Home services: arrival time windows with online booking

In home services, you can't promise 10:00 sharp when the job before might run over and traffic changes. An arrival window, 8:00 to 10:00 or morning or afternoon, is honest for you and lets the client plan their day. With Book, clients choose an arrival window on your own booking page, and each window takes as many jobs as you can handle.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description, all shown on your public page. Each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own capacity. Make each slot the window, and say in the description that the time is an arrival window, not the length of the job.

Windows and prices are examples: set your own.

A two-hour morning window fits one job; a long afternoon window may fit two or three short ones. Set the places to match. Each online booking takes one place, and when the window is full it leaves your page. Slots repeat weekly on the weekdays you choose until an end date.

Create services by area, such as north side on Tuesdays and town centre on Thursdays, so your rounds stay tight. Leave gaps between windows for travel, and keep one window a day free for urgent work you take by phone.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that reaches you in the new booking email and appears in the client's calendar file. Ask for the address, access details and a short description of the job. Don't ask for door codes or key locations in the note: get those by phone.

The booking includes the client's phone number. If you'll miss the window, call or text before it ends. Clients can't move or cancel online: they contact you, and you move the booking from your list. Book doesn't email clients about changes, so tell them yourself. Your bookings sync with Google, iPhone or Mac calendars, so the day's route sits in your phone.

Book doesn't plan routes, send reminders or on-the-way messages, take payments or issue invoices. One booking page per business, no staff field: with several technicians, create services per technician. See the guide on keys and access when clients are out. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.