One of my biggest scheduling struggles is unnecessary gaps between appointments. As a hairstylist, time is money—I’m paid by appointment, so even small 15–30 minute gaps throughout my day can add up to a lot of unusable, unpaid time.
I would love to see a smart/no-gap online booking option that prioritizes filling existing gaps and keeps appointments as condensed as possible based on the service being booked.
For example, if my first appointment ends at 11:00 and someone books a service for 11:15, I’m left with a 15-minute gap. I then find myself having to text clients asking if they can move their appointment up 15 minutes just so I can keep more time open later in my schedule for another service. I would love for the booking system to do this automatically by only offering 11:00 when that is the most efficient available start time.
This becomes even more important with longer services. If I have a 4-hour opening in between clients from 12–4 and someone wants to book a 3-hour service, offering 12–3 or 1–4 preserves a full usable hour. If they book 12:45–3:45, I’m left with 45 minutes before and 15 minutes after—technically an hour of availability, but split into pieces I can’t use for another 1-hour service.
I know Square already allows us to choose booking increments, but I don’t want to eliminate 15-minute increments completely because sometimes a 15-minute increment does allow a service to perfectly fill an opening. I’d love for the available times to be smart based on the service duration and existing schedule, rather than globally limiting start times.
Essentially: fill existing gaps first, keep appointments back-to-back when possible, and avoid creating unnecessary gaps.
I’m tired of having to manually text clients asking them to move up or back by 15–30 minutes to condense my schedule when the booking system could potentially prevent those gaps in the first place.
For hairstylists and other appointment-based businesses, our available time is our inventory. I’ve seen similar functionality on other booking platforms and would LOVE to see Square consider implementing this!
