WhatsApp Appointment Booking Bot: Step-by-Step Setup
Set up appointment booking on WhatsApp for a clinic, salon, coaching centre or service business: hours, services, staff, reminders and rescheduling in chat.
Short answer: a WhatsApp appointment booking bot lets customers pick a service, a day and a time inside a WhatsApp chat, books it against your real calendar, and then confirms, reminds and lets them reschedule — without a phone call or an app. In MotherBot the calendar is built in: set your hours, add services and staff if you need them, start from a booking chatbot template, and switch it on.
This guide walks through the setup, the settings that prevent double-bookings and no-shows, and examples for clinics, salons and coaching centres.
Why book on WhatsApp
Customers already message you to ask "Do you have a slot tomorrow?" Answering by phone or sending a booking link means a second step, and people drop off. A booking bot answers that same message with the available times, books it there and then, and sends the reminder in the same thread — any hour of the day.
Step 1: Switch on bookings and set your hours
Open Customers → Appointments → Settings and turn on Let customers book. (With it off, your team can still book for customers — handy while you set up.)
Set your opening hours. Each day can have more than one session — a morning OPD and an evening one, or a lunch break — and you can name them so customers see "Morning" and "Evening" when they pick.
Step 2: Decide how slots work
- Default length — how long one appointment takes.
- How often a slot starts — every 15 minutes, every half hour.
- Gap before and after — cleaning, travel or note-taking time.
- Bookings per slot — 1 for one-at-a-time consultations; 5 for an OPD that sees five patients in the same 15 minutes.
- Daily cap — the most bookings you'll take in a day.
- Special hours — a half day before a festival.
Step 3: Add services (optional)
A service is something a customer can book, with its own length, gap, price and seats: a 20-minute consultation, a 90-minute treatment, a class of twenty. Limit a service to the staff or rooms who deliver it, and set whether it needs your approval. With no services, every booking is one appointment of your default length.
Step 4: Add staff or rooms (optional)
Each doctor, stylist, trainer or room keeps its own calendar, so two of them can both be booked at 10:00. Give each their own working hours and time off, and link them to a team member so they can see just their own bookings on the web and in the phone app.
Step 5: Build the booking chatbot
Go to Chatbots → Templates and start from Appointment Manager — Full, Doctor Appointment Booking, Dental Appointment Booking or the conversational AI Appointment Booking. These ask for the service, staff member, day and time, reading the free slots live from your own calendar, then book it. Nothing needs a key or a URL.
Customers can also, in the same chat:
- Reschedule — the booking moves and keeps its reference.
- Cancel — the slot is freed for someone else.
- Confirm attendance — "Yes, I'll be there."
- Check their next booking.
Step 6: Set your rules
Decide how close to the appointment a customer may still cancel or move it, how many times they may move one, and how many upcoming bookings one customer may hold. Past those limits, the bot asks them to contact you — your team is never blocked by the same rules.
Step 7: Set up reminders
Add up to five reminders per booking, each a set time before it — a day before and an hour before work well. They go out on the channel the customer booked on.
On WhatsApp, a reminder sent more than 24 hours after the customer's last message has to be an approved template, so choose one for each reminder in Settings. Without one, the booking records that the reminder couldn't be sent, and why. Moving a booking re-times its reminders; cancelling stops them.
Step 8: Handle approvals and no-shows
- Approval — bookings can arrive as "awaiting approval". The slot is held so nobody else takes it, and approving tells the customer.
- Closing out — mark each booking completed or a no-show, or close past bookings automatically a few hours after they end. Repeat no-shows become easy to spot.
Where your team works
- Appointments screen — today's list, a day or week calendar, filters and an export.
- In Live Chat — an Appointments panel beside the conversation to book, move, confirm and cancel without leaving the chat.
- On the phone — the same list in the MotherBot app, with "only mine" for staff.
- Your own software — the REST API books, moves, cancels and reads availability, and webhooks tell your systems about every change.
Examples by business
| Business | How to set it up |
|---|---|
| Clinic (OPD) | Morning and evening sessions, 15-minute slots, 5 bookings per slot, reminders a day and 2 hours before |
| Dentist | Services with different lengths (cleaning 30 min, root canal 60 min), one chair per slot, approval for new patients |
| Salon | Each stylist as a resource with their own days off; services limited to who can do them |
| Coaching centre | A demo class as a service with 20 seats per slot |
| Home services | 2-hour slots with a 30-minute travel gap, daily cap per technician |
Running a restaurant? Table booking is built on the same calendar with tables, turn times and a waiting list. WhatsApp table booking for restaurants.
Frequently asked questions
How do I take appointments on WhatsApp?
Connect your number to the WhatsApp Business API, set your hours in MotherBot's Appointments settings, and switch on a booking chatbot from the templates. Customers pick a time in the chat and it's booked on your calendar.
Can customers reschedule or cancel on WhatsApp?
Yes. They can move, cancel or confirm their booking in the chat, within the limits you set — such as no changes in the last two hours.
Can I send automatic appointment reminders on WhatsApp?
Yes. Add up to five reminders per booking, each a set time before it. Outside WhatsApp's 24-hour window they're sent as approved templates, which Meta charges for per delivered message.
Can different doctors or staff have their own calendars?
Yes. Each staff member or room has its own hours, time off and bookings, and a service can be limited to the people who deliver it.
Does it work with Google Calendar or Calendly?
MotherBot has its own booking calendar, so you don't need either. If your team already uses Calendly, there's a Calendly booking chatbot template, and there are chatbot steps to create and read Google Calendar events.
Which is the best WhatsApp appointment booking tool?
We compare the options, MotherBot included, in the best WhatsApp appointment booking chatbots.
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