Booking Pages

Create a booking page for each type of meeting you offer, such as a 30-minute introductory call. Each page has its own link and settings. To get started, click Open Dashboard in BusyCal > Settings > Bookings, then choose Booking pages.

The Booking Pages List

Booking pages lists your pages in profile order. To rearrange them, open a card's three-dot More actions menu and choose Move Up or Move Down.

Each card shows the page's link, durations, locations, approval setting and destination calendar. Warnings appear here too, such as missing weekly hours. Click Edit to go to the setting that needs attention. If a page is on but its calendar account is turned off, that warning appears first. See When the Calendar's Account Is Turned Off.

Below the title, On your profile, Link only or Turned off shows the page's visibility. A page set to On your profile may be hidden for another reason. In that case, you'll see Not on your profile followed by Paused, No calendar, Calendar account turned off, Can't offer a location or Profile incomplete. Other paused pages show Paused alongside their visibility.

Each card has these controls:

• Edit: Opens the booking page editor.
• Preview: Try the page in a new tab without making a booking, even if it's paused or turned off. Preview links expire quickly; share the page's normal link instead.
• Show Availability: Check available times and see why others aren't offered. See Checking Which Times a Booking Page Offers.
• The button with three dots (More actions): Opens a menu with the actions described in Managing Your Booking Pages.

Click a booking page's title to see a summary of all its settings. The summary has Preview, Show Availability and Edit. For a booking page that is off, it also has Turn On….

Creating and Editing a Booking Page

1. In Booking pages, click New Booking Page.
2. Fill in the settings. The editor has six sections: Basics, Availability, Limits and buffers, Questions, Location and Approval. To go to a section, click it in the list next to the form.
3. Click Create Booking Page at the bottom of the window.

A new booking page starts with these settings:

• Turned off.
• One duration of 30 minutes.
• Weekly hours from Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
• 30 minutes of minimum notice.
• A date range of 30 days into the future.
• Automatic approval.
• The first calendar in the Add bookings to menu whose account is turned on in BusyCal.
• The time zone of the device that you used most recently.
• The language of your dashboard.

To edit an existing page, click Edit on its card or summary. Make your changes, then click Save or press ⌘-S. The bar at the bottom indicates unsaved changes, and a dot marks each edited section.

If a setting needs correction, the editor lists it at the top of the form. Click the message to go to that setting.

If the page changes in another browser while you're editing, the editor warns you. Click Load Latest Version to use the saved version, or Save to replace it with your changes.

Basics

• Title: The meeting's name, shown at the top of the booking page.
• Link: The last part of the page's address, after your profile link. For a new page, it follows the title until you enter your own text. Use lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, starting with a letter. Changing a published page's link stops the old link from working.
• Description: An introduction to the meeting. Use Markdown for formatting; Formatting help explains bold, italic and strikethrough text, links, lists and headings. Long descriptions initially show the first paragraph, with an option to read more.

Who Can Book

• Visibility: Choose Turned off, Link only or On your profile. A turned-off booking page tells people who open its link that it's turned off. Anyone with its link can book a Link only booking page. An On your profile booking page is also listed on your public profile page, so anyone with your profile link can find it and book.
• Pause bookings: Temporarily stop accepting bookings without changing the page's visibility. Visitors see that bookings are paused, with no times offered.

To turn on a page, add a name and username to your profile and choose a destination calendar. If something is missing, the editor explains it beside Visibility. You can choose Create Turned Off or Turn Off and Save, then turn the page on when it's ready.

Calendar

• Add bookings to: The calendar where BusyCal saves this page's meetings. Changing it affects only new bookings; existing bookings keep their original calendar. Calendars are grouped by account and marked with their BusyCal color. Some browsers show the color only for the selected calendar. BusyCal shares up to 256 calendars; the dashboard reports any beyond that limit. If the menu is empty, open BusyCal on a device using Bookings. Calendars in disabled accounts remain listed as Calendar account turned off. A page using one of them can't take new bookings until the account is turned on. See Where Bookings Go.
• Event title: The title of the event in your calendar and in the invitation that people get. Use {page} for the booking page's title and {invitee} for the person's name, for example {page} with {invitee}. A new booking page uses {page}.

You can also leave booking details out of the calendar event. With this option on, the event has no notes containing the invitee's phone number, answers or message. Its title, location and attendees are unchanged. See The Event in Your Calendar.

When the Calendar's Account Is Turned Off

Turning off the destination calendar's account in BusyCal > Settings > Accounts stops the page from accepting new bookings and hides it from your profile. Visitors see that you're not taking bookings right now. The page keeps its calendar selection and can accept bookings again when you turn the account back on.

To fix it, do one of these:

• Turn the account on in BusyCal > Settings > Accounts.
• Edit the booking page and choose another calendar in Add bookings to, then click Save.

The dashboard explains both fixes on the page's card and summary, under Overview > Status, and in Book Someone In… and Show Availability. Choosing Turn On… also warns that the page will stay closed while the account is off.

Existing bookings waiting for that calendar remain pending, with an explanation on their Calendar line. They can't be rescheduled until you turn the account back on. See A Booking Doesn't Appear in BusyCal.

When the Calendar Is Missing

If Add bookings to shows Not on your Mac, check the calendar and its account in BusyCal on the devices you use for Bookings. The label can reflect a device that doesn't have the account; another device may still be able to save bookings there.

Removing a calendar or its account doesn't automatically stop new bookings. If none of your devices can save to the intended calendar, choose Pause Bookings from the page's More actions menu. Edit the page, choose an available calendar in Add bookings to, and click Save. Choose Resume Bookings when you're ready.

Changing the destination affects new bookings only. Existing bookings keep their original calendar; see A Booking Doesn't Appear in BusyCal.

Time Zone

• Time zone: The time zone of the booking page's hours. To find a time zone quickly, type a city or region in the search box.
• Show times only in this time zone: People see the times in this time zone instead of their own. Use this for meetings in person. Without it, people see the times in their own time zone, and they can change it on the booking page.

Language and Replies

• Booking page language: People see the booking page in their browser's language if it's one of the 12 languages that Bookings offers. If not, they see it in this language. Text that you write, such as the title, description and questions, stays as you wrote it.
• Replies go to: Where replies go when someone answers an email about a booking on this booking page. Choose your account email or another address that you verified. Or click Add Address… to add one. See Replies Go To.

Availability

• Duration: Choose 15 min, 30 min, 45 min or 1 hr, or enter minutes in Other and press Return. You can offer up to 8 durations, each from 5 to 720 minutes. If you offer several, people choose one before booking. Default sets the initial choice.
• Start time increments: How far apart the start times are. Same as the duration offers back-to-back times. The editor shows three example start times.
• Weekly hours: The hours when you take bookings on each day of the week. To add hours to a day, click + on that day. Remove the hours that you don't need. A day without hours says Unavailable.
• Specific dates: Override your weekly hours for a particular date. Click Add Date, choose the date, then click Add Hours or leave it Closed all day.

Availability and Busy Calendars describes how these settings work together.

Limits and Buffers

• Buffer time: Free time kept Before each meeting and After each meeting.
• Minimum notice: How soon a meeting can start after someone books it. The editor shows what your choice means, for example that people can book only times that start at least 1 day from now.
• Date range: How far ahead people can book. Choose a number of Days into the future, or Between two dates, from a Start date to an End date.
• Maximum bookings: The most bookings that this booking page takes Per day, Per week and Per month. Bookings that are already in your calendar count too. For no limit, leave a box empty.

Each of the buffer and notice menus has Other, where you can type any number of minutes. See Availability and Busy Calendars.

Questions

Contact details: People always give their name and email address.

• Phone number: Choose Not asked, Optional or Required.
• Guests: Let invitees add other people by email. Choose Not allowed, Unlimited (up to 10 guests) or Limited, then enter Maximum guests. Guests receive separate meeting emails without the main invitee's booking links, phone number or answers.

To ask your own questions:

1. Click Add Question and type the question.
2. Choose its Answer type: Short answer, Paragraph, Checkbox or Dropdown menu.
3. If people must answer the question, select Required.
4. For a dropdown menu, type its Choices, each on its own line.

To move a question up or down, use its arrow buttons. To remove it, use its trash button. A booking page can ask up to 20 questions.

tip

To ask for consent, for example to a cancellation policy, add a checkbox question and make it required. People can't book until they select it.

The booking form also has an optional Notes field for anything else the invitee wants to tell you. Their response appears as Message in the booking details.

Location

The Location section sets where the meeting happens: a video call, a web link, a phone call or an address. If you add more than one location, people choose one when they book. See Locations and Video Calls.

Approval

• Automatic: People get a confirmation right away, and BusyCal adds the booking to your calendar.
• You approve each request: New requests wait in Bookings under Requests. People get a confirmation after you approve.

How BusyCal Gets Your Bookings

BusyCal receives booking updates through push notifications and checks regularly as well. If it isn't running, it checks when you next open it. See A Booking Doesn't Appear in BusyCal if a meeting is missing, or contact us for help.

When your busy times are older than the time set in Busy times in your dashboard's Settings > Access, each new booking waits for your approval, even with Automatic. See Bookings and Requests.

Managing Your Booking Pages

The More actions menu on each booking page's card in Booking pages offers the actions that apply to that booking page:

• Duplicate: Creates a turned-off copy after the original, with -copy added to its link. Other settings, including Add bookings to, are copied. The editor opens so you can make changes, choose who can book and save.
• Pause Bookings and Resume Bookings: Stops or starts new bookings again, without changing who can book. People see that bookings are paused.
• Turn Off: Turns the booking page off. Its requests and bookings stay, and so does its pause setting.
• Turn On…: Asks where people can find the booking page. Choose Link only or On your profile, then click Turn On. If something is missing, such as your name, the screen lists what the booking page still needs instead. If the account of the booking page's calendar is turned off in BusyCal, the screen warns you: the booking page stays closed until you turn the account on.
• Move Up and Move Down: Changes the order of your booking pages. Your profile page lists them in the same order.
• Delete…: Deletes the booking page.

Deleting a Booking Page

1. In the booking page's More actions menu, choose Delete….
2. Review the counts under Requests waiting for your answer and Bookings waiting for BusyCal, if shown. These are the items still managed by Bookings. Choose whether to end them too, as described below.
3. Click Delete Booking Page. To keep the booking page, click Keep Booking Page.

Deleting a page stops new bookings and disables its link. This can't be undone.

Existing bookings and requests are kept by default, and your calendar is unchanged. To cancel pending bookings and decline requests too, select the Also checkbox, such as Also cancel these bookings (2) and decline these requests (1). Invitees receive the usual emails, and BusyCal removes the cancelled bookings from your calendar.

Meetings that have left Bookings aren't included in these counts. Deleting the page doesn't change them; they stay in your calendar.

If the page changes while the confirmation is open, deletion stops so you can review the updated details. With the Also checkbox selected, a change to its bookings also stops deletion. Check the new counts before confirming again.

For a temporary break, turn the page off or pause bookings. You can turn it on or resume bookings later.

Languages and Link Options

Booking pages and the emails that people get come in 12 languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Simplified Chinese and Spanish. A booking page appears in the visitor's browser language if it's one of these. If not, it appears in the language set in Booking page language.

In the booking page's Settings menu, visitors can choose another language and the day their week starts on. They can also switch between 12-hour and 24-hour times. Their emails show times the same way.

Add these options to a booking link to preselect a language or duration, or fill in contact details:

Add to the link	What it does
?lang=de	Opens the booking page in a language: nl, en, fr, de, it, ja, ko, pt, pt-PT, ru, zh-Hans or es.
?duration=60	Chooses one of the booking page's durations, in minutes.
?name=Ann&email=ann@example.com	Fills in the person's name and email address on the booking form. phone and message work the same way.

To use more than one option, join them with &, for example busybook.me/jane/intro?lang=de&duration=60.