The booking window is the set of rules that decides how late a customer can keep poking at your calendar on their own. Too tight and you wake up to a booking in 15 minutes that you didn't see coming. Too loose and you lose the customer who decides on the way to the wedding that they need a haircut.
BookHero splits this into three independent cutoffs, all in hours, all configurable in Settings, Booking, reschedule and cancel windows. This article walks through each one, shows what the customer sees when the window closes, and gives you sensible starting values per industry.
The three cutoffs, side by side
All three values work the same way: they are hours of minimum notice before the booking start time. Below that notice, the action is blocked for the customer. Each one covers a different moment in the life of a booking.
What changes between the customer and you
This is the bit that throws new owners off: all three windows apply only to the end customer. You, on the dashboard, always bypass them. It's intentional, because you're the one running the calendar of your own business.
- Customer, public page and email links: sees the limits in action. Inside the window, slots vanish, the link blocks, or a 'contact the business' message appears.
- You, on the dashboard: book for 5 minutes from now, cancel 30 seconds before the start, reschedule into the next free block. No questions asked.
- Team members (manager, employee): share the same override on the internal calendar. The windows never apply to any BookHero login.
Short cutoff vs long cutoff: what you gain and what you lose
There is no universally right value. It depends on how easy it is for you to react to a last-minute booking and how costly an empty slot is when you can't refill it.
| Criterion | Short cutoff (1h) | Long cutoff (24h) |
|---|---|---|
| Flexibility for the customer | Customer decides last minute, books on the way | Has to plan the day before |
| Predictability for you | Risk of being caught off guard, little prep time | You know a day in advance what's coming |
| Last-minute cancellations | Customer cancels and the slot sits empty with no chance of refill | You have hours to find a replacement or block it off |
| Booking volume | More bookings, especially in 'impulse' industries | Fewer bookings but more of them actually happen |
| Type of customer attracted | Spontaneous, decides on the spot, more variable | Planner, regular, more reliable |
As a rule, 'impulse' industries (barber, quick manicure, blow-dry) benefit from short cutoffs because half of customers decide on the way. 'Prepared session' industries (physio, tattoo, hair colour) prefer long cutoffs because they need to prep materials or a cabin in advance.
How to configure, step by step
Open Settings in the side menu
From the dashboard, click Settings. Look for the card titled 'Booking, reschedule and cancel windows'. It sits alongside the other business-wide policies.
Pick the value for 'Book'
Each cutoff has chips with presets: No limit, 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours. Tap the chip you want. The sentence under the label updates to match exactly what the customer will see.
Repeat for 'Reschedule' and 'Cancel'
The three values are independent. As a rule, keep 'Cancel' equal to or greater than 'Reschedule', and 'Reschedule' equal to or greater than 'Book'. Otherwise you end up in odd places, like booking allowed at 1h notice but no cancellation allowed afterwards.
Save the changes
The 'Save' button only appears when you change a chip. Click it to commit. A 'Saved' confirmation shows up below the card. Changes are live on the public page immediately.
Verify on the public link
Open your public page in an incognito window (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N) and try to book for a slot a few hours out. Slots inside the cutoff should stop appearing as available. If they still appear, refresh: it may be a stale cache.
Current limitations and what's coming
The current version covers the three cutoffs in hours. A few related features aren't there yet, and it's only fair to flag them before you go hunting.
- There's no automatic no-show policy: cancelling outside the window doesn't charge anything to the customer.
- No deposits or upfront payments to lock in the booking. Everything today is informational only.
- No time-of-day blackouts (for example, 'no new bookings after 6pm'). For those, use the employee schedule or a manual block on the calendar.
- Cutoffs are per business, not per service. If you want a different window for colour vs cuts, you'll have to pick the value of the more demanding service for now.
Can the customer somehow still see slots inside the window?
No. The public page filters out slots before rendering them: anything inside the minimum notice no longer shows as available. The grid starts from the first valid slot. Even a tampered request gets refused on the server with the 'past_start' error.
Can I turn one of the three cutoffs off entirely?
Yes. Pick 'No limit' on the chip and the customer is free to book, reschedule or cancel right up to the start time. It makes sense for very spontaneous barber shops, or for new businesses that want zero friction while ramping up.
Do the three values have to be linked?
Not technically, but it makes sense to keep a logical scale. As a rule, 'Cancel' should be greater than or equal to 'Reschedule', and 'Reschedule' greater than or equal to 'Book'. Otherwise a customer who booked at 8am can't cancel at 9am, which feels odd.
If I change the cutoff today, what happens to existing bookings?
Existing bookings stay as they are. The new cutoff only affects future actions: new attempts to book, reschedule or cancel start using the updated value. There's no retroactive effect.
What if a customer calls asking to cancel outside the window?
You cancel it yourself from the dashboard. Open the booking on the calendar and use the internal cancel button, which always ignores the cutoff. The customer gets the cancellation email as usual. See the guide to reschedule and cancel bookings.