Booking Types

Create and configure booking types in TidyCal to let clients schedule meetings, consultations, classes, and events. Each booking type has its own URL, duration, availability, and pricing settings.

Booking Type Overview

Booking types are the core of TidyCal. Each one represents a type of meeting or event your clients can book. You can create unlimited booking types on any plan.

Creating a Booking Type with Presets

When you create a new booking type, TidyCal offers preset templates to get you started quickly:

Select a preset from the dropdown when creating a new booking type. The preset pre-fills common settings, which you can then customize.

Basic Settings

Title

What your booking type will be called on your booking page.

URL

The URL path for this specific booking type. The first segment of the URL is your username, set in Settings → Bookings page.

Description

A description shown on the booking page. You can add hyperlinks by highlighting text and clicking the chain icon in the editor toolbar.

Select a Calendar

Choose which connected calendar new bookings will be added to.

Duration and Scheduling

Duration

The meeting duration in minutes.

Minimum Meeting Padding

Set a time gap between consecutive bookings so you have a break between meetings.

How Far in Advance Can Users Book?

Set the number of days into the future your calendar is open for bookings. Default is 60 days.

Minimum Booking Notice

Prevent last-minute bookings by requiring minimum notice. Default is 2 hours, so the first available slot is at least 2 hours from the current time.

Booking Limits

Set the maximum number of daily, weekly, or monthly bookings. Requires Individual Plan or Agency Plan.

Availability Interval

Defines the interval of available time slots on the booking page (e.g., every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes).

Ignore External Calendar Conflicts

Toggle on to allow bookings even when your connected calendar shows a conflicting event. Useful if you use calendar blocking for personal time tracking but still want to accept bookings during those times.

Plan required: Individual Plan or Agency Plan

Availability Settings

Booking Schedule

Set your availability for each booking type. Choose between:

1. Weekly - Available one or more times per week, repeating every week. You can add specific unavailable dates as exceptions.
2. Specific Dates - Only available on specific dates you select. Full control over each date.

Custom Availability

Each booking type can have its own availability settings, or you can use Default Availability (set from the Availability page in the sidebar) as a baseline.

Fixed Booking Slots

Use the "New window" option to create specific booking windows throughout the day instead of continuous availability.

Set Unavailable Times and Dates

Block out specific dates and times using the "Add blocked date" feature on your weekly booking schedule.

Group Bookings

Allow multiple people to book the same time slot. Perfect for classes, webinars, and group events.

How to Enable Group Bookings

1. Go to Booking types
2. Edit the booking type
3. Scroll to "Allow group bookings"
4. Toggle it ON
5. Set the maximum number of attendees
6. Choose whether to show remaining seats on your booking page
7. Click Save

Plan required: Individual Plan or Agency Plan

Important Notes

• Each booking is from a separate person (not one person with multiple guests)
• Once capacity is reached, the time slot disappears from the calendar
• All attendees receive separate confirmation emails
• If using paid bookings, each attendee pays separately

Guest Invites

Allow a single booker to add additional guests to their booking. Different from Group Bookings where multiple separate people book the same slot.

How to Enable Guest Invites

1. Go to Booking types
2. Edit your booking type
3. Scroll to the Guest Invites section
4. Toggle it ON
5. (Optional) Set the maximum number of guests allowed per booking
6. Click Save

Plan required: Individual Plan or Agency Plan

Note: Only the primary booker can reschedule or cancel. If using paid bookings, the primary booker pays for all guests.

Location

Set where the meeting takes place:

• Video conferences Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or a custom video link (for Whereby, Around, or other services)
• In person/Custom location: Physical address or custom meeting details
• Phone number: Enter your phone number for phone meetings
• None: No location set — meeting is scheduled in TidyCal only

Paid Bookings - Charge for This Booking

You can also attach coupon codes to paid booking types from the Coupons section of the Pricing & Subscriptions tab. Click Manage coupons to create new coupons, or use the Select a coupon dropdown to attach existing ones.

Accept payments for your bookings using Stripe or PayPal. Available on all plans.

1. Select Per booking in the Pricing & Subscriptions tab in the booking type editor
2. Enter the price for the booking
3. Select your payment platform (Stripe or PayPal)
4. The currency displays in "CODE (symbol)" format (e.g., USD ($), EUR (€))

Set up your payment processor first at Payments. See Connect Your Payment Services.

Custom Fields (Questions)

Add custom intake questions to collect information from bookers. Supported field types: Short text, Long text, Single choice, Multiple choice, Dropdown, Date, and Phone number. Toggle "Required" to prevent submission without filling in the field.

Plan required: Individual Plan or Agency Plan

Email Reminders

By default, TidyCal sends 2 email reminders: 24 hours before and 1 hour before the meeting. The initial meeting confirmation is sent from your connected calendar (Google/Office/Apple), not TidyCal.

Custom email reminders (fully customizable content and timing) require Individual Plan or Agency Plan.

Automated Post-Booking Emails

Send automated follow-up emails after bookings. Create up to 3 automated emails per account with customizable delay times, subjects, and HTML content. Manage them from Booking types → Emails in the sidebar. Available on all plans.

Redirect After Booking

Set a custom redirect URL after booking completion. Use this for a "Thank you" page or for conversion tracking.

Plan required: Individual Plan or Agency Plan

Tracking and Analytics

Track booking page conversions using Google Analytics (GA4) or Google Tag Manager (GTM). Set up tracking from Integrations → Google Analytics.

You can also use the Redirect After Booking to redirect to a page with your own tracking pixels (Facebook/Meta Pixel, Google Ads, etc.).

Plan required: Individual Plan or Agency Plan. See Integrations for setup details.

Require Approval

Toggle on to require manual approval before bookings are confirmed and added to your calendar. When enabled, new bookings appear as pending until you approve or reject them.

Plan required: Individual Plan or Agency Plan

See Booking Approval Workflow for details.

Package Bookings

Allow clients to book multiple dates at once. Perfect for coaching series, consultation packages, or recurring appointments.

• Limit selectable dates: Set the maximum number of dates a client can select
• Minimum date frequency: Define how frequently dates can be selected (e.g., weekly, daily)
• If using paid bookings, clients are charged for all dates at once

Managing Package Bookings

• Reschedule individual dates: Each date has its own "Reschedule" button
• Cancel individual dates: Guests can cancel specific dates without cancelling the entire package
• Track cancellations: Cancelled dates appear with strikethrough text on the confirmation page

Multiple Hosts (Team Booking Types)

Team booking types allow you to assign multiple hosts from your team. Agency Plan only.

Collective Meetings

Only times when ALL assigned hosts are available are shown to bookers. All hosts attend the same meeting. Best for partner meetings, panel interviews, and team consultations.

Round Robin

Automatically distribute incoming bookings evenly among team members. Only ONE host is selected per booking. Best for sales teams, support rotation, and shared workloads.

How to Set Up Team Bookings

1. Go to Teams (requires Agency Plan)
2. Create or edit a team and add members
3. Go to Booking types
4. Create a new team booking type
5. In the Multiple Hosts section, select Collective or Round Robin
6. Assign team members and click Save

Learn more: Teams Feature Guide | Round Robin Guide

Additional Options

Display in the Public TidyCal Directory

List your booking type in the public TidyCal Directory to get more visibility. You can also choose a category for better placement.

Private Mode

Hide a booking type from your public booking page. Anyone with the direct URL can still access and book it.

CC Email Addresses

Send booking notification copies to additional email addresses. Requires Individual Plan or Agency Plan.

Custom Reply-To Address

Set a custom reply-to address for booking notifications. Requires Agency Plan.

Feature Availability by Plan

Website Builder & Date Polls

Looking for a landing page experience for your bookings? The Website Builder lets you create a branded landing page with 10 customizable sections and 4 themes (Rio, Cairo, Zurich, New York). Your booking page URL stays the same — switch between Classic and Website views from Booking page in the sidebar. Available on all plans.

For group scheduling where participants vote on the best time, try Date Polls. Create a poll from the TidyCal logo dropdown > Polls, share the link, and let your group pick the dates that work best. Available on all plans.

Reviews on Booking Pages

When reviews are enabled and Show reviews on booking page is toggled on, customer reviews appear directly on the public booking page with star ratings and written feedback. This helps build trust and encourage new bookings. See Ratings and Reviews for setup instructions.

Troubleshooting

No available time slots showing

• Check your availability settings - make sure you have open windows defined
• Review "How far in advance can users book" and "Minimum booking notice" values
• Check if connected calendar events marked "Busy" are blocking your availability
• Verify your duration + padding time fits within your available windows
• See Fixing Missing Dates for detailed troubleshooting

Payment not appearing for clients

• Ensure you have selected Per booking in the Pricing & Subscriptions tab in the booking type editor
• Verify a payment processor is connected at Payments
• Check that you selected a payment platform for the booking type

Approval toggle not visible

• Manual approval requires Individual Plan or Agency Plan
• Free Plan users will not see the approval toggle

Frequently Asked Questions

How many booking types can I create?

Unlimited on all plans, including the Free Plan.

What is the difference between Group Bookings and Guest Invites?

Group Bookings: Multiple separate people book the same time slot independently. Guest Invites: One booker adds additional guests to their own booking. You can enable both on the same booking type.

Can I duplicate a booking type?

Yes. Use the clone/duplicate function on any booking type to create a copy with the same settings. Then adjust as needed.

What are booking type presets?

Presets are quick-start templates (1-on-1, Group, Round-Robin, Recurring, Package) that pre-fill common settings when creating a new booking type. You can customize all settings after selecting a preset.