How to Create booking form with Date option but not Time
Hi, I repair instruments and I take 2 or 3 jobs per day, and I would like the system to book the first available time slot for any given date that the client chooses. The actual time of the appointment is irrelevant because I want all jobs to arrive to me at 9am.
The problem is that if the client chooses a spot right in the middle of the day, there may not be enough time to book other jobs on either side of it, and I will end up with only one job for that day. Each job type has a different length, so I cannot just allocate a set number of slots for the day. For very big jobs I will need all day for a single job, but for smaller jobs I can probably take 3 of those in a day.
Is it possible for the program to do what I am hoping for?
Either that, or the client is given only the earliest time slot as an option on the day they have chosen.
Is there a work-around that I can apply so that the only time-slot that appears for any given day is the earliest one? (or time of day is removed altogether?)
Thanks
Comments
Hello,
Thank you for your message.
Bookly is designed to work with a weekly schedule. The schedules you set up for the staff members are their consistent availability moving forward – for each and every week. So timeslots offered in the front-end booking form are founded on these schedules. And the time slot interval or how the hours are divided and presented in the booking form is based on the time slot length.
You can specify the display of schedule with the help of "Minimum time requirement prior to booking":
You can also display only dates, without time selection. All you need to do is set up service duration more than 24 hours.
Let us know if it works for you.
Hi, I'm not sure if I have understood correctly, but I think the solution I'm seeking is a bit different.
The minimum time requirement prior to booking is not a problem. I have already set it to 2 days.
If I set up a service duration to 24 hours, I will only be able to take 1 booking per day, bur most days I need to take three.
I have a number of different types of services with different time lengths. they are 2.5 hrs, 3 hrs, 4 hrs, 5 hrs, 5.5 hrs and 8 hrs. I need to fit combinations of these into an 8-hour day. The problem is that if a client books a 4-hour service and books the appointment time at 11am (day starts at 9am), then that leaves only 2 hrs before that booking, and 2 hrs after it. It means that no more bookings can be made that day. As another example, I need to be able to fit three of the 2.5hr jobs into a day. I a client is allowed to choose their time, they may choose one at 11am, and the next client may choose 2:30pm. That means I cannot book in another job for that day, and there is lots of wasted time.
However, if the system automatically allocated a booking to the first available time, the first 2.5hr job would go at 9am, then the second would be booked in at 11:30am and then a third would be booked in at 2pm. There would be very little wasted time.
I want clients to be able to choose the day that they prefer, but I don't want them to be able to choose a time. Ideally, for me, the system would simply offer the days that would allow time enough for the job they have chosen, and not even mention time at all.
I hope that clarifies things a little. Is there anything at all that I can do to bring it closer to what I want? Or are there any codes I can use to eliminate all choice of hours in the day except for the first one?
Hi Drew,
Thanks for clarifying your use case.
Although the current minimum and maximum 'Time slot length' are 2 minutes and 6 hours respectively, you should be able to set service duration to the appropriate length of time but set the 'Time slot length' to 6 hours. Then in the Staff Member's schedule, you add a break an hour after your start time until the end of your work day. For example, the schedule is 8am to 6pm, the break is from 9am to 6pm.
May I ask please if you're the only person providing these services? If you are, please note that one staff member can't provide two or multiple services at the same time. If at least one-time slot is busy in the first service, then the second one will not be able to provide at the same time.
If I am off-base, you require further assistance or have additional questions/clarifications about this, please create a support ticket using the link below and mention this conversation: https://bit.ly/3wHPd3L so the Support Team can look into this matter for you in a timely manner.
Click Here To Get Bookly Support
Many thanks,
Bookly Customer Support
Hi,
Thanks for that. I think we are getting closer.
The problem with setting Time Slot Length to 6 hours is that I will only be able to book one service per day, whereas I need to be able to book up to 3 per day, to cater for services that have different lengths.
It doesn't matter how many people work here. Each individual will need to book multiple services per day in the same way.
I have set my time slot length to 0.5hrs so that any of the services can be booked back-to-back without any wasted time in between, and so that as many services can fit into the day as possible. For example, If my time slots were 3 hours each and someone booked in a 2.5 hour service, then there is already 0.5hr wasted between that service and the one that will follow in the booking system. With the way that Bookly operates at the moment, time wastage can be even greater than this.
I noticed that there is an option in the settings somewhere that makes the system offer only the first available time. In the Bookly system means the first available time at the first available date. Instead, it would help me if my customers were offered the first available time of day on any day of their choosing. That would be the perfect solution for me.
Since that may not be an option for you, it would be good if there was some sort of work-around. Is there a way to hide the selection of hours in the 2nd step, leaving only the first option to choose? If the selection of hours was hidden completely, would the system simply allocate the service to the first available time? (This one would be even more preferable).
I'm surprised that this has not come up previously as an issue. Many service-based businesses operate this was, if they offer multiple services or offer standard and premium versions of their services.
If it is possible to find a real solution to this, please let me know, and I'll take steps for proper support.
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