Booking settings

Choose how clients book with you: native in-app booking, an external link, WhatsApp, or a phone call. Fine-tune your slots, notice periods, and confirmations.

Booking settings control how clients request appointments and, if you take bookings natively, exactly how your availability works. Open Settings from the account menu in the top-right, then select the Booking tab and choose Save settings when you’re done.

Screenshot: the Booking settings page with the Booking Mode selector at the top and the Native slot options revealed below.

Booking Mode

Booking Mode decides what happens when a client taps Book in your app. Choose one of four modes:

Mode	What clients get
Native	Clients pick a treatment, staff member, and time slot and book directly in your app. Zovi manages your calendar.
External URL	Clients are sent to a booking link you already use (for example, another scheduling tool).
WhatsApp	Clients are handed off to WhatsApp to arrange their appointment with you by message.
Call to book	Clients are prompted to phone your clinic to book.

Three of the modes need a detail from you:

• External URL: enter the Booking URL clients should be sent to. It’s required for this mode.
• WhatsApp: enter your WhatsApp number, including the country code.
• Call to book: enter the Phone number clients should ring.

The extra settings below only apply when Booking Mode is set to Native. In the other three modes, scheduling happens outside Zovi, so the slot and approval options don’t appear.

Booking Mode and the AI Advisor

Booking Mode also decides how the in-app AI Advisor books for a client who asks in a chat.

• On Native, the advisor completes the booking inside the conversation.
• On the other modes, it hands the client off to the route your clinic already uses: your booking page, WhatsApp, or your phone number.

The advisor always resolves the most specific booking link available: the package’s link first, then the treatment’s, then your clinic default.

Change your Booking Mode and the advisor follows automatically. There’s no separate setting to keep in step. See the AI Advisor for what else it can do.

Slot configuration (Native)

When you choose Native, a Slot Configuration section appears. These settings shape which times clients can pick.

Setting	What it controls
Slot interval	How far apart bookable start times are (for example, every 15 or 30 minutes).
Buffer	Padding added around each appointment so back-to-back bookings leave you time to reset.
Minimum notice	How far in advance a client must book, in hours. Stops last-minute bookings you can’t prepare for.
Advance limit	How far into the future a client can book, in days.
Cancellation window	How close to the appointment a cancellation counts as late. Cancellations inside this window are flagged as late so you can see them.

The Cancellation window doesn’t block the cancellation itself. Clients can still cancel inside it, and those cancellations are flagged as late so you can spot a pattern and follow up. Use Minimum notice if you want to stop no-notice bookings.

The Cancellation window isn’t only an internal flag. The same number is written into the cancellation terms your clients read, which tell them they can cancel or reschedule free of charge up to that many hours before their appointment, and that cancellations after the window may not be refundable. So changing it changes your published cancellation policy.

Confirmation & approvals (Native)

The Confirmation & Approvals section decides whether new bookings are live straight away or wait for your say-so.

• Auto-confirm: bookings are confirmed automatically the moment a client books. Best for high-volume clinics that want a frictionless flow.
• Manual confirm: new bookings arrive as Pending and a team member must Confirm each one. Best when you want to vet every appointment first.

You’ll approve pending bookings from the appointments calendar, where each booking’s status moves from Pending to Confirmed.

Staff time-off approval

The same section has a Staff time-off approval switch. Turn it on to require that time-off requests from your team are approved before they block the calendar. With it off, requests apply automatically. You manage and approve those requests on each person’s Time off tab under Teams.

Related

Appointments calendar

See, confirm, reschedule, and complete bookings.

Teams: staff & permissions

Set working hours and handle staff time off.