Configure Your Online Appointment Rules – Vagaro Support

From setting up lead times for services and classes to how appointment times appear on your Vagaro Listing Page, customize your customers' booking experience in the Online Appointment Rules screen. Some settings you can turn on include setting appointment and class lead times, controlling the number of timeslots available to customers, and displaying your business phone number when appointments are unavailable. Other features include showing the available class seats or automatically assigning an employee, which will further facilitate processes for the clients.

With membership or package booking requirements, limited booking windows, and the need for approval over certain customers or employees, businesses can further control who can and can't book. Enable waitlisting to manually or automatically book customers to fill in last-minute availability. You can also specify and select your cancellation and rescheduling policies so customers are aware of your required notice periods and conditions for refunds.

Prerequisites: This feature is available for all Vagaro businesses.

Select Your Online Appointment Rules

To select your online appointment rules:

Go to Online Appointment Rules:
- Phone: Select More → Settings → Online Appointment Rules.
- Computer, Tablet, Pay Desk, or PayPro: Select Settings → Online Appointment Rules.
Toggle the switches on or off for each setting shown below.
Select Save.

Appointments

The following rules can be applied when customers search for appointments on your Vagaro Listing Page:

Appointment Lead Time: The buffer time before a customer can book a specific timeslot for a service. You can enter a value in min (minutes), hrs (hours), or days. For example, set your lead time to 24 hours to prevent customers from booking an appointment on the same day.
Class Lead Time: The buffer time before a customer can book a specific session for a class. You can enter a value in min (minutes), hrs (hours), or days. For example, set your lead time to 24 hours to prevent customers from registering for a class on the same day.
Appointment Search Limit: The maximum number of bookable timeslots your customers can see at a time on your listing page.
Search Appointment Interval: The amount of time between available timeslots on your listing page. For example, if you set an interval of 15 minutes, the available appointments for the day will be 8:00, 8:15, 8:30, 8:45, 9:00, and so on. The next available booking times will round up to the nearest 5 or 15 minutes if a customer books at, for example, 7:32 PM.
Cleanup Time Preferences: Choose how to apply cleanup time when a customer books multiple services back-to-back.
- Use Longest Cleanup at the End: Adds a single cleanup slot after the final service in a multi-service booking. Only the longest cleanup time from the grouped services is applied at the end of the booking.
  
  Note
  
  This setting applies only to online bookings for a single customer. It does not affect classes, in-house bookings, or service bundles. If the appointments are booked separately or by multiple customers close together, this setting won’t apply. As a workaround, you can manually adjust the cleanup time in these scenarios.
- Apply After Each Service (Default): Cleanup time will be added to the end of each service.
Show Number of Seats Remaining in Classes: Whether to show how many more customers can still sign up for the class.
Display Business Phone Number When Appointments are Unavailable: Whether to prompt customers to call your business and display your business's phone number if there are no available appointments for that day.

Booking

The following rules can be applied when customers book appointments on your Vagaro Listing Page:

Auto-Assign Employee When Booking: Whether to have Vagaro automatically assign an employee for new bookings. Otherwise, the customer needs to select an employee to perform the service.
Online Employee Booking Order: How your employees are listed on your Vagaro Listing Page. If Auto-Assign is turned on, Vagaro will assign the employee based on the option you select.
Membership or Package Required to Book: Whether to require customers to have either one package or membership to book appointments:
- Memberships or Packages Required to Book: Select the memberships or packages the customer must have.
- Membership/Package Holders Can Only Book: Select the services and classes requiring a membership or package. You can select your entire menu or just a few items. Items not selected can be booked without a membership or package.
Require Acceptance for Online Booking: Whether to require approval for incoming bookings:
- These Employees Require Acceptance: Choose the employee(s) to whom this setting will apply.
- Require Acceptance for: Choose the types of customers for whom you'll require acceptance.
- Number of no-shows or cancellations: If you require acceptance for a Customer with no-shows or cancellations, choose the number of cancellations or no-shows the customer must have before requiring acceptance.
Allow Family and Friends Booking: Whether customers can book on behalf of family or friends linked to their account.
Block New Customers from Online Booking: Whether to block "new" customers from booking at your business:
- Employees Not Accepting New Customers: Choose the employee(s) to which this setting will apply.
Limit How Far in Advance a Customer Can Book a Service Online: The number of days in advance customers can book a service. The limit can range from 1 day to three years.
Limit How Far in Advance a Customer Can Book a Class Online: The number of days in advance customers can register for a class. The limit can range from one day to three years.

Waitlist

Your waitlist is set up and configured using the following settings:

Select a Waitlist type: Choose how customers will be given spots on your waitlist:
- You Pick: Manually select any client on your waitlist to book them in the open timeslot. Their contact information will appear so you can call or email them.
- Money Maker: Automatically give the timeslot to the customer with the most expensive appointment. If they don't accept the appointment within the time you've allowed, the appointment will be offered to the next person on the list, and so on. The first customer to accept the appointment will be scheduled.
- First in Line: Automatically notify the first customer on your waitlist about the available opening. If they don't accept the appointment within the time you've allowed, the appointment will be offered to the next person on the list, and so on. The first customer to accept the appointment will be scheduled.
- Instant Book: An automatic notification is sent to all waitlisted clients. The first customer to accept the appointment will be scheduled.
Customers Can Add to Waitlist: Allow your customers to add themselves to your waitlist when booking online.

Cancellation

The following rules can be applied when customers try to cancel an appointment on Vagaro or their Vagaro customer app:

Customers Can Cancel: Whether customers can cancel their appointments themselves and how far in advance you'll allow them to cancel. Toggling this setting will appear the following settings.
- Hours before appointment: How many hours before their appointment you'll allow the customer to cancel.
- Automatically Refund for Pre-paid Appointments and Classes: Automatically refund customers who've prepaid or put down a deposit for their appointment or class.
- Refund Policy: Notify your customers of your refund policy and when they can expect to be refunded for cancellations
Customers Can Reschedule: Whether customers can reschedule their appointments and how far in advance you'll allow them to reschedule:
- Hours before appointment: How many hours before their appointment you'll allow the customer to reschedule.
Customers Can Cancel Memberships: Whether customers can cancel their auto-renewing memberships online.
Customers Can Cancel Packages: Whether customers can cancel their auto-renewing packages online.
Appointment Cancellation Policy: A description of the conditions that you'll allow customers to cancel an appointment. Your policy is also automatically updated in the Facility Information and Online Shopping Cart screens.
Class Cancellation Policy: A description of the conditions that you'll allow customers to cancel a class session or workshop. Your policy is also automatically updated in the Facility Information and Online Shopping Cart screens.

Reviews

Only Allow Reviews From Verified Customers: Allow only verified customers to be able to leave a review on your Vagaro Listing Page. Verified customers are clients with at least one appointment marked "Completed" or "Checked Out" at your business.