn off bookings, then Yes, turn it off. Booking forms go back to sending you requests. Bookings already made stay on your Bookings screen, but customers don't get reminders.

Bookings are kept for 2 years. Each site takes up to 1,000 bookings a month, and one email address can book up to 3 times a day.