Availability

A time slot appears on your booking site only when a qualified stylist is working, free, and bookable — and the slot falls inside your booking window. The same rules drive the admin New Appointment picker, so what your team can book always matches what customers see.

What makes a slot appear

For a slot to be offered, all of these must be true:

1. The branch is open at that time (branch working hours, unless a special-hours override closes the day).
2. A stylist qualified for the chosen service is scheduled then (their working hours).
3. That stylist is not on time off and not already booked for that slot.
4. The slot is bookable — the stylist is set to take bookings, and the date is on or after their start date.
5. The slot is inside your booking window and past your minimum lead time.

Change any one of these and the offered slots change accordingly.

Branch hours and closures

Each branch has its own opening hours. Set them for the branch, and the calendar and booking site use them as the outer bounds of the day.

For one-off changes — a holiday, a late open, an early close — add a Special Hours entry for that branch and date under Settings → Branches. A special-hours override can shorten the day or close it entirely; on a closed day, no slots are offered and the calendar shows the branch as closed. See branches.

Stylist working hours and time off

Within the branch’s open hours, each stylist has their own working hours — a customer can only book them while they’re scheduled.

Time off blocks a stylist for a period even if it’s inside their normal hours. During time off, no slots are offered with that stylist, and it’s shown on the calendar. Set both a stylist’s hours and their time off from their team profile; see stylists and bookability.

Bookability and start dates

Being able to log in is separate from being able to take bookings:

• A stylist must be set as bookable to appear in the booking flow at all. A stylist who isn’t bookable takes no new appointments and gets no calendar column.
• A stylist’s start date gates their earliest bookable slot — customers can’t book them before it. Your team can, from the admin New Appointment page: pre-start dates show highlighted like beyond-window dates, and picking one asks you to confirm before the booking is created (it’s also noted in your activity log). Until the start date passes, such a booking stays flagged under Needs Rescheduling as a reminder.

When you make a stylist non-bookable, add time off, or narrow their hours, any already-booked appointments that no longer fit are flagged for you to reschedule rather than silently dropped. See calendar and appointments.

Booking window, increment, lead time, and buffer

Under Settings → Booking Settings → Booking Rules:

• Booking window — how far in advance customers can book. Slots beyond it aren’t offered on your booking site. New businesses start at 60 days; change it to whatever suits you. Your team can still book past the window from the admin New Appointment page — see below.
• Booking increment — how far apart the start times you offer are. At 15 minutes, customers see 9:00, 9:15, 9:30…; at 30 minutes, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00. Pick from 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 minutes.
• Min booking lead time — customers can’t book a slot starting sooner than this from now. Set it to 0 to allow immediate booking.
• Buffer between appointments — a gap added around each appointment, so back-to-back slots leave the stylist time to reset. The buffer is applied when checking for conflicts.

Booking past the window (admin only)

The booking window limits your customers, not your team. On the admin New Appointment page, dates beyond the window still show in the calendar — highlighted in amber and marked Outside window — so you can take a booking further out when a regular asks.

Booking one needs the Scheduling Overrides permission: with it, picking the slot asks you to confirm (“Book beyond the booking window?”) before it’s created. Without it, you’re offered the option to enter a one-time override code from a manager instead. Either way the booking is noted in your activity log. Booking in the past or inside your lead time is still blocked, for everyone.

Held slots

When a customer starts a booking, the slot is briefly reserved so two people can’t grab it at once. While that reservation is active, the slot won’t appear as free to anyone else. If the customer doesn’t finish, the reservation expires and the slot reopens automatically.

Why a slot isn’t showing

Work down this list — the first one that’s true is your answer:

• The branch is closed that day (working hours or a special-hours override).
• No stylist qualified for that service is scheduled then, or the only ones who are qualified are on time off or already booked.
• The stylist isn’t set as bookable, or the date is before their start date.
• The slot is outside your booking window or inside your minimum lead time.
• The service isn’t active, or no stylist offers it at that branch — so it’s hidden entirely. See service not showing online.

Related

• Stylists and bookability — hours, time off, and bookability per stylist.
• Branches — branch hours and special-hours closures.
• Calendar and appointments — reschedule appointments that no longer fit.