How can I prevent double-booked appointments?
Only open times are offered, and a request holds its time from the moment it’s sent.
Running your business
Overlapping appointments are among the most common headaches when you manage a schedule by hand. 4appointments cuts them down by offering clients only open times and by holding a time as soon as a request arrives.
The public booking page works out open times from each provider’s weekly schedule, exceptions and blocks, and from the bookings that already exist. A time taken by the same provider isn’t offered, though different providers can of course be booked at the same time.
A booking request holds its time even while it’s pending, so a second client can’t take the same slot while you’re still deciding. If two people try for the same time together, only one succeeds and the other sees a message that the slot was just taken.
In the service settings you can set a pause, labeled “Interval (min)”, which is added after bookings, for example for cleanup or preparation. It applies to the public page, not to bookings entered by your team. When your team creates a booking in the panel, the system checks the provider’s availability, any overlaps and the busy blocks imported from external calendars through ICS links you subscribe to (refreshed about every 15 minutes). There’s no two-way sync.
To take yourself off the calendar, add a block or an exception under “Availability”. A pending request that nobody confirms or rejects is canceled automatically about an hour after the end of the requested time, which frees the slot again, so check your pending list regularly. Each booking takes one slot with one provider for one service; group classes with a capacity aren’t supported.
What to remember
- ✓Only open times are shown to clients on the public page
- ✓A pending request holds its time until it’s confirmed, rejected or expires
- ✓Pauses added after bookings leave room for preparation
Common questions
What if two clients try to book at the very same moment?+
Only one request gets the slot. The other client sees a message that the slot was just taken and can choose another time.
Can I block off a time on the calendar by hand?+
Yes. Under “Availability” you can mark a provider as blocked for a period, for example a break, a holiday or an internal meeting, and it will no longer be offered to clients.
More guides to explore
Dealing with overlaps in your current schedule?
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