If you don't block holidays, customers will book your shop on Christmas morning. The booking widget knows nothing about your plans until you tell it. Here's how to lock out the calendar.
Step 1 — Add fixed holidays once
Settings → Scheduling → Holidays. Click "Add US federal holidays" to bulk-add the 11 standard holidays. Uncheck any you actually work (some shops open Veterans Day; many close the day after Thanksgiving).
Step 2 — Add custom blackout dates
For shop-specific time off — your annual vacation, training week, a family event — add custom entries:
- Date range — single day or multi-day
- Reason — internal label ("Family vacation," "Trade show," "Inventory week")
- Customer-visible message (optional) — what the booking widget shows. Default: "We're closed this day."
- Affects all bays — yes (closed) or no (custom per-bay)
Step 3 — Block recurring time
Recurring patterns — closed Sundays, half-day Saturdays, lunch-hour block — go in Settings → Scheduling → Business hours instead. Holidays are one-off; business hours are recurring.
Step 4 — Public booking page updates
The public booking widget and any embedded scheduler instantly stop offering blocked dates. If a customer tries to book on a blocked day via a direct calendar link, they see your custom message and a redirect to the next available day.
Step 5 — Existing bookings get a notification
If you block a day that already has bookings on it, those customers don't auto-cancel — but the system flags them in /app/schedule with a warning banner. From there:
- Reach out individually to reschedule, OR
- Bulk-text affected customers with a reschedule link — pick "Notify affected customers" when you save the holiday
Step 6 — Internal calendar
The same blocked days show as red bars on your installer schedule view. No bay capacity, no job assignments possible. Techs see "shop closed" instead of empty slots.
Tips
- Block holidays for the full year in January. It's 10 minutes and saves you the "wait, we're closed Memorial Day" Slack thread every quarter.
- Block your trade-show + training travel as soon as you book the flights.
- Don't block the morning after a major US holiday — those are huge revenue days. Customers booked off and bring their cars in.