Setting appointment length and availability for online booking

In this article, you'll learn how to set how long each online booking lasts and when customers are allowed to book. Getting these right means customers only see times you can actually make, with enough room between jobs to get from one to the next.

These settings live in two places: the CRM's Online booking settings page and your dashboard's Website › Scheduling page. Both save to the same settings, so a change in one shows up in the other.

To open the online booking settings in the CRM:

  1. At the bottom of the menu, click the gear (Settings).
  2. Under Phone & booking, click Online booking.

To open them from your dashboard instead:

  1. In the menu, click Website, then Scheduling.
  2. Pick Use your Review Monster CRM. The hours and Appointment slots cards only show when this option is picked.

Set how long each appointment lasts

Every online booking gets the same length. There's no separate length per service, so pick the one that fits most of your jobs.

  1. In the Availability card (CRM) or the Appointment slots card (dashboard), open the Appointment length dropdown.
  2. Pick a length. On the web you can choose 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4 or 8 hours.
Note: The phone app has the same page under Settings › Online booking, but its list of lengths isn't quite the same as the web's. If you don't see the length you want, try the other screen.

Choose how many bookings can share a time

  1. In Bookings per time slot, type how many jobs can be booked into the same time.
  2. Type 0 if you're fine with double-booking and don't want a limit.

Set advance notice and how far ahead customers can book

  1. In Advance notice (hours), type how much warning you need. This is how soon the first offered time can be. For example, 24 means nobody can book a slot that starts within the next day.
  2. In Booking window (days), type how far ahead customers can book.

Leave room between jobs

  1. In Buffer between bookings, type the minutes you want kept free between back-to-back jobs. Think of it as drive time.

Save your changes

  • In the CRM, click Save settings. You'll see Saved ✓ next to it.
  • On the dashboard, click Save changes. The button only appears once you've changed something.
Setting appointment length in the CRM

Where your business hours come from

The booking widget only offers times inside your business hours, minus anything already on your calendar. Those hours come from your Schedule settings, not from the Online booking page.

You can also change them on the dashboard's Website › Scheduling page, in the When customers can book card:

  • Set each day's hours, or switch a day off to close it.
  • Turn on Open around the clock to ignore the hours and offer every day, all day.
  • Turn on Bookable on holidays to allow bookings on US federal holidays.
Warning: These are the same business hours your CRM schedule uses. Changing them on the Scheduling page changes them in the CRM too.
Hours and appointment slots on the dashboard

Related articles

  • How to turn on online booking
  • Customizing your booking page
  • How to create jobs and leads from booking requests
  • Online booking FAQ
  • How to schedule and manage jobs