FAQ: Group Booking

The following staff member permissions are used for group bookings:

• Can book and change own appointments: This permission allows the staff member to create group bookings on their own calendar and modify their own appointments that are part of a group. This permission only allows the staff member to update the services for their own appointments that are part of a group; they cannot update the date, time, or location.

• Can book and change other people’s appointments: This permission allows the staff member to create and modify group bookings where multiple staff members are assigned. This permission allows the staff member to make changes to the entire group and individual appointments in the group.

• Can change status of appointments: This permission allows the staff member to change the status of an entire group and individual appointments in a group.

• Can start a checkout and modify sales: This permission allows the staff member to check out an entire group and individual appointments in a group.

When a client books a group appointment online, all of the required deposits for each guest will be combined into one deposit for the booking client to pay in order to book the group appointment.

When you enable group booking, you can specify a maximum group size of up to 5 clients. This will limit the number of clients that can be added to a group appointment via online booking. This limit does not apply to group appointments created from the calendar by a staff member.

Yes, couples services are different from group bookings.

• A couples service is a single appointment, while a group booking is a collection of multiple appointments.

• With a couples service, both clients are booked for the same time, service, and usually the same room. The appointment will only show the booking client’s name on the calendar.

• With a group booking, all clients are booked for the same time, but they can select different services and service customizations. Each client will have their own appointment on the calendar.

Services that require two staff members will not be visible to clients when they book group appointments online. However, you can create a group booking via the calendar that has services that require two staff members.

Every group booking has one client who is the primary contact for the group. You can change the primary contact for an existing group booking as needed.

• For Express Booking™, the primary contact will be the client who receives the text message to complete the group booking for all clients.

• While each client in a group booking can view their appointment in their client portal, only the primary contact can:

  • Self-reschedule the entire group. Individual appointments in a group cannot be self-rescheduled.

  • Self-cancel the entire group and individual appointments in the group. The primary contact’s appointment can only be canceled if the entire group is canceled.

Yes, in addition to the group appointment icon, service providers will be able to see in the appointment details that their appointment is part of a group.

Clients who are blocked from online booking cannot be added to a group appointment online, either as the primary contact or as a guest in the group.

If a client who is blocked is added as the primary contact or as a guest in the group, the group appointment will not be booked, and the booking client will be prompted to contact the business instead.

We currently do not support adding group bookings to the waitlist.

You can apply offers to group bookings in the following ways:

• During online booking, the booking client can enter one offer code for the entire group. The offer will be applied to any corresponding checkouts, whether the appointments are checked out individually or all together.

• If you check out clients individually, you can apply any corresponding offers to each checkout.

• If you check out clients all together, the client assigned to the sale will be used to determine eligibility for offers that are limited to specific clients. By default, the primary contact will be the client assigned to the sale, but you can change the client during checkout as needed.

A group booking is a collection of multiple appointments. This means each appointment from a group booking can trigger any corresponding automated flows, and each appointment will be displayed in your reports as usual.