Direct booking

A direct booking runs without you. The client picks a time from your genuine availability, does whatever you require, and the session is booked.

Use it for anything predictable: portrait sessions, headshots, standard packages, consultations.

What happens

1. The client opens the service and sees your real available times under Select a date and time.
2. They pick one. CoreHue offers to hold it for 30 minutes while they finish.
3. They fill in Your details, then whatever else you've required: answer your questions, sign your contract.
4. If you take payment, they reach the Review step and pay. If you don't, they press Confirm booking on the last step they do reach.
5. They land on their booking page, and it's in your calendar.

The times shown come from your availability and your existing bookings. Your Google Calendar counts too, once you connect it. A slot you're busy in never appears.

What you can require

Anything you require has to be done before the booking is confirmed:

• Payment, in full or as a deposit
• A signed contract
• A completed questionnaire

The client does all of it inside the booking flow. That's the point of direct booking: what arrives is finished.

There's no approval step to switch on. If you want the final say on who books you, use inquiry mode instead.

Payment happens in the flow

If the service collects payment, the last step before the booking page is Review. The button there reads Pay deposit or Full payment rather than Confirm booking. Pressing it opens a payment sheet headed Pay followed by the amount. The sheet lists whatever methods you offer: your card processor, or your own bank transfer instructions.

The booking is created when they choose a method and go through to pay, not when the sheet opens. Someone who opens the sheet and walks away leaves no booking behind. The time they picked goes back on your page once the hold runs out.

If the service collects nothing, there's no Review step at all. Confirm booking sits on the last step they do reach.

See Pricing and deposits and Unpaid bookings.

The 30-minute hold

As soon as they choose a time and continue, CoreHue offers to hold it. The heading reads We'll hold this time for you, and the day and time they picked "will be reserved for you for 30 minutes while you complete the required steps". Pressing Continue starts the countdown, shown as a Slot held pill in the corner. Nothing is held until they press it.

If it runs out, a dialog headed Your hold has expired tells them "The time slot you selected is no longer reserved. Choose a new one to continue." It sends them back to pick again. If they change their mind and pick a different time, the old one is released straight away.

Contracts signed at booking

If a service has a contract attached, the client signs it as part of booking. Because you aren't there, CoreHue applies your saved signature the moment they sign, so the contract completes immediately rather than sitting half-signed.

That's why a service contract can't be required until you've saved a signature. Step 3 Contract in the editor shows Signature needed with a Set signature link beside it, and Signature added once you've saved one.

This is how contracts attached to any booking service behave, direct bookings and mini sessions alike. It's different from proposals, which stop at signed and wait for you to counter-sign. See Auto-filled details and blanks for how contract wording fills itself in.

Protecting your time

Three settings stop direct booking becoming a nuisance, and they're covered in Availability:

• Minimum notice, so nobody books you for an hour from now. Defaults to 24 hours.
• Booking gap, so sessions don't run back to back with no travel time. Defaults to No gap.
• Booking window, so nobody books you fourteen months out. Defaults to 365 days.

The gap is the one most people want to change.

Its own schedule

A service can run on its own hours rather than your shared availability, which is how you keep, say, Tuesday mornings for headshots only. See Per-service availability.

Longer bookings

Clients can book several consecutive slots if you allow it, so one service covers both a one-hour and a three-hour session. See Longer sessions.