Availability & online booking slots

Set your opening hours, slot interval and how many pets you can take at once on the Bookings → Availability page. Customers booking through the portal only ever see times that are genuinely free.

You can either set one capacity number (how many bookings run in parallel), or list your tables / groomers individually — each with their own hours — so customers can choose who they’d like. Add blackout dates for holidays and closures, and a minimum notice so nobody books the next five minutes.

By service type: under “Availability by service type” you can give groomers, walkers and sitters their own hours, specific bookable times (instead of every interval) and their own days off. Leave a service type switched off to follow the general hours above.

By team member: switch on “Use your team’s availability” and a time is only offered when at least one team member who covers that service is actually free — using their weekly hours, days off and existing bookings. Set each person’s hours, which services they cover, and days off on the Team screen; staff can also edit their own hours and days off in the app under Settings → My availability.

How far ahead a customer can look

The “… days ahead” box on this screen is how far into the future you are taking bookings. It is the only setting that decides it: the customer’s Check availability screen and the date box on their booking form both read the same number, so the two can never disagree.

That screen browses a month at a time, up to six months out — arrows either side of the month name. Page past the date your setting allows and it says so in as many words: “Bookings are open up to 30 Nov 2026. Please contact us about anything later than that.” — which is a different thing from being fully booked, and reads as one. So if you want customers booking six months out, set this to about 183 days; it starts at 60.

Walk types (walkers): set up the kinds of walk you offer — a solo walk, a group walk, a puppy social — each with a maximum number of dogs, a breed rule (any dog, only certain breeds, or all except certain breeds) and its own times. Walking customers pick a walk type, see the live spaces left, and the dog limit and breed rule are enforced automatically.

Example

You open 9–5 Mon–Fri with two groomers. A customer picks “Full groom”, a date, and either “no preference” or a specific groomer; the portal shows the free 90-minute slots and holds their choice for you to confirm. Your walker runs a 10am group walk for up to 4 dogs (no XL breeds) — customers only see it while spaces remain.

FAQ

How is a slot length decided?
From each service’s estimated duration. The interval is just how far apart start times are offered.

What if I list tables/groomers?
They replace the single capacity number — a slot is offered whenever at least one resource is open and free, and the booking is assigned to a free one.

Do service-type and team settings work together?
Yes. The service type sets when that service is offered and the times shown; the team setting (when on) decides whether a specific person is free for each time. You can use either or both.

Can staff set their own hours?
Yes — in the staff app under Settings → My availability they can set their weekly hours and days off. Owners can also set these for anyone on the Team screen.

I switched on “use my team’s availability” and now there are no times.
That setting only offers a time when somebody qualifies — a team member, ticked as covering the service, with weekly hours. If nobody does, every date comes back empty and the form reads as fully booked. See Using your team’s availability.

How do walk types limit dogs and breeds?
Each walk type has a maximum number of dogs and a breed rule. When a customer books that walk, the app blocks it if the walk is full or the dog’s breed isn’t allowed.

Can two people grab the same slot?
No — the chosen time (and, for walks, the space and breed rule) is re-checked when the booking is submitted.

A customer says they cannot book far enough ahead.
Raise “… days ahead” on this screen. Their screen will browse up to six months whatever it is set to, but every month past that date tells them you are not taking bookings that far ahead yet rather than showing free times you have not agreed to.

Is a six-month view slow?
No. It asks for one month at a time as the customer pages through, which is the same amount of work the old fortnight strip was doing — not one enormous scan of half a year.