Booking rules, smarter availability, and a wave of reliability fixes

This fortnight we shipped two new booking controls for service providers, fixed a run of chatbot reliability issues, and made availability responses noticeably more accurate. Here's what that means in practice.

Set a minimum notice period and a per-client booking cap

You can now configure two new rules on each of your services. The first is a minimum notice period: if a service requires at least 24 hours' advance booking, the chatbot will no longer offer same-day or next-morning slots to customers. The second is a per-client booking limit: if a service should only be booked once (or twice, or any number you choose) per customer, AllSet will now enforce that automatically. Both controls are available in your admin panel under the service settings. These were among the most-requested pieces of flexibility from service providers, and we're glad they're in.

The chatbot no longer invents availability

We fixed a significant reliability issue where the chatbot was occasionally suggesting times that weren't actually available, particularly when real availability was empty. It was drawing on timetable information or old chat history to fill in the gap rather than telling the customer it hadn't found anything. The chatbot now presents only real, confirmed availability and, when nothing is found in the near term, it encourages the customer to try dates further out rather than guessing.

Cancellation and reschedule flows are more reliable

We fixed a bug where switching which booking to cancel mid-conversation could result in the wrong booking being removed. We also fixed the task confirmer showing incorrect end times by computing them from the service duration rather than inferring them from the chat. And when a user asks to reschedule to "next Sunday" or "my Monday booking", the chatbot now always resolves that to a future date, not a past one.

Accurate cancellation policy in chat

When customers asked about cancellations, the chatbot was giving a vague placeholder response. It now explains the real policy: cancellations result in a service credit for a free rebooking, and rescheduling is free.

Duplicate notifications and past-date bookings fixed

We also fixed two quieter reliability issues. Customers were occasionally receiving duplicate booking notifications for sessions that don't require payment. And customers could previously check availability for dates in the past. Both are resolved.

We're also working on some improvements to the follow-up coaching experience for newly onboarded businesses, more on that soon.