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Take bookings

Publish your availability and let people book a one to one session: hours, buffers, notice, limits, and paid sessions.

8 min readUpdated
  • booking
  • calls
  • scheduling

Booking is part of Events & Booking, and it is on every plan. You define one or more session types, each with its own length, price and link, and your public booking page does the rest.

  1. Add a session type

    A free 15 minute intro call is a good first one. Name it the way somebody choosing would name it, not the way you would.

  2. Set your hours

    Per day, with a timezone. Copy one day across the weekdays rather than typing five times, and add one-off dates for the days you are away, busy for part of the day, or keeping different hours. This is your default week, and every session type follows it unless you give that type its own.

  3. Set the guard rails

    Buffers before and after, the least notice you will accept, how far ahead people can book, and the most you will take per day and per week. These are what stop a booking page eating your life.

  4. Say where you meet

    Your own link, or a fresh Google Meet link generated for every booking if you have connected Google.

  5. Publish and share the link

    Each type has its own address, and there is an embed code if you would rather run it inside your own website.

Give one session type its own hours

Every session type follows your default week above, unless you switch on its own hours in that type's editor. Use this for something like intro calls on weekday mornings and VIP sessions on Wednesday evenings only, each on a different schedule from the rest.

Your days off and anything already on your calendar still apply no matter what. A one-off date you set narrows a type's own hours on a day you normally work, and adds to them on a day you normally have off.

Days off, busy times and one-off hours

Under Days off, busy times and one-off hours you pick a date and what happens that day: Closed all day, Different hours, or Busy for part of the day. Busy is for the afternoon you have a dentist appointment: mark just the times you are busy, and every session type keeps the rest of its usual hours that day. Your booking page, reschedules and paid bookings all respect it.

Copy a session type

Use Duplicate on a session type to start a variation without redoing the setup. Drry asks for a name for the copy, and the copy's link is made from that name and never changes afterwards. The copy keeps its settings except its intake form, it starts Paused, and it gets its own copy of the confirmation email, so editing one does not change the other. If the copy cannot carry something over, such as a membership limit it cannot copy or a Drry video room your plan does not include, you are told why and nothing is created. The cap on session types for your plan still applies.

Limit a session type to members of a tier

If your community has membership tiers, a session type's editor has a Membership tier setting. Only that tier and above can see the type and book it: nobody below it sees it on your booking page, funnel pages never show it, and visitors who are not signed in cannot book it even with the link. Adding a limit needs the Growth plan, and removing one never does.

Bringing someone else into a booked session

A booked session is private, so a colleague or co-host who opens the plain room link is told they are not on the invite list. If you are the owner or an admin and the session was booked through your booking page in a Drry video room, the Invite button inside the room copies a signed guest link instead, and says Guest link copied. Whoever you send it to can join that one session. They appear as Guest unless they are signed in, in which case they keep their own name.

The link works until a day after the session ends. Anyone who holds it can join, so send it only to people you trust, and there is no way yet to switch off a single link. If it cannot be made, for example because the session has ended, the button shows why and copies nothing. Editors do not get this button.

Connect Google Calendar

Connecting Google under Events, then Settings (the Google Calendar and Meet card) covers three things with one sign-in: a fresh Meet link for every booking, busy times that close your booking slots, and a copy of your Drry sessions in your own Google Calendar. Owners and admins see it.

  • Busy time blocks slots. Pick which of your Google calendars count. Anything they show as busy comes off your booking page, and shows on your events calendar as a grey Busy block with no title. Busy time never uses up your daily or weekly booking cap. Outlook and Apple calendars are not read.

  • Your sessions go into Google. Switch on Add my Drry sessions to Google Calendar and every published booking and event is copied into a separate calendar named after your community, followed by (Drry). It follows along when you move or cancel a session, and nobody is invited or emailed from it. Switching it off, or disconnecting Google, removes that calendar from Google.

Your booking page checks Google every few minutes, and checks again at the moment someone books, so a meeting you just added is caught. If Google cannot be reached, booking keeps working and the card tells you what needs attention. While copying is working, your own new-booking email to the connected Google address arrives without a calendar file, because the session is already on that calendar.

Booking from a button

Point a button on a funnel page, or in a section you add to a blog post, at a session and it opens that session's times in a sheet over the page. The visitor picks a time, answers your questions and is booked without leaving the page. The Booking section still shows the picker inline, if you would rather it was always on view.

It opens in place only while the session can be booked by a visitor. A paused session, or one limited to a membership tier, sends the visitor to its booking page instead, and so does a button pointed at the page listing every session. A link inside a custom code section also goes to the booking page, as does a button opened in a new tab.

Charging for a session

A session type can carry a price, paid at the point of booking through your connected Stripe account. Cancelling a paid session does not refund anyone automatically. To refund, go to Settings, then the Getting paid tab, then the Accept payments card. To run a sale, a private link or a discount code on a paid session, make a Session offer on the Offers page, or use the Discounts section in the session type's editor. The booking page then shows the lower price with the regular one struck through, and the confirmation names the price paid and the saving. See Run an offer.

What the person gets

A confirmation email with the details and a calendar invite, plus reminders. Each session type card shows its confirmation email, and you can write a new one already attached to that type or edit the one it uses, so merge tags work straight away. If you do not choose your own reminder times, the defaults are 24 hours and 1 hour before. You can add a second email address to be notified on every booking, which is useful if somebody else keeps your diary.

Who on your side is told

Every booking, move and cancellation emails you as the host. Two settings in the session type's editor add people. Also notify is one more email address, like an assistant or a shared inbox. Tell your owners and admins is on by default and sends the same emails to everyone who owns or administers the community. Switch it off and only the host, plus anyone under Also notify, hears about those bookings.

This holds when a booked session is moved, whoever moves it. If you change its time, length, place or join link from your Events console, the host, your owners and admins (when that setting is on) and the Also notify address each get one email titled Booking updated, and the client gets the updated calendar invite. When the client moves it themselves from their appointment page, your side gets a Moved email instead. If a move leaves a session close to its start, the client and the host each get a single reminder straight away, not one for every reminder time that has passed. These move emails show the previous time crossed out above the new one, with the word Was in front of it, in the same time zone as the new time. The plain-text version of the email has a Was: line instead. A move that does not change the start time, such as a new join link, strikes nothing.

Common questions

How many session types can I have?

One on the free plan, and as many as you like on Creator and Growth.

Does it check my real calendar for clashes?

Yes, if you connect Google Calendar. Busy times on the calendars you pick close those slots on your booking page, and your Drry events and hours always apply. Outlook and Apple calendars are not read, so for anything on those, keep your days off up to date.

Can I hide a session type?

Yes. Hide it from the booking page and share its direct link with the people you want to have it.

Can a session type run on a different weekly schedule than the rest?

Yes. Open the session type and switch on its own weekly hours instead of following your default week.

Can I copy a session type?

Yes, with Duplicate. The copy starts paused with its own copy of the confirmation email. See "Copy a session type" above.

Can I block part of a day instead of the whole day?

Yes. Add a one-off date and choose Busy for part of the day, then mark the times you are busy.

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