🌍 Overview
To ensure a superior online experience, when your customer selects a time slot, this time slot is reserved for 7 minutes by default for the customer to complete the booking process and confirm their booking.
As soon as they click on a time slot and click to continue with the booking flow, they will see a timer indicating how much time has left until the reservation expires:
If they do not complete the booking in those 7 minutes, the time slot is "released" so someone else can book it. The customer will be notified at this point that the time they selected is no longer reserved for them so they should try again:
⏰ Why 7 minutes by default?
In our research, we looked at the average time taken for a customer to make a booking via your booking tools. 7 minutes ensures that the customer has sufficient time to make their booking, while ensuring that an in-demand time slot isn't held for too long.
⚒️ How to change the time for which your customers bookings are reserved
You can change the duration for hold long you wish to hold a time slot in your Booking tools tab, under Customize your booking flow. The setting is labelled Time for which a booking time is reserved.
While doing so, bear in mind the steps on your booking flow. For example, if you require payment, your flow will take longer for the customer to complete, so it may be worthwhile giving them more time to do so.