Please Add Online Booking Approval—This Should Be Standard
One feature I’m genuinely surprised doesn’t exist in Boulevard is the ability to approve or deny online booking requests before they’re automatically confirmed. Nearly every other major booking platform includes this functionality—and for good reason.
As a business owner, I need the flexibility to review appointments before locking them in. Whether it’s for new clients, service compatibility, or stylist scheduling nuances, the ability to screen and approve incoming requests is a critical workflow tool that should absolutely be included in Boulevard.
For context, here are just a few platforms that offer this feature, along with their pricing:
DaySmart: Starts at $29/month; Premium plan at $199/month.
Vagaro: Starts at $23.99/month; scales up to $83.99/month.
Fresha: Free for individual professionals; charges apply for additional team members.
GlossGenius: Flat rate of $24/month.
Square Appointments: Free for individuals; Premium plan at $69/month.
Acuity Scheduling: Plans range from $16 to $61/month.
Mindbody: Plans start at $129/month.
Booksy: $29.99/month; additional users at $20/month each.
Schedulicity: Starts at $34.99/month; pricing increases with additional providers.
Wendy Hunt
shared this idea
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Joseph Bae
commented
We should be able to accept or decline online bookings before they are scheduled onto our books. It doesn't make sense that I am even having to put this in as a suggestion. Other programs have done this 10 years ago and there is no downside to it. A client will get a notification saying that the booking is under review and will be notified when accepted or declined. The salon/studio gets a notification under a master account and should be checked first thing in the morning to see if it works in the books or not. If a stylist/therapist has NOTHING scheduled for the day, but someone books online for the last appointment of the day, why should we look like the bad guy to have to call them back and cancel it because they are not booked. (this is obviously the worst case scenario), but this is something that will help all businesses. If the appointment booked leaves a 30 min gap between the next client or the client before, then we should be able to send them a notice that the client needs to approve. "your 2:00 appointment could not be scheduled, but we do have a 2:30 slot available, would you like to accept". They accept and now we have no gaps in the schedule.