Two people can want Thursday at 10. Without a hold, the second one finds out after typing their details. With one, the first person keeps the time while they finish, and the second never sees it as open.
How a hold works
Choosing a time only moves a visitor to a review step, and nothing is reserved yet. The hold starts when they press Reserve this time (Book this time if they are already signed in and your page asks for an account). From then on the time counts as taken, with the same double-booking protection as the Calendar, so other visitors don't see it as open and staff can't book over it.
A visitor who skips the account step sees a countdown on the details screen, Holding this time for 4:32. One who goes through Account to confirm gets the full hold time again each time the confirm page loads, so pausing to sign in or create an account doesn't cost them the slot. Holds made from the patient portal use the same hold time.
Setting the hold time
Open Settings → Scheduling and find Booking rules, beside Booking horizon and Minimum notice. Hold time is described as how long a selected time is reserved, in minutes, from 1 to 60. The default is 5. It is long enough to fill in a form, and short enough that an abandoned booking doesn't lock up a real opening.
When a hold ends
- If it runs out, the visitor sees That hold expired, with a note that the time wasn't confirmed in time and was released, and picks another.
- If someone else holds the time first, or it is no longer available, they see That time was just taken and pick another.
- If a visitor backs out of the payment step, the time is released at once instead of waiting for the clock.
- While someone is paying or entering a card on file, the hold is lengthened to 15 minutes if it was shorter, so a slow card entry doesn't lose the time.
A released or lapsed hold also cleans up after itself. An unpaid booking invoice is voided, and a package session spent on it is returned. An invoice that already took money is left alone for you to decide, as in Prepaid appointments.
Expired holds stay on your Calendar as hatched blocks, which you can show with the Expired holds status filter. To keep anonymous visitors from tying up your schedule, a practice can have at most 25 unconfirmed public holds at once; past that, a visitor gets the same pick-another message.