Booking Settings & Availability

Booking settings control who can book a service, when, whether bookings need your approval, and how the service appears on your booking page. They are spread across the service's Booking Settings, Automatic Actions, Duration & Timing, Who Can Book and Policies & Paperwork tabs. The right balance protects your business without stopping customers booking.

How availability is calculated

When a customer tries to book, Petboost checks several layers in order. Every check must pass for a slot to appear.

Each rule you add filters out possible bookings, so the more rules you stack, the narrower availability becomes. As a rough guide, and depending on your set-up:

Aim for enough rules to protect your business and not so many that customers cannot book. For help choosing the level, see The Booking Rules Spectrum.

Turn online booking on or off

With online booking on, the service appears on your booking page and customers can book it themselves at any hour. With it off, the service is hidden from your booking page and only your team can book it, which suits services that need a consultation first, high-value or specialised services, VIP-only offerings, services being phased out, and services you are still testing.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Booking Settings.
3. Under Self-Service Booking, switch Online booking on or off.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

With online booking on, the service shows a green Published badge; with it off, a grey Draft badge. There is no separate active, inactive or visibility switch. A draft service is hidden from your public booking page and customers cannot see or book it, while your team can still book it and all scheduling, invoicing and reporting keep working. Hide a service this way when it is out of season, being revised or tested, being phased out, temporarily unavailable, or invite-only. For a full guide, see Internal-Only Services.

Choose instant confirmation or approval

With instant confirmation, a booking is confirmed straight away, the customer gets their confirmation and the appointment appears on your schedule. Without it, the booking waits as Pending until you accept or decline it, which gives you control over each booking.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Automatic Actions.
3. Switch Instant confirmation on to confirm bookings straight away, or off to review each booking.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

With approval, a customer's booking appears as Pending on your schedule and you get a notification. Open the booking, review it, and select Accept or Decline. The customer is told what you decided.

Instant confirmation suits most services. Review bookings when the service needs preparation, a busy time needs careful managing, the customer's suitability matters, for VIP or specialised offerings, or when you manage capacity by hand.

Set up a mobile service

A service is delivered at your premises by default: the customer brings the pet to you and it uses your resources. A mobile service is delivered at the customer's place.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Booking Settings.
3. Switch on Mobile service.
4. Optional: switch on Advanced options, then Pickup included or Drop-off included.
5. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Petboost does not add a travel fee or travel time to a booking. Include travel costs in the service price. To hold time between visits, set Padding Before or Padding After under Advanced options on the Duration & Timing tab. A mobile service often has a longer booking notice, for travel planning, and a service area.

Limit the suburbs you travel to

A service area is a list of suburbs. There is no postcode or radius setting.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the mobile service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Who Can Book and switch on Advanced options.
3. Under Geographic Restrictions, select Edit Areas and add each suburb.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Geographic Restrictions appears only on a mobile service. A mobile service with no suburbs is not limited to nowhere: it has no geographic restriction.

Set the booking notice

The booking notice period is how close to the appointment a customer can still book online. It stops last-minute bookings you cannot handle and gives you time to prepare.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Duration & Timing.
3. Under Booking Notice, select Set Custom Duration for Booking Notice Period, then choose the length. Without it, the service uses the business default.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

To set the default for every service, open Settings, then Duration & Timing.

Typical notice periods are 2 hours, which allows short-notice same-day bookings; 24 hours, next-day bookings only and the most common; 48 hours, a two-day minimum often used for grooming; and 1 week for specialised services. Petboost has no maximum advance booking setting. Customers can book any future date that has availability.

Let customers choose their team member

When customers choose, they see the available team members and pick one, which builds relationships and can make workloads uneven. When Petboost assigns, customers do not choose, and each time goes to the first free team member Petboost checks, so bookings are not spread evenly.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Booking Settings and switch on Advanced options.
3. Switch Customers choose their team member on to let customers choose, or off to have Petboost assign a team member.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Let customers choose when relationships matter most, your team have different specialities, the service is premium, or your team is small and customers know everyone. Let Petboost assign when balancing workload matters most, your team is large, everyone is equally qualified, or you want to avoid favouritism.

Decide which pets can book

Pet eligibility rules on Who Can Book limit a service by weight, age, animal type and breed. Weight sits at the top; animal type, age and breeds are under Advanced options.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Who Can Book.
3. For a weight rule, switch on Weight Restrictions (kg) and enter a minimum, a maximum, or both.
4. For the rest, switch on Advanced options.
5. For an age rule, switch on Age Restrictions, choose the Age unit, then enter a Minimum Age, a Maximum Age, or both.
6. For breeds, select Edit Breeds beside Included Breeds or Excluded Breeds and add each breed.
7. Optional: choose the Eligible Animal Types, such as Dog or Cat. Leave it empty to accept all animals.
8. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

Repeat for each service that needs a rule.

Weight rules

A weight rule can set a minimum, such as 6kg, a maximum, such as 15kg, or a range, such as 10-15kg only. For example, a Full Groom (Large) with a 10-15kg rule can only be booked for pets in that range.

Age rules

The Age unit is Days, Weeks or Months. Petboost stores the age in days, for example 8 weeks is 56 days. Common conversions: 90 days is about 3 months, 180 days about 6 months and 365 days 1 year. A minimum and a maximum together make a window, such as 90-180 days for puppy socialisation.

Age rules need a birthday on file. Petboost works out the pet's age from the Birthday on the pet's profile. If a service has an age rule and the pet has no birthday recorded, the pet cannot book that service until a birthday is added, and the booking form asks the customer for it.

Breed rules

Included Breeds limits the service to the breeds you list; every other breed cannot book. Use it when a service is specialised, such as a Poodle Cut Specialist that lists Poodle, Toy Poodle, Miniature Poodle, Labradoodle and Goldendoodle, or Terrier Training that lists Jack Russell, Yorkshire Terrier and Bull Terrier. Leave it empty to allow all breeds.

Excluded Breeds lists breeds that cannot book; every other breed can. Use it when a service does not suit certain breeds, such as a group walk that excludes particular breeds. Leave it empty to exclude none. For a size limit, such as small dog daycare, a weight rule is clearer than listing large breeds.

Breeds are added one at a time by searching. There is no bulk selection by coat type or breed group, so once one service is set up, use it as a reference for similar services. The breed comes from the pet's profile, and breed, weight and age rules work together. Petboost does not let a customer book a pet that fails a rule; your team can still book the pet from the business side. Offer an alternative service for excluded breeds, and say what the rules are in the service description.

Require a vaccination certificate

A certificate requirement protects every pet in your care. The customer cannot book until the pet has a certificate with a label and a date administered, and a certificate whose expiry date has passed does not count.

1. Open Services, select Manage on the service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Policies & Paperwork.
3. Under Health & Safety Requirements, switch on Require vaccination certificate.
4. Optional: switch on Require vaccine review & approval to hold each booking as Pending until you approve the certificate.
5. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

To set the default for all services, use Settings > Policies & Paperwork.

You cannot choose which vaccines are required. The customer names each certificate when they upload it, for example C5 or Kennel Cough. To ask for particular vaccines, say so in the service description. Require certificates for boarding, daycare and group classes, and for grooming or any service where pets mix.

Booking page order and appearance

On Services, Sort & Group groups your own list by Category or Service Type and sorts it by Name, Price, Duration, Self-Service or Customer order. That preference is saved in your browser only and does not change the booking page.

To set the order customers see, open the settings menu on Services, select Reorder, drag the list into place, then select Done. The same settings menu is on Packages and on Memberships > Plans.

To set the category order, open Settings > Service Categories and drag the in-use list. The first global category is the one the page title and link preview lead with, unless you set your own Page title on Settings > Your Booking Page. If you have not set an order, Petboost leads with the category that has the most bookings.

The Service Image, the Full Description and the Short Description are on the service's Basic Info tab. The image appears on your booking page and in appointment cards; a professional photo of about 800 x 600 pixels works well. The full description explains the service, including what is included, the duration and what to expect. The short description is a one or two sentence summary for service cards and previews.

How padding and capacity affect availability

Padding Before and Padding After hold the team member's or resource's time before and after each appointment, for example to clean a table. Padding does not limit how often the same customer can book. Set it on the service's Duration & Timing tab, under Advanced options > Appointment Padding.

There is no per-service limit on bookings at the same time. The number comes from Pets at a Time on each team member and resource, and from Spots used on the service's Team & Resources tab, under Advanced options.

Recommended set-ups

Troubleshooting

Find out why a time is not available

The Availability Troubleshooter shows which layer is blocking or limiting a slot.

1. Open Appointments, select New, then Appointment.
2. Choose the pet and the service.
3. With Magic Availability Check on, select See Availability Reasons under the calendar.

See the Availability Troubleshooter guide for what each reason means.

Why is my service showing no availability?

Work through the layers in order.

Team member and resource are separate layers. Read the service's Team & Resources tab: it can require a team member and a resource at the same time.

If an overnight stay has a team member on it, and that stay service does not require a team member, the stay is attached to the person unnecessarily. Clear the team member on the stay and save. The stay stays booked, and daytime services that require that person can then book. Do not add another person.

If the person is full on a service that does require them, raise Pets at a Time on that team member, or take the occupying booking off their name.

If the space is full or blocked, raise Pets at a Time on that resource, or remove Blocked Times. Do not add another resource unless you have another space. Do not treat a team-member block as a resource problem, or the other way around.

Common configuration mistakes

"I set capacity to 3 but can only book 1"

The team member and the resource both have capacity, and the lower one wins. If Sarah takes 3 and the grooming room takes 1, only one booking fits at a time because the room is the bottleneck. Align the capacities, or stop requiring the resource if it is not needed.

"Customers complain there's never availability"

Too many rules are stacked, each filtering out slots. Audit them with The Booking Rules Spectrum. For each rule, ask what real problem it solves, and remove the ones that solve none.

"Service worked yesterday but not today"

Often a working hours override or a leave period has just started. Check the team member's and resource's overrides for today.

"Only some customers can book"

Eligibility rules are filtering out some pets, usually an age range that is too narrow, a weight rule that does not match the customer's pet, or a breed rule that blocks common breeds. Review the rules, and consider size-specific services instead, such as "Small Dog Groom" and "Large Dog Groom" rather than one service with weight rules.

"Slots available but booking fails at checkout"

Either someone else booked the slot first, or an eligibility check stopped it. For eligibility, the message explains why. For capacity, the slot was taken while the customer was on the page.

"I want walk-ins but the notice period blocks same-day"

The booking notice period is too long. Shorten it to 1 to 4 hours for services where same-day booking is fine.

Service not appearing on booking page

Check that Online booking is on for the service on its Booking Settings tab, that it has team members assigned if they are required, that it has resources assigned if they are required, and that its eligibility rules are not too narrow.

Customers can't select the time slot they want

Use the Availability Troubleshooter as above to see exactly what is blocking the slot. Check team member availability, resource availability, the booking notice period, and existing appointments in that time.

Too many bookings at once

Lower the team member's Pets at a Time, add padding between appointments, require resources with limited capacity, or adjust the service duration.

Common questions

Should I use instant confirmation or manual approval?

Instant confirmation for almost every service. Use approval only when you really need to review each booking.

How do I prevent same-day bookings?

Set a booking notice period, such as 24 hours, on the service's Duration & Timing tab.

Can I hide a service temporarily without deleting it?

Yes. Switch off Online booking on its Booking Settings tab. Customers cannot see it and your team can still book it. See Internal-Only Services.

How do I limit bookings based on pet size?

Use a weight rule on the Who Can Book tab, or create a service for each size.

Can customers book multiple pets in one appointment?

Yes. How several pets from one household are scheduled together is set for the business under Multi-Pet Scheduling, in Advanced options on Settings > Duration & Timing. The service's own rules decide whether each pet is eligible.

What if a customer books the wrong service for their pet?

Eligibility rules stop most mismatches. If one gets through, cancel or reschedule the booking yourself.

How do I stop young puppies from being booked into full groom services?

Set a Minimum Age on your full groom services, such as 180 days for 6 months, under Age Restrictions in Advanced options on each service's Who Can Book tab. Then create puppy services, such as "Puppy's First Tidy", with a Maximum Age. A pet with no birthday recorded cannot book these services until one is added.

How do I require customers to enter their pet's birthday or address when booking?

To require the pet's birthday, switch on Require pet birthday under Advanced options on Settings > Policies & Paperwork. To require the customer's address, open Settings > Fields & Forms, select Pet Owner Fields, and switch on Required to book for Street address.

Do age restrictions work if the customer hasn't entered their pet's birthday?

No. A pet with no birthday recorded cannot book a service with an age rule. The booking form asks the customer to add the birthday first.

Can I require customers to call before booking certain services?

Yes. Switch off online booking for the service and put your phone number in its description.

Next steps

• Choose the right rules level: The Booking Rules Spectrum
• Check self-service readiness: Self-Service Readiness Checklist
• Understand scheduling: Scheduling Fundamentals
• Review Service Configuration for pricing and duration settings
• Configure Team & Resource Assignment
• Check Getting Started for service creation
• Use Availability Troubleshooter to diagnose booking issues
• Visit FAQ for additional tips