With booking policies, you can control when clients can book, cancel, or reschedule their sessions. You can set rules for how far in advance bookings must be made and how close to the session clients can make changes. For some services, you can allow group bookings and late bookings. You can also ask clients to add payment details and charge fees for cancellations and no-shows. Customize different policies for different services to give flexibility to both clients and staff.
Video tutorial
Check out this video tutorial or scroll down to read the full article.
Adding new policies
You can add new policies at any time and customize them to suit your needs. Offer different booking policies for each of your services or connect several services to the same policy. This is a great way to ensure you stay as fully booked as possible and that your staff have enough time to prepare everything.
Show me examples of new booking policies
Below are a few examples of different types of policies you could create depending on the preparation needed, the service type or other requirements:
- Offer services that need a lot of preparation beforehand?
- Allow bookings up to 4 weeks in advance.
- Don't accept bookings within 48 hours of the service start time.
- Don't allow cancellation or rescheduling less than 48 hours before the start time.
- Have certain classes that are in high demand?
- Set a stricter cancellation policy where clients can only cancel up to 24 hours before the start time.
- State that there are no refunds for last-minute cancellations (less than 24 hours before start time) in your policy description.
- Enable a waitlist for the class to ensure it is always fully booked even when there are cancellations.
- Offer online and in-person services?
- Create an in-person service policy that allows bookings no later than 24 hours before the start time, and cancellations up to 2 hours before the start time.
- Create a more flexible online service policy that allows bookings up to 2 hours before start time and cancellations up to 15 minutes beforehand.
- Need different policies for different service types?
- Create one policy for your courses which allows clients to cancel up to 1 week in advance.
- Create a second policy for your classes which allows clients to cancel up to 4 hours in advance.
- Create another policy for your appointments which allows clients to cancel up to 30 minutes in advance.
To add a new policy:
- Go to Booking Settings in your site's dashboard.
- Scroll down and click Booking policies.
- Click + Add a New Policy.
- Customize your policy:
Add your policy details:
- Policy name: Enter a name for the policy. This is only visible to you.
- Policy description: Briefly describe your cancellation and rescheduling policies or any other information clients need to know. Clients see this when they book a service.
Note: A policy description is optional unless you have enabled cancellation and no-show fees, then it is required.
Select the checkboxes and choose the timeframe next to the relevant Client booking rules:
- Allow clients to cancel their own bookings online: Select the checkbox to allow clients (site members / all site visitors) to cancel their booked sessions. Define how much time before a session clients can cancel their booking by choosing one of the existing options from the drop-down or create your own custom timeframe.
- Allow clients to reschedule their own bookings online: Select the checkbox to allow clients (site members / all site visitors) to reschedule their booked sessions. Define how much time before a session clients can reschedule their booking by choosing one of the existing options from the drop-down or create your own custom rescheduling timeframe.
- Limit early bookings: Select how long before a session a client is able to book from the Limit early bookings drop-down. You can also select Custom to choose a specific timeframe (e.g., 1 week) before which clients can't make a booking.
- Limit late bookings: Set how close to a session clients can book, for example, "24 hours before start time". Choose an existing option from the Limit late bookings drop-down. You can also click Custom to choose a specific timeframe after which clients can no longer book a session.
Automatic staff assignment
Set how staff are chosen for appointments when clients don’t select a specific staff member.
- Assign staff randomly: Assign any available staff without a specific order.
- Assign staff by priority: Assign staff based on the priority you set for each staff member to get booked.
Tip: To manage how staff are selected for bookings, go to Client Booking Flow and select
Secure your bookings by collecting payment details for each reservation, even if no payment is needed upfront. You can also charge fees when clients cancel late or don’t show up to their session.
Require payment details or enable cancellation fees:
- Select the Require card on file for online booking checkbox to request payment information for each booking, even if there's nothing to pay online.
- Select the Charge cancellation and no-show fees checkbox to enable cancellation and no-show fees.
Note: When you enable cancellation fees, you automatically ask clients to provide their payment details at checkout. Read more about saving and charging clients' credit cards. 
Let clients join a waitlist for fully booked classes. When a spot opens up, people on the waitlist get the chance to join. Waitlists only apply to classes. Learn more about
appointment waitlists.
Note: Clients will be able to join the waitlist only through a Wix members app. If booking from your website, they'll be prompted to download the app.
To set up a waitlist:
- Select the Allow clients to join a waitlist for fully booked classes checkbox.
- Set up your waitlist options:
- Maximum waitlist capacity: Enter how many clients can join the list.
- An open spot will be held for: Choose how long an open spot is held from the drop-down.
Set the Maximum number of participants allowed per booking under Group bookings to choose how many people can join with a single reservation.
Note: Group bookings apply to classes and courses.
Book a course after start date
Select the Book a course after start date checkbox to allow clients to join a course after it has started. Clients who join a course after it has started still pay the full amount for the course.
Tip: If you want to allow clients to book after the course has started, make sure you don't limit late bookings (see step 5 above).
Managing connected services
You can move or connect services to different policies at any time. This is great for when you notice a spike in demand for particular services and need a more restrictive policy to manage the number of bookings.
To manage connected services:
- Go to Booking Settings in your site's dashboard.
- Click Booking Policies.
- Click the More Actions icon
next to the relevant policy. - Click Manage connected services.
- Select the checkbox next to each service you want to connect to the policy.
- Click Save.
Setting your default policy
Choose which of your policies you want to automatically apply to all your services. This is useful when you are adding new services as your business grows. You can then link services to more customized policies whenever you need.
To set your default policy:
- Go to Booking Settings in your site's dashboard.
- Click Booking Policies.
- Click the More Actions icon next to the relevant policy.
- Click Set as default.
Deleting policies
As your business grows, and your needs change, you may want to delete some of your old booking policies.
You can delete policies at any time, but make sure you choose your default policy before deleting any irrelevant policies. When you delete a policy, all connected services move to your default policy. You must have at least one booking policy at all times.
To delete a booking policy:
- Go to Booking Settings in your site's dashboard.
- Click Booking Policies.
- Click the More Actions icon next to the relevant policy.
- Click Delete.
- Click Delete to confirm.
FAQs
Click a question below to learn more.
Can I create new policies while I'm adding a new service to my site?
Yes, you can create a new policy in the Booking preferences section of the service creation form.
To create a new policy while adding a new service:
- Go to Booking Services in your site's dashboard.
- Click + Add a New Service in the top right.
- Choose the service type and fill out all the relevant details, including price, staff member, location, and more.
- Scroll down to Booking preferences.
- Click the drop-down under Booking policy.
- Click + Add New policy. Then follow these steps to finish creating the new policy.
Can I edit an existing policy?
Yes, you can update your booking policies at any time. Click the
More Actions icon
next to the relevant policy and then click edit.
Can I see an example of a booking policy with multiple rules and how it works?
You can combine Booking rules in many different ways to ensure your clients and staff have the best experience possible.
Let's look at an example:
- You limit the booking window to 1 week in advance but not less than 24 hours before the session. This allows your staff enough time to prepare and allocate time and resources where needed.
- You allow clients to cancel up to 12 hours before the start time. This leaves enough time for your staff to stop preparing for the session, saving time and resources.
- You allow rescheduling up to 24 hours before the start time. This gives your clients more flexibility with their scheduling. It also gives your staff enough notice before a session time changes.
- You add a note to your policy description so your clients know exactly what to expect when they go to cancel or reschedule.
If a client tries to book 6 weeks in advance, they see a message explaining when they can book the session.
Can I add checkout-specific policies to a Wix Bookings site?
