Bookings lets customers book a time with you — from a chat with your bot, or from your calendar when someone walks in or calls. This guide is in the order things must be set up, with the one choice that trips most people up explained first.
1. The choice that decides whether times appear: a named person, or any slot
Every service has one switch: Requires a specific provider. It decides what a customer is actually booking.
- On — tied to one named staff member. The customer books "that person": a doctor, a stylist, a consultant. The service shows a time only when at least one active staff member exists, and each of them takes one booking per slot. With no staff added, this service shows no times at all — not "few", none. This is the most common reason a new setup looks broken.
- Off — any slot at your business. Nobody is named. The customer books a time with the business, and you only set how many bookings each slot can take (a restaurant's seats, a clinic's chairs, a class's places).
Rule of thumb: if your customers say "I want Dr. Sara" or "the same stylist as last time", turn it on and add your staff. If they just want "a table at 8" or "a slot tomorrow morning", leave it off. You can mix both on the same business.
New services start as "any slot" unless your operating pattern is provider-based (Solo provider or Agency), in which case they start tied to a named person. The switch is in the service editor, and it is safe to change later.
2. Set things up in this order
Nothing can be booked until steps 2 and 3 exist.
- Business category and operating pattern. The category only changes the wording (patients, guests, clients). The pattern seeds sensible defaults; it does not lock anything.
- At least one service — what can be booked, how long it takes, and the switch above.
- Weekly hours — turn on at least one day. Your bot and the walk-in picker offer times only inside these hours. Closures and holidays remove specific days.
- Staff — only if any service is tied to a named person. Staff follow the weekly hours unless you give someone their own schedule in their editor.
- Connect WhatsApp on this business if you want customers to receive confirmations and reminders (next section).
When a time picker says "no open slots", it now tells you why: no staff for a tied service, the day is closed, it is too late for today, or the day is fully booked.
3. What the customer receives
Confirmations and reminders are sent over WhatsApp only, as approved message templates, in Arabic unless your bot's language is set to English.
- Confirmation — sent when the booking is made, if the setting is on.
- Reminders — 24 hours and/or 3 hours before, if the setting is on.
- Staff reminder — an inbox task (and Telegram digest) for your team before each appointment, so someone confirms attendance.
Three things must be true for any of these to arrive: the booking has a phone number, this business has a WhatsApp number connected, and the templates are approved (the readiness strip in settings shows their state). A booking without a phone number receives nothing — the walk-in form says so next to the phone field, and the calendar banner tells you when a reminder could not go out.
4. What your bot can and cannot do, per channel
Where booking is enabled on your bot, it can check free times, book, find the customer's bookings, move one, and cancel one. A customer's bookings are found by the phone number they booked with.
- WhatsApp messages — the customer's number is their WhatsApp number, so the bot never asks for it.
- Facebook and Instagram messages, website chat, TikTok messages — these channels carry no phone number, so the bot asks for a mobile number before booking, and uses it to find, move or cancel later.
- Comments under your posts — never. The bot replies to comments but does not book from them.
Booking through the bot reaches accounts in stages. If your bot does not offer it yet, or a customer asks for a change the bot cannot make, your team can always book, move or cancel from the calendar, and the customer still receives the WhatsApp messages above.
5. Walk-ins and phone bookings
From the calendar, Walk-in books on the spot: service, staff member if the service needs one, day, time, name. Phone is optional to book and required for the WhatsApp confirmation and reminders.
6. Plans
Bookings is available on Trial and on paid plans; Starter includes 200 appointments a month and Pro has no monthly cap. Details: Plans and limits.