Managing your appointment availability shouldn’t be a rigid, one-size-fits-all process. The Bookly Special Hours add-on provides the flexibility you need to handle exceptions to your standard business schedule without disrupting your entire booking workflow. Whether you are planning for a public holiday, scheduling a one-off staff training session, or extending your hours for a busy season, this add-on ensures your calendar remains accurate and your customers only book when you are truly available.
Key Features
- Custom Date Exceptions: Define specific dates where your business hours differ from your regular weekly schedule. You can easily set these as either fully unavailable or define custom working hours for that specific day.
- Staff-Specific Scheduling: Apply special hours to individual staff members. This is perfect for managing employee vacations, personal time off, or shifts that deviate from the standard team schedule.
- Recurring Special Events: Easily configure exceptions that repeat annually or on specific dates, making it simple to manage recurring public holidays or seasonal changes in operations.
- Seamless Integration: The add-on works directly within the existing Bookly interface, ensuring that your custom hours are immediately reflected in the front-end booking form your customers see.
- Conflict Prevention: Automatically prevent double bookings or appointments during times you have marked as unavailable, giving you peace of mind that your schedule remains conflict-free.
- Intuitive Interface: Manage your special hours through a user-friendly dashboard that mimics the simplicity of the core Bookly plugin, requiring no additional technical knowledge to configure.
Use Cases and Who It’s For
The Bookly Special Hours add-on is an essential tool for any business owner or service provider using Bookly who needs more control over their availability. If your business operates on a standard schedule but frequently encounters deviations, this tool is designed for you.
For service-based businesses like hair salons, dental clinics, or consulting firms, public holidays often mean closing early or taking the day off entirely. Instead of manually disabling your booking form or blocking out every time slot one by one, you can use this add-on to set the entire day as “closed” in a few clicks.
It is equally valuable for teams. If a staff member needs to take a personal day or attend a conference, you can update their specific calendar without affecting the availability of the rest of your team. This granularity allows you to maintain high levels of customer service while accommodating the unique needs of your business and your employees.
Setup and How It Works
Getting started with the Bookly Special Hours add-on is straightforward and designed to integrate smoothly into your current Bookly setup.
- Installation: After installing and activating the add-on, it will automatically register within your Bookly settings menu.
- Accessing Settings: Navigate to the Bookly menu in your WordPress dashboard and locate the new tab or section dedicated to Special Hours.
- Defining Exceptions: Select the staff member or the general business schedule you wish to modify. Choose the date or date range you want to adjust.
- Setting Availability: Choose whether to mark the selected time as completely unavailable or input custom start and end times for that specific day.
- Saving Changes: Once saved, the front-end booking form will instantly update, reflecting the new availability to your customers so they only see the slots you have designated as open.
Similar Plugins
While Bookly offers a robust ecosystem of add-ons, users looking for alternative scheduling solutions within the WordPress ecosystem may also consider plugins like Amelia or BookingPress. These platforms often include built-in features for managing holiday hours and staff availability directly within their core software. However, for those already committed to the Bookly ecosystem, the Special Hours add-on remains the most direct and compatible way to extend your scheduling capabilities without migrating to a different booking system.