Book overlapping appointments for providers
Double booking or creating overlapping bookings refers to the practice of scheduling two or more clients for the same time slot. When implemented intentionally, this strategy aims to improve efficiency, optimize resource utilization, and maximize revenue.
Benefits of Double Booking:
Minimized Downtime: Double booking helps make use of idle periods during service delivery. For example, a doctor might see one patient while another undergoes a diagnostic test. Similarly, in services with waiting periods, such as hair coloring or medical tests, staff can attend to other guests during these gaps.
Reduced Impact of No-Shows and Cancellations: By scheduling multiple guests for the same time slot, businesses can ensure effective time utilization. If one guest cancels or fails to show up, the other appointment fills the gap, reducing potential revenue loss.
At the organization level, click the Configuration icon.
Search for and select the Book overlapping appointments for providers as safeguard against cancellations setting.
Enable the setting.
To disallow double booking, turn off the setting.
To receive a warning about double booking for an employee, enable the Warn when booking overlapping appointments for providers setting.
Click Save.
When double booking is enabled, a day with available slots for double booking is indicated by the date highlighted in yellow.
Note
To facilitate double-booking block-out times for an employee without triggering an error, create two block-outs with different start and end times, then drag and drop the second block-out onto the first one. For example, if Jess, a therapist at your salon, is unavailable for appointments from 10:00 AM to 10:15 AM due to a mandatory staff meeting, you would create two overlapping block-outs for her during that time frame.