Booking rules
Set how bookings confirm, how far ahead customers can book, cancellation windows, buffers, fees and limits for repeat no-shows.
Booking rules control what customers can do when they book and cancel online: how much notice you need, how far ahead they can book, when free cancellation ends and what happens if they do not show up.
Choose how bookings confirm
- Open Services → Rules in the sidebar.
- Under Confirmation, pick Instant confirmation or Manual approval in How bookings confirm.
- Click Save confirmation mode.
With manual approval, new bookings wait for you to accept them before they are confirmed.
Set your default policy
The Cancellation & policies form applies to every service. Leave a field empty for no limit, then click Save policy.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Min lead time (minutes) | Customers cannot book a slot that starts sooner than this |
| Max lead time (general, days) | Customers cannot book further ahead than this |
| Max lead time (members, days) | A longer or shorter window for customers with an active membership |
| Cancellation window (minutes before start) | Free cancellation ends this many minutes before the start |
| Buffer before booking / Buffer after booking | Minutes kept free around each booking, for setup or cleaning |
| Buffer between bookings per resource (minutes) | Gap kept free between two bookings on the same resource |
| Max open bookings per customer | How many upcoming bookings one customer can hold |
| Max bookings per customer per day / per week | Daily and weekly caps per customer |
| Policy text shown at checkout | Your cancellation terms in plain words |
Late cancellations and no-shows
Under Fees, set a Late-cancel fee and a No-show fee as a percentage, a fixed amount or both. The fee never exceeds the booking price.
When a customer cancels inside the cancellation window:
- If you set a late-cancel fee, the cancellation goes through and the fee is applied.
- If you did not, the customer cannot cancel online and has to contact you.
Choose How fees are charged:
- Manual, provider follows up: the fee is recorded on the booking and the customer is notified. You collect it yourself.
- Charge customer wallet automatically: the fee is taken from the customer's wallet. If that would take the balance below zero and the client is not allowed a negative balance, the fee is recorded and you get a notification instead.
- Charge saved payment method: the fee is recorded on the booking and the customer is notified. Nola does not charge the card automatically yet, so collect it yourself.
Repeat no-shows
Under Repeat no-shows, set Strikes before action, Counted over (days) (365 by default) and Action at limit:
- Only show a warning on the client card
- Require prepayment (payments module)
- Block online booking; must contact you
Nola counts a customer's no-shows and charged late cancellations inside that period.
Override rules for one service
- Under Per-service override, choose the service.
- A second form opens, filled in with your current default values.
- Change what should differ and click Save policy.
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