Bookings and tables
Appointments, opening hours, holidays, staff and table reservations.
PiggoChat handles two kinds of bookings (Pro and above):
- Appointments — the customer picks one of your services, a day and a free time slot (and on Premium, a staff member). For salons, clinics, studios, repairs, lessons…
- Table reservations — the customer picks a day, a time and the number of people. For restaurants and cafés.
Switch on Appointments and/or Table reservations in Features. The Bookings section then appears in your menu with four pages: Appointments, Availability, Hours & holidays and (on Premium) Staff.
What the customer sees
- In the chat they choose Book (or open your booking page from the link in your bio).
- They pick a service (and staff member), then a day. Only days you’re open are offered.
- They see the free times for that day, based on your hours, slot length and existing bookings.
- They enter their name and phone (and party size if you ask for it) and confirm.
- They get a confirmation with the booking number in the chat, and the booking appears in your list.
1. Set your hours first
Open Bookings → Hours & holidays. Without working hours no times are offered, so this is the most important step.
If you offer in-store pickup, these hours and holidays also decide the pickup times customers can choose.
Booking settings
| Time slot every (minutes) | How far apart the bookable times are. With 30, customers see 10:00, 10:30, 11:00… Choose between 5 and 240 minutes. |
| Ask how many people when booking | Customers enter a party size — useful for group lessons or tables. |
Press Save.
Add hours
- In Apply to, choose Weekdays (Mon–Fri), Weekends (Sat & Sun), Every day or a single day.
- Set Open and Close, or tick Open 24h.
- Press Add. The hours appear in the table below.
Example: open 10:00–19:00 on weekdays with a lunch break? Add 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–19:00 for Weekdays. Different hours on Saturday? Add Saturday on its own.
To change hours, delete the row with the bin icon and add the new hours.
Holidays and days off
On the Holidays tab, press Add holiday to block time when you don’t take bookings:
| Date | The day to block. |
| Repeats | One-time, or Weekly (e.g. closed every Monday), Monthly (same date each month), Yearly (e.g. New Year’s Day) or Daily (e.g. a daily break). |
| All day | Untick to block only part of the day, with From and To times. |
| Reason | For your own reference, e.g. “Staff training”. |
Customers don’t see blocked times. Bookings already made on that day are not cancelled automatically.
2. Your bookings
Bookings → Appointments lists everything. Use Upcoming (soonest first), Past or All, and search by booking number, name, phone or service. New bookings arrive already Confirmed.
| Column | What it shows / does |
|---|---|
| Booking no | The reference and the time. Click it for full details. |
| Service | What was booked, and with which staff member. |
| Customer | Name and phone (tap to call). |
| Price / Payment | For priced services, a Paid / Due switch. |
| Status | Pending, Confirmed, Completed (after the visit), No show or Cancelled. |
Cancelling frees the time slot so another customer can book it. Mark visits Completed or No show afterwards to keep a clear record.
Click a booking to see everything: when, service, staff, number of people, name, phone, any coupon, the amount and the customer’s note. Press Print receipt for a receipt.
3. Availability
Bookings → Availability shows a day the way customers see it. Choose a service (or all services) and a date, then press Show availability. Each slot is marked free, booked, past or blocked (holiday). It’s read-only — handy for checking your hours are right, or for answering a customer on the phone.
4. Staff (Premium)
With staff, customers choose who they book with, and several customers can book the same time with different people. Open Bookings → Staff and press Add team member:
| Photo, Name, Short description | Shown to customers when they choose, e.g. “Ana — Senior stylist”. |
| Shift start / end | Optional working hours for this person (within your store hours). Leave both blank to follow the store hours. |
| Services this person offers | Tick their services. Leave all unticked and they offer every service. |
| Bookable | Turn off to hide someone (e.g. on leave) without deleting them. |
| Days off | After saving, add individual days off for this person. |
Removing a staff member keeps their past bookings, but they can’t be booked any more.
Table reservations
With Table reservations on, customers choose a date, a time and the number of people. Times follow your working hours and slot length, just like appointments. Reservations appear in their own list on the Appointments page with the party size. Their status can be Confirmed or Cancelled.
Coupons can’t be used on table reservations. For food orders, see Restaurant menu.