The booking notice period, booking interval, appointment padding and multi-pet scheduling are on Duration & Timing, and whether a card is required to book is on Pricing & Payments. This guide covers those settings too. Booking Settings ends with How Petboost picks the times it offers, a collapsed section that explains, with your own settings, who takes a booking, which start times are offered and how many pets a team member can take at once.
Tip
Each service keeps its own copy of most of these settings. Online booking is the exception: it covers the whole business. Where services differ from the business setting, a badge beside the setting says how many use their own setting. Open it and select Set all to to bring them into line. When you publish a change, Also update services in Before You Publish does the same for the services that keep their own setting.
Turn online booking off or on
Turn online booking off when you want to take every booking yourself, such as during a high-demand period that needs manual approval, for VIP or complex work that needs a consultation first, or while you manage capacity yourself.
- Open Booking Settings.
- Switch Online booking off.
- In Turn off online booking?, select Turn it off.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
To turn it back on, switch Online booking on and publish. Turning it back on does not mean re-publishing each service. To see what customers get while it is off, select Preview what pet owners see when this is off.
With Online booking on, customers see available times, book online and change a booking they already have. With it off:
- They cannot start a new booking, including if they have booked with you before
- They cannot change a booking they already have
- The booking page still opens. They see a contact banner instead of services
- Your public page stays up for search engines. Services, packages, add-ons, memberships, courses and the price list are hidden. About, contact, hours, gallery, team, map and similar information stay visible
- Your team can still create and change bookings
- Customers can still cancel where your rules allow
Online booking needs a Pro, Flex or Max plan.
Choose instant confirmation or manual approval
Instant confirmation suits most businesses and saves admin work. Turn it off when you want to review each online booking before it is confirmed, such as for services that need special preparation, VIP or sensitive appointments, capacity you manage yourself, or a busy period when you need control.
- Open Booking Settings.
- Switch Instant confirmation on to confirm online bookings straight away, or off to approve each one yourself.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
With Instant confirmation on, a booking is confirmed as soon as the customer makes it and the customer gets their confirmation straight away. With it off, a booking made online stays Pending until you approve it. Pending bookings wait under Pending Confirmation on Mission Control, and the customer is told once you confirm the booking.
Let customers choose their team member
Turn this on when customers ask for a particular team member. Leave it off to keep the booking flow simpler for customers who have no preference.
- Open Booking Settings.
- Switch Customers choose their team member on for customer choice, or off to assign team members automatically.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
With it on, customers see the team members who can do the service, choose one, then see only that team member's available times. Customer choice builds relationships, and some team members may get booked more than others.
With it off, customers see available times without team member names, and each time already has a team member behind it. Petboost works it out in this order:
- It finds the team members assigned to the service. If none are assigned, every team member can take it.
- It goes through those team members one at a time, in order, and works out all their free times from their working hours, existing bookings and capacity.
- When two or more team members are free at the same time, for example Sarah and James at 9:00 AM, only the first one checked is offered for that time.
- The customer picks a time, and the team member already behind that time is assigned.
Trap
Automatic assignment does not spread bookings evenly. If Sarah and James have identical schedules and do the same services, Sarah gets most of the bookings because her times are worked out first. James is only assigned when Sarah is already booked at that time.
Let customers book a repeating series
Turn this on when you want customers to set up their own repeating bookings online.
- Open Booking Settings.
- Switch Let customers book a repeating series on. Switch it off to have customers book one visit at a time.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Require a card to book online
Customers must add a payment card to book online unless you allow booking without one. Allow booking without card is off by default.
- Open Pricing & Payments.
- Under Card on file, switch Allow booking without card off to require a card, or on to let customers book without one.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
With a card required, the customer must add a valid payment card to book. A deposit, if the service takes one, is charged at booking. Otherwise the card is not charged until the appointment. A required card reduces no-shows and lets Automatic Actions, such as pre-holding funds and auto-pay, work.
With Allow booking without card on, customers can book without adding a card and you collect payment later, in person or by bank transfer. The risk of a no-show is higher.
Requiring a card is not the same as taking a deposit. Deposits are not set here: the business default is under Deposits on Pricing & Payments, and each service can override it on its own Pricing & Payments tab. See Deposits and pre-authorisation.
Tip
Require a card to reduce no-shows and to let automatic payments run.
Set the booking notice period
Set a notice period so customers cannot book a start time too soon for you to prepare.
- Open Duration & Timing.
- Under Booking Notice Period, set Minimum advance notice required for bookings in Weeks, Days, Hours and Minutes. Minutes go in 5-minute steps.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
With 4 hours set, customers cannot book an appointment that starts within the next 4 hours. These are common settings:
| Notice | Suits |
|---|---|
| 4 hours | Same-day bookings with preparation time |
| 24 hours | Next-day bookings only |
| 48 hours | Two days' notice, such as for grooming |
| 1 week | Services that need special preparation |
Tip
Until you set a notice period, Start with recommended settings suggests 24 hours' notice. Select Apply recommended to use it, or I will configure manually.
Set the booking interval
The booking interval sets the start times customers are offered.
- Open Duration & Timing.
- Under Booking Interval, choose 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 1 hour in Allow Booking of Appointments Every:.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
With 30 minutes, customers can book start times such as 9:00 AM, 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM, and never 9:15 AM or 9:45 AM. Petboost fills the gaps from the service durations and your padding. If an appointment ends at 11:10 AM and you have a 15-minute interval with 30 minutes of padding after, the next start offered is 11:45 AM: the end time plus the padding, rounded up to the next interval mark. The page works out the same example from your own settings.
| Interval | Suits |
|---|---|
| 5 minutes | Only businesses that need 5-minute precision. Customers see a start time every 5 minutes, which can overwhelm them, and the page warns A 5-minute interval shows a lot of options |
| 15 minutes | A balance that suits most services |
| 30 minutes | Simpler scheduling and less fragmentation between slots |
| 1 hour | Very long services or day bookings |
15 or 30 minutes suits most pet service businesses.
Trap
A session that does not start on your interval can only start at the next interval mark, and a service that no longer fits the time left is not offered online. When that happens, the page lists the sessions that will have limited availability at your interval. Choose a smaller interval, or move those sessions onto the interval in Schedules & Sessions.
Add padding before and after appointments
Padding blocks time either side of each appointment, for setting up before and cleaning up after.
- Open Duration & Timing.
- Switch on Advanced options.
- Under Appointment Padding, choose Buffer time before appointments, for setup such as preparing equipment or reading notes.
- Choose Buffer time after appointments, for clean-up such as cleaning the station or writing notes.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Each can be No padding, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours or 3 hours. A 45-minute appointment with 15 minutes of padding before and 15 minutes after blocks 1 hour and 15 minutes on the calendar. Both values are the default for new services, and a service can set its own padding on its Duration & Timing tab.
Choose how multi-pet bookings are scheduled
Multi-Pet Scheduling decides how start times are offered when a customer books several pets at once.
- Open Duration & Timing.
- Switch on Advanced options.
- Under Multi-Pet Scheduling, choose Best Fit, All Pets Together or Clustered Start.
- For Clustered Start, choose the window in Set Maximum Duration.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Best Fit, marked Recommended | Groups pets together when possible, with fallback options. The closest times show first, ordered by efficiency with the tightest groupings at the top. If your team has capacity for 2 or more pets at once, same-time slots show first. It never blocks a booking and always finds a slot, even when you are busy, and the customer can still pick a scattered slot |
| All Pets Together, marked Single drop-off | Every pet starts at exactly the same time, so the owner brings them all together. Your team must be able to handle 2 to 3 pets at once, and there are fewer times to offer |
| Clustered Start, marked Balanced | Every pet starts within a set window of the others, such as 30 minutes, 1 hour or 2 hours. If the first pet starts at 9:00 AM, the others must start within the window, so the owner can drop pets off one by one |
Trap
With All Pets Together, customers see no available times at all, and no backup options, when your capacity is too low. Check your service, team member and resource capacity before you choose it.
Choose the first day of the week
Choose which day your weeks start on.
- Open Business Details.
- Under Start Appointment Calendar on, choose Monday or Sunday.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
The day you choose starts the week in Schedules & Sessions, on the working hours of team members and resources, and in the week view on Mission Control when it is grouped by weekday. The Appointments calendar starts its week on Monday either way.
Block one customer from online booking
Block a customer who repeatedly no-shows or cancels at the last minute, who needs a consultation before booking, or who is under a temporary restriction during a dispute or payment issue. Online booking stays on for everyone else.
- Open Customers & Pets and select Manage on one of the customer's pets.
- Open Manage Owner.
- Select Block from Online Booking.
When a blocked customer tries to book online, they see Online booking isn't available with and your business name, with buttons to contact you. They can still log in to their portal and keep access to past appointment photos and history. You can still create appointments for them yourself, and every other customer keeps booking as normal.
To unblock them, open Manage Owner again and select Enable Online Booking.
How Petboost picks the times it offers
The collapsed section at the foot of Booking Settings explains how Petboost finds the times it offers customers, using your own booking interval, padding and notice period. Nothing in it is a setting. It has three parts: Who does the booking, Which start times it offers and How many pets at once.
Who does the booking
Petboost finds the team members assigned to the service, or every team member when none are assigned, and works out each one's free times from their working hours, existing bookings and capacity. When several team members are free at the same time, the first one checked gets that time, so the first team member in the list tends to get most bookings until their calendar fills up. With Customers choose their team member off, customers never see a name. With it on, they choose the person first and see only that person's times.
Which start times it offers
Start times fall on your booking interval, each booking blocks your padding before and after it on the calendar, and nothing is offered sooner than your notice period. The part ends with an example worked out from your settings: the next start offered after a booking that ends at 11:10 AM. With a 15-minute interval and 30 minutes of padding after, that is 11:45 AM. You change these on Duration & Timing.
How many pets at once
Pets at a time is how many pets from different households a team member can work on at the same time. Most groomers set it to 1. Same-family booking is a higher limit that applies only when all the pets belong to the same owner, so siblings can be booked together while pets from different families stay limited.
For example, Sarah has Pets at a time set to 1 and a same-family limit of 3. She can groom 3 dogs from the Mitchell family at once, but not a Mitchell dog and a dog from another family at the same time.
A team member's Pets at a Time and Same-family limit are on their Capacity tab. A session can set its own Pets at a time and Same-family booking in the session editor, from the team member's Working Hours or from Schedules & Sessions. How much of that capacity each booking of a service uses is Spots used, under Places Used Per Booking in Advanced options on the service's Team & Resources tab.
Common questions
How are team members assigned when customers do not choose?
Petboost pools the free times of every eligible team member. When a customer picks a time, the team member who was free at that time is assigned. The customer chooses the time, and the time decides the team member.
Does automatic assignment spread bookings evenly across my team?
No. When two team members are free at the same time, the first one checked gets that time, so one team member may get most bookings until their calendar fills up.
Can I turn online booking off for a while?
Yes.
- Open Booking Settings.
- Switch Online booking off, then select Turn it off.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
Customers cannot start or change a booking. The booking page still opens with a contact banner, and your public page stays up for search engines without services, packages, memberships or courses. Your team can still create and change bookings, and customers can still cancel where your rules allow.
Can I block specific customers from booking while it stays on for others?
Yes.
- Open Customers & Pets and select Manage on one of the customer's pets.
- Open Manage Owner and select Block from Online Booking.
A blocked customer is told online booking is not available with your business, and can still use their portal.
What happens if I require a card on file?
Customers must add a valid payment card before they book online. A deposit, if the service takes one, is charged at booking. Otherwise the card is not charged until the appointment. Requiring a card is not the same as taking a deposit: set a deposit under Deposits on Pricing & Payments, then override it per service if you need to. See Deposits and pre-authorisation.
Should I use instant confirmation or manual approval?
Use instant confirmation unless you need to review each booking yourself before it is confirmed.
What is the best booking interval?
15 or 30 minutes suits most businesses. Use 5 minutes only if you need 5-minute precision.
What is the difference between Best Fit and All Pets Together?
Best Fit groups pets close together when it can, and always offers alternatives when a tight grouping is not possible. All Pets Together starts every pet at exactly the same time, which needs enough team capacity for all of them at once. If capacity is too low, customers may see no available times at all.
What is same-family booking?
It is a higher limit that applies only when all the pets being booked belong to the same owner. A groomer with Pets at a time set to 1 and a same-family limit of 3 can handle 3 dogs from one family at once, but only 1 dog at a time from different families.
Where do I set capacity for my team members?
- Open Team Members and select Manage on the team member.
- Choose Capacity and set Pets at a Time.
- To give one session its own limit, choose Working Hours and open the session.
How much capacity each booking uses is Spots used on the service's Team & Resources tab.
Next steps
- Set up Automatic Actions to automate appointment workflows
- Configure Notifications to keep customers informed
- Review Policies & Paperwork for cancellation policies
- Set up Payment Settings to process card payments