Your assistant can show real open times in the chat and book them. Here is how to turn it on, connect your calendar, and send every booking where you need it.
Turn on bookings
Open your BotDesk dashboard, then Knowledge, then What your bot can do, then the Appointments card. One control sets everything.
Off: the assistant answers questions only.Take booking requests: the visitor sends a preferred day and time, and you confirm.Book real times: the assistant shows real open times as buttons in the chat and books the one the visitor picks.Before Book real times can be switched on, four things must be done:
Varies) and how it books: at an exact start time, in an arrival window, or as a request. BotDesk never guesses a length. A service with no length is taken as a request.If you arrive within a window instead of at an exact time, define your windows (for example 8 to 12) and how many jobs fit in each. These bookings stay pending until you confirm them, from the email or from the Bookings page.
Closed days, holidays and vacations are never offered, whatever else is set. Add them under Knowledge, then Business info, then Hours.
After a booking
Every booking sends you an email with all the details, Confirm and Cancel links, an .ics file, and Add to Google and Add to Outlook links.
They get a confirmation email with a Cancel or change link that uses the built-in calendar. You can also turn on a 24-hour reminder for customers and a morning email with the day's bookings.
Open Bookings in the left menu, under Leads. You get an upcoming list, a week view and a month view. You can Confirm, Cancel, Mark done, or mark a No-show. Use Time off to block hours.
Connect your calendar
In the Appointments card, find Calendar sync and click Add your calendar's private address. Paste a private iCal (ICS) link. BotDesk reads only the busy times, a start and an end, never the event titles, and won't offer those times. If a link can't be read, the assistant takes booking requests until it can, and the card says so.
This works with calendars that offer a private iCal / ICS link, such as Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple iCloud. Jobber, Square Appointments and Acuity: if your plan offers a calendar feed link, use that.
Settings.Settings for my calendars, choose the calendar.Integrate calendar.Secret address in iCal format.Add your calendar's private address in BotDesk.Keep this link private. Google's page says to click Reset if it gets out. Source: Google Calendar Help.
Settings, then Shared calendars.Publish a calendar, choose the calendar and how much detail to show. Can view when I'm busy is enough.Publish.Add your calendar's private address in BotDesk.Your company may block publishing. Source: Microsoft Support.
Share With, then choose Public Calendar.Public Calendar and click Copy.Add your calendar's private address in BotDesk.A public calendar can be seen by anyone who has the link, so don't post it anywhere. Sources: Apple Calendar on Mac and Apple iCloud.com.
Booking feed
In the same card, Your bookings feed is a private address that looks like https://botdesk.studio/cal/<secret>.ics. It lists the bookings made through BotDesk. Subscribe to it once and they appear in your calendar app.
Next to Other calendars, click +, then From URL. Paste the address and add it. Source: Google Calendar Help.
Open Calendar, click Add calendar, then Subscribe from web. Paste the address, click Import, then Save. Source: Microsoft Support.
Choose File, then New Calendar Subscription. Paste the address and click Subscribe. Source: Apple Calendar on Mac.
Be aware: Google can take several hours to refresh subscribed calendars, and Outlook can be slow too. You always get the email and see the booking in BotDesk right away. If the address ever gets out, click Make a new address in the card. The old one stops working.
Pro plan
If you already run bookings on Cal.com or Calendly, BotDesk can read that account's open times and create the booking there. These connections need the Pro plan.
Settings, then Security. Some accounts show it under Settings, then Developer, then API keys. Copy the key when it is shown.Connect Cal.com (Appointments card, or Integrations), paste the key into Your Cal.com API key and click Connect Cal.com.Cal.com sends its own confirmation emails. Source: Cal.com docs.
Integrations & apps, then API and webhooks.Personal access tokens, click Generate new token (Get a token now if it is your first). Name it, click Create Token, and copy it.Connect Calendly (Appointments card, or Integrations), paste the token into Your Calendly personal access token and click Connect Calendly.Booking inside the chat needs a paid Calendly plan (Standard or higher, per Calendly's API docs). On the free Calendly plan, the visitor confirms the chosen time on Calendly with one tap. Token source: Calendly developer docs.
One click
These connect with one click, with no key to copy. They are switching on one by one: in the Appointments card, under One-click connections, each shows a Connect button once it is on for your account, or Coming soon until then.
Book real times and finish the checklist. Your services and booking hours still come from BotDesk.One-click connections, open Google Calendar and click Connect Google Calendar.Continue.What it does: your assistant skips any time you are busy in Google Calendar, and every confirmed booking appears there with the customer's name, phone and email in the event. Limits: only your main (primary) Google calendar is read and written; BotDesk reads busy times only, never event titles. Google does not email your customer, because BotDesk already does. Deleting the event in Google does not cancel the booking, so cancel in Bookings (that removes the event too).
One-click connections, open Square Appointments and click Connect Square Appointments. Sign in to Square and allow the permissions it asks for.What it does: your assistant offers the open times Square shows for that service and books them in Square, adding the customer to your Square customers. Limits: one location and one service per assistant. Square does not let other apps book a service that has a no-show fee. The free Square Appointments plan works. Cancelling in BotDesk cancels in Square only while your Square cancellation window is open; otherwise cancel it in Square too. Connecting Square replaces a Cal.com or Calendly connection.
Book real times (or keep Take booking requests) in BotDesk.One-click connections, open Jobber, click Connect Jobber, sign in, and click Allow access.What it does: every new booking and booking request lands in Jobber as the client (found by email, or added) and a request, with the time, service, phone, email and answers in a note. Limits: Jobber does not share open times with other apps, so your open times come from BotDesk. The request is not put on your Jobber schedule: schedule the visit in Jobber. Cancelling in BotDesk does not change Jobber.
If one of these loses access (for example you removed BotDesk in Google, Square or Jobber), we email you once, your assistant takes booking requests until you click Reconnect, and nothing already booked changes.
Send bookings anywhere
Every booking also goes to your webhook from the Integrations tab. The events are booking.created, booking.confirmed, booking.cancelled and booking.rescheduled, signed the same way as leads. Slack and Discord get a readable message.
Use Webhooks by Zapier with Catch Hook, then Google Calendar with Create Detailed Event. Map the start and end to data.booking.start and data.booking.end.
In Zapier or Make, start with booking.created, then add Jobber with create request.
List bookings with GET https://botdesk.studio/api/v1/bookings, or fetch one with GET /api/v1/bookings/{id}. Use a secret key that starts with bd_live_. See the API docs.
Privacy
BotDesk reads busy times only, from the link you give it, and never event titles. The link is stored encrypted, and you can remove it any time. Read more in the privacy policy.
FAQ
The Free plan answers questions only. Starter takes booking requests: the visitor sends a preferred day and time and you confirm. Real open times that the assistant books in the chat need the Growth plan or higher. Cal.com and Calendly connections need Pro.
No. For a calendar link, BotDesk reads only the busy times (a start and an end) and never the event titles or descriptions. The link is stored encrypted, and you can remove it from the Appointments card any time.
The assistant switches to taking booking requests until the link can be read again, and the Appointments card tells you so. Paste a fresh link to fix it.
Google can take several hours to refresh a calendar you subscribe to from a web address. You always get the booking email and see the booking in BotDesk right away. For a faster calendar entry, use the Add to Google link in the owner email.
Yes, with one click, as each connection is switched on. Your Appointments card shows a Connect button for it, or Coming soon until then. Google Calendar (Growth plan and up) blocks your busy times and adds each confirmed booking to your main calendar. Square Appointments (Pro) books the open times Square shows. Jobber (Pro) receives every booking and booking request as a client and a request. Until then, add a calendar link, or send bookings to Jobber with Zapier or Make.
Anyone with that address can see your BotDesk bookings, so keep it private. In the Appointments card, click Make a new address. The new address works and the old one stops.
Get Started
Start free, turn on bookings, and your assistant works 24/7.
Start free, or try a paid plan for 7 days✓ Free plan: no card needed ✓ Paid plans from $29/mo: 7-day free trial, card at checkout, cancel anytime