How do I use the booking tool in Aida AI Website Builder?

The booking tool in Aida AI Website Builder lets customers book your services directly through your website. You can manage appointments, add services, block unavailable times and customise your booking settings in one place.

To accept bookings, you need the Booking or Commerce plan. You can get started by describing your business and the services you want to offer in the Aida chat. Aida will set up the booking tool and create example services for you. You can then click the calendar icon in the left-hand navigation bar of the editor to manage your appointments, services and booking settings.

• Who can use the booking tool?
• Set up your Booking tool with Aida
• Manage your booking calendar
• Create and manage services
• Customise your booking settings
• Upcoming booking features

Who can use the booking tool?

The booking tool is available with the Booking and Commerce plans in Aida AI Website Builder.

• Booking plan: You can offer services that customers can book directly through your website.
• Commerce plan: You can accept bookings and sell products through an online shop.

If you have the Portfolio plan and want to start accepting bookings, you'll need to upgrade to the Booking or Commerce plan. You can compare the available plans in our Aida plan overview to find the one that best suits your needs.

Set up your Booking tool with Aida

You can ask Aida in the chat to set up the Booking tool for your business. Describe the services you offer, and Aida will set up the booking tool with example services that suit your business.

For example, if you run a hair salon, you can ask Aida to add a booking system for haircuts and styling appointments.

Aida can create example services with names, descriptions and durations. You can then replace or adjust these services to match what your business offers.

To open the Booking tool, click the calendar icon in the navigation bar on the left side of the Aida AI Website Builder editor.

Here, you'll find three main sections:

• Calendar: View and manage appointments and block unavailable times.
• Services: Add, edit and delete the services you offer.
• Settings: Manage booking rules, customer emails, company details and booking hours.

Manage your booking calendar

The booking calendar gives you an overview of your appointments and available times. You can create appointments manually, update existing bookings and block times when you're unavailable.

Switch between calendar views

At the top of the calendar, you can choose how to display your bookings:

• List: View appointments in a list.
• Day: See appointments for one day.
• 3-day: View three days at once.
• Week: See your appointments across the week.

Use the arrows to move between dates or click Today to return to the current date.

Create an appointment manually

You can add an appointment directly to your calendar, for example, when a customer books by phone or in person.

1. Open Bookings > Calendar.
2. Click the date and time in the calendar where you want to create an appointment.
3. The New Appointment tab will open.
4. Select an existing customer from the Customer dropdown.
5. Choose a Service. If needed, click Add service to include another service.
6. Adjust the appointment's start and end times.
7. Optionally, add an internal note or attachment.
8. Click Create Appointment.

The appointment will appear in your booking calendar.

You can also use Repeat Appointment to set up recurring appointments.

Create a new customer

If the customer isn't in your list yet, you can add them while creating an appointment.

1. In the New Appointment panel, click Create new customer.
2. Enter the customer's first name, last name, email address and phone number.
3. Click Create Customer.
4. Continue creating the appointment.

Send a message to your customer

When creating an appointment, you can send a notification to your customer via email.

1. Select a customer in the New Appointment panel.
2. Enable Notify Customer.
3. Enter your message in the Message to customer field.
4. Complete the appointment details and click Create Appointment.

Edit or delete an appointment

You can update an existing appointment directly from the calendar.

1. Click the appointment you want to change.
2. Update the customer, service, date, time or other appointment details as needed.
3. Click Update to save your changes.

To remove a past appointment, click Delete. For confirmed future appointments, click Cancel Appointment and use the Notify Customer toggle if you want to send a cancellation email.

To change an appointment's colour in your calendar, click the colour icon at the top of the appointment panel.

Block unavailable times

Use a time blocker to prevent bookings during periods when you're unavailable, such as breaks, holidays or personal appointments.

1. Open Bookings > Calendar.
2. Click the date and time you want to block.
3. Select the Time Blocker tab.
4. Choose a reason, such as Personal appointment.
5. Set the start and end dates and times.
6. If needed, select All day or Repeat Time Blocker.
7. Click Create.

The blocked period will appear in your calendar as unavailable time.

Create and manage services

Services are the appointments customers can book through your website, such as haircuts, consultations or treatments.

Aida may already have created example services based on your business description. You can customise these services or add your own.

Add a service

1. Open Bookings > Services.
2. Click + Add service in the top-right corner.
3. Use the Visible on website toggle to show or hide the service on your website.
4. Enter a name and description for your service.
5. Set the price and duration.
6. If needed, choose a Preparation Time and Post-processing Time.
7. Save your service.
    

Edit or delete a service

1. Open Bookings > Services.
2. Find the service you want to change.
3. Click the three dots next to the service.
4. Select Edit to change its details or Delete to remove it.
   
5. If you're editing the service, make your changes and click Save. 
   
   If you're deleting the service, confirm the deletion in the pop-up window.

Tip: You can also ask Aida in the chat to create or update services for you. Keep in mind that using Aida for these changes counts towards your AI usage.

Customise your booking settings

You can control how customers book appointments, which emails they receive and when your business is available for bookings.

Open Bookings > Settings to access Booking settings, Email settings and Company settings.

Booking settings

Go to Settings > Booking settings to manage how customers can book your services.

You can adjust the following options:

• Booking confirmation: Activate Automatically confirm bookings to confirm bookings immediately and send a confirmation email. If deactivated, new bookings are requests that you confirm manually from your calendar.
• Time intervals: Choose how frequently customers can select a booking time slot.
• Booking window: Decide how far in advance customers can book and how close to an appointment's start time new bookings are accepted.
• Cancellation deadline: Set how late customers can cancel their bookings.
• Services per appointment: Choose how many services customers can book in one appointment.
• Number of people: Enable Ask for number of people during booking and enter the group sizes you accept.
• Automatic price adjustment: Activate Adjust price automatically to calculate the total based on the number of people.

Click Save when you've finished making changes.

Email settings

Go to Settings > Email settings to customise the emails customers receive about their bookings.

You can:

• Change the sender name: Choose the name customers see as the sender of your booking emails.
• Add a booking email message: Activate Add a message to booking confirmations and enter your message in the Notice Text field.

For example, you can include parking information, directions or instructions customers should know before arriving.

Click Save to apply your changes.

Company settings

Go to Settings > Company settings to manage your business information and booking hours.

Basic information

You can update:

• Company name
• Address, city and postcode
• Country and phone number
• Time zone
• Language
• Currency
   

Booking hours

Set the days and times when customers can book your services.

1. Scroll down to Booking hours.
2. Use the toggle next to each day to make it available or unavailable for bookings.
3. Click the pencil icon to edit the hours for a day.
4. Set the start and end times. You can add multiple time periods to include breaks during the day.
5. To use the same hours on other days, click Apply times to other days, select the days and click Apply.
6. Click Save when finished.

For example, you can make your business available from 09:00 to 12:00 and again from 13:00 to 18:00, leaving a break between the two periods.

Upcoming booking features

We're continuously improving the booking tool in Aida AI Website Builder to support more types of businesses and bookings.

Currently, you can offer bookable services, such as haircuts, consultations and treatments, and manage individual appointments in your calendar.

Current limitations:

• The booking tool supports one staff member.
• Only private appointments for one or more participants are supported. Group classes and public events where participants can book individually aren't available yet.
• You can't connect external calendars.

We're working on expanding the booking tool to support more booking options, including group events such as workshops, multiple staff members and calendar integrations.

Note: These features are planned but aren't available yet. Our plans and priorities may change, and we can't guarantee a specific release date.

Related articles:

• FAQ: Aida AI Website Builder
• How to use Aida AI Website Builder