Does Square Appointments offer double booking?

[BourbonBrunette]

I'm a hairstylist and regularly 'power' or 'double' book my clients during haircolor services to maximize my schedule and earnings.  For example, I schedule my highlight & haircut service at 3 hours:  this gives me an hour to highlight, one hour for the client to process, and the last hour for the cut and blowdry.  During that hour of processing time, I schedule another client for a color and/or cut service.  Is this something that can be done with Square Appointments?  So far, it looks like if a client books me for a highlight & cut at noon, I'd be unavailible for any other bookings until 3pm...  I need to show availibity for a 1pm appt.

[#2]

Hi there @jjohnstone 👋

We introduced the processing time feature last year, which enables your clients to book appointments during your down time.

You can learn more about how this works here, but be sure to let me know if this isn't what you were looking for!

P.S. Welcome to the Seller Community!

[#3]

Kinda tricky.

The service duration + the block time for the service has to be less than the processing time. It gets complicated if both services have processing time. It has to puzzle together perfectly in order to work. 

It could also be be the calendar settings for when times can be booked. Typically we suggest setting the processing time to  According to service duration within Appts Dashboard > Settings > Calendar & Booing > Appointments are scheduled. 

@Hannahchristine

[hairbycoreyd]

@ashc I saw that feature when I was setting my account, and although that’s great for clean up time after an appointment, I’m interested in more of a spacer, that would leave that time open for a different client to book in. Like the CosmoProf software that has “duration, processing, and finish”. 

[ashc]

@hairbycoreyd Ahh okay I see. I misread your previous post I think.

It looks like a lot of other sellers are asking for this here too so I'll be sure to pass it up to our Appointments team again!

Thanks for taking the time to leave your feedback and suggestions on what we can improve. 

[ericadoesbrows]

I adjusted my set business hours, yet when I check the “Book” button on my Instagram, it shows the wrong default hours so it’s not carrying over. I then go back into Square Appointments app and it will sometimes reset, booting out all of my specifications. I’ve tried logging in and out of both apps, as well as re-linking the Book feature to Instagram but nothing is working. Help!

[nika]

Hi there @ericadoesbrows! I moved your post to this thread so you can check out Helen's answer above. Are those the steps that you're going through to adjust and save your business hours?

[carl5280]

I would like to second this request. This is the only thing holding us up from migrating to Square. We have 3 shops (2 salons + 1 barbershop) with 26 chairs, and it's just wasted opportunity for Square not to implement such a simple request that most salon/colorist users would appreciate. 

[carl5280]

Just adding another voice to this request. As @hairbycoreyd said, it would be helpful to have this feature. 

When I was reading your promotional material, I got the impression that you already had processing time and "wrapping" as a concept figured out. As indicated in this webpage's copy: https://squareup.com/us/en/townsquare/effective-salon-scheduling-strategy You hinted that there is the ability to manage processing times AUTOMATICALLY. I did feel cheated by this article, because upon further research, it involves either workarounds to be able to use this feature on Square Appointments, which totally defeats the original purpose of square and square appointments which is to take the burden away from the users using your product. Now in order for us in the industry to work the way we want to efficiently work, you are throwing us hurdles instead of real solutions that matter. 

If your team doesn't realize the importance of this feature especially in the colorist/salon world, you are doing these potential customers a HUGE disservice. 

It's been 3 years and 2 months since the earliest mention of this request. @Kelly @ashc  We have been in the salon industry for only 3 years, far shorter than anyone that has commented before us, but one thing we've noticed is that all these cobbled solutions hobble these creative folks from doing their craft. If you just listen to what we need and just be responsive, I assure you that you'd attract a new wave of customers. 

[Helen]

@carl5280 I'm very sorry that this feature isn't available yet and that the fact isn't made clear in the post you shared - thank you for flagging this. I'll escalate this to the right team here. 

As soon as we have any news to share we'll change the status of this post so you are notified. We definitely want you to be able to focus on your business and your customers and not on workarounds. I really appreciate your feedback here. 

[Sherilynh]

Does anyone have a good alternative system to use for double booking that is similar to and user friendly like Square? So bummed that this hasn't been resolved in the 3 years since this question has been asked 😞

[isabelle]

Hey @Sherilynh!

Thanks for resurfacing this. 

I checked with our Appointments Team and it looks like this feature is definitely in the works. Although we still don't have a timeline, it's a priority as we know a lot of our sellers have mentioned it. Please keep an eye on this thread for updates. Thank you for your patience! 

[Carriemcgeehon]

Would love love love this as a feature too!! 🙌🏻