How to Configure Booking and Appointment Preferences in SpaSphere
Set up deposits, cancellation policies, time slots, tipping, and online booking rules for your spa.
9 min read
SpaSphere's appointment settings give you granular control over how clients book, pay, and cancel appointments on your public booking site. From requiring deposits to setting cancellation windows, these preferences protect your revenue while keeping the booking experience smooth for your clients.
Why This Matters for Your Spa
No-shows and last-minute cancellations cost the average spa $5,000-$15,000 per year. Requiring even a small deposit reduces no-shows by 40-60% because clients have financial skin in the game. A clear cancellation policy sets expectations upfront and reduces disputes. Meanwhile, features like auto-confirm save your front desk 5-10 minutes per booking by eliminating manual approval steps, and the "Make Me Look Busy" feature creates natural urgency that can increase booking conversion by 10-15%. Every setting on this page is a lever that directly affects your revenue, client satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
Key Capabilities
- Enable or disable online booking for your public site
- Auto-confirm bookings or require manual approval
- Require deposits with configurable percentage (or card-on-file only)
- Enable full advance payment for booked services
- Set cancellation policy windows (in hours)
- Configure appointment lead time and maximum advance booking
- Choose time slot intervals (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, or 90 minutes)
- Allow or disable client tipping during payment
- Activate "Make Me Look Busy" to hide a percentage of available slots
- Enable privacy-safe notifications that omit service and provider details from emails
Setting Up Your Booking Preferences
Navigate to Appointment settings
From the admin dashboard, click Settings in the sidebar, then select Appointments. The page is organized into four sections: scheduling rules at the top, appointment preferences, public booking site settings, and privacy controls.
Configure scheduling rules
Set three core timing rules at the top of the page:
- Cancellation policy (hours): The minimum number of hours before an appointment that a client can cancel without penalty. For example, setting this to 24 means clients must cancel at least 24 hours in advance.
- Appointment lead time (hours): How many hours in advance an appointment can be booked. A lead time of 2 hours means clients cannot book a same-day appointment less than 2 hours from now.
- Maximum advance booking (days): The furthest into the future a client can book. Setting this to 60 means clients see availability up to 60 days ahead.
Choose your time slot interval
Under Appointment preferences, select the Time slot interval that matches your service structure. Options include every 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, or 90 minutes. This controls how often appointment start times appear on your booking page. For example, a 15-minute interval shows slots at 9:00, 9:15, 9:30, and so on.
Enable auto-confirm (optional)
Toggle Auto confirm bookings on if you want new bookings to be confirmed immediately without manual review. When disabled, new bookings arrive with a "Pending" status and require you or a team member to confirm them. Auto-confirm is recommended for most spas as it provides a smoother client experience and reduces administrative overhead.
Configure online booking and deposit settings
Under Public booking site settings, toggle the switches for:
- Allow online booking: Master switch for your public booking page. Turning this off disables all client-facing booking.
- Require deposit: When enabled, clients must provide payment to secure their booking. Set the Deposit percentage to the portion of the service cost required (e.g., 50 for a 50% deposit). Set it to 0 to capture a card on file without charging.
- Enable full payment: Allows clients to pay the full service cost at the time of booking.
- Allow tipping: Lets clients add a tip during the payment flow.
Activate Make Me Look Busy (optional)
Toggle Make me look busy to create a sense of demand by hiding a percentage of your available time slots from the public booking page. Choose the percentage to hide (10% to 100%) from the dropdown. Hidden slots are not truly blocked -- they remain available in your admin calendar -- but clients cannot see or select them online.
Configure privacy settings
Under the Privacy section, toggle Privacy-safe notifications to remove service names, provider names, and appointment details from emails sent to clients. This is useful for med spas or practices where clients may want discretion about the treatments they receive.
Save your changes
Click Save Changes to apply your preferences. Changes take effect immediately on your public booking site and in the admin booking flow.
Start with a deposit to protect your calendar
Even a 20% deposit dramatically reduces no-shows. Clients who have paid something are far more likely to show up or properly cancel. If you are hesitant to charge upfront, start with the deposit percentage set to 0 -- this captures a card on file without charging, giving you the ability to charge a cancellation fee later if needed. This single setting can recover thousands of dollars per year in otherwise lost appointments.
Understanding the Make Me Look Busy Feature
The "Make Me Look Busy" feature is a booking psychology tool. When enabled, it randomly hides a configurable percentage of your available slots from your public booking page. The effect:
- Clients see fewer open slots, which creates natural urgency and perceived demand
- Your actual availability is unchanged in the admin calendar
- Staff can still book into hidden slots when scheduling over the phone or in person
- Hidden slots rotate randomly, so no specific time is permanently blocked
Use Make Me Look Busy carefully
Hiding too many slots (70%+) may frustrate clients who cannot find convenient times and cause them to book elsewhere. Start at 10-20% and monitor your booking conversion rate. If you notice clients calling to ask about availability or abandoning the booking page, reduce the percentage. The goal is to create subtle urgency without making it genuinely difficult to book.
Booking Terms and Policies
Your booking terms and cancellation policies are managed through your Website Settings rather than the Appointments page. A link at the top of the Appointments settings page takes you directly to the Website section where you can write and publish your policies. These terms are displayed to clients during the booking flow on your public site.
Recommended Settings by Spa Type
| Setting | Day Spa | Med Spa | Solo Esthetician |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancellation Policy | 24 hours | 48 hours | 24 hours |
| Appointment Lead Time | 2 hours | 4 hours | 1 hour |
| Maximum Advance Booking | 60 days | 90 days | 30 days |
| Time Slot Interval | 15 minutes | 30 minutes | 15 minutes |
| Deposit | 20-50% | 50% | 50% or full |
| Auto-Confirm | Yes | No (review first) | Yes |
| Make Me Look Busy | 10-20% | Off | 10% |
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Documentation
Ready to try this in your spa?
$1 for 30 days. No contracts. We migrate everything for you.