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Let customers book appointments and meetings in the chat

A booking bot is for businesses where the next step is a meeting: a sales demo, a discovery call, a consultation, a viewing, a treatment or a class. The bot answers questions about what you offer and, when the visitor is ready, books the slot without them leaving the chat or emailing back and forth about times.

Chat Thing connects to your calendar through two power-ups. Book a meeting (Cal.com) shows your real availability and books the slot in the conversation. Book a meeting (Calendly) opens your Calendly booking form inside the chat. Both fill in the visitor's name and email from the conversation, so most people only pick a time.

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Plans

Booking power-ups need Basic or above. The Cal.com and Calendly power-ups don't need an API key or account connection for public events. On Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram and email (Standard and above), the bot books in text rather than showing a picker. See Compare plans.

Who can do this: team owners and admins set this up.

Cal.com or Calendly?

Cal.comCalendly
Bot offers times in the conversationYesNo, Calendly's form shows them
Booking picker in the widgetChat Thing slot picker in your bot's colours, or Cal.com's own formCalendly's form, embedded
Cancel a booking on requestYes, with the booking referenceNo, visitors use Calendly's email links
Works on text channelsLists times as text and books the one the visitor picksSends a pre-filled booking link

If you use neither yet, Cal.com gives the richer experience in the chat. If your team already works in Calendly, use Calendly.

What you'll set up

  1. Knowledge sources. Add your services, prices, what each appointment involves, how to prepare, and your cancellation policy. A website data source covers most of this; add anything unpublished as manual content.
  2. Instructions. Write the Prompt using the example below, including when to offer a booking and what to ask first. See Write your bot's instructions.
  3. Power-ups. Add Book meetings with Cal.com or Book meetings with Calendly, one per event type you want the bot to book. Write each power-up's Description so the bot knows which to use, for example "Use for a free 15-minute intro call" and "Use for a paid 60-minute consultation".
  4. Channel. Install the chat widget on your services and pricing pages, where the slot picker works best.
  5. Handoff. Add Talk to a human for requests the calendar can't handle, such as group bookings or urgent same-day slots.
  6. Analytics. For Calendly, every booking link carries utm_source=chatthing, so you can see in Calendly which bookings came from the bot. Review Conversations for visitors who asked but didn't book.

Example instructions

You are the booking assistant for Acme Physio, a physiotherapy clinic.

Your job:
- Answer questions about our treatments, prices, clinic locations and what to expect, using the information provided.
- Help people book the right appointment.

Booking rules:
- New patients book an "Initial assessment" (45 minutes). Returning patients book a "Follow-up" (30 minutes).
- Before booking, ask whether they've been to us before and briefly what the problem is.
- Use the matching booking power-up. Never promise a time you haven't seen in the calendar.
- If nothing suits them in the next two weeks, offer to pass their details to reception.

Never give medical advice or a diagnosis. For severe or sudden pain, tell them to contact their doctor or emergency services.

More starting points: bookings and appointments prompts in the prompt library.

Example conversations

Visitor: Do you treat running injuries? My knee hurts after long runs.

Bot: Yes, sports and running injuries are one of our specialities. Have you been to Acme Physio before?

Visitor: No, first time.

Bot: Then an initial assessment is the right place to start. It's 45 minutes and costs £60. Here are the next free times:

(the slot picker opens; the visitor picks Thursday at 10:30 and confirms)

Bot: You're booked in for Thursday at 10:30. The confirmation has links to add it to your calendar, reschedule or cancel. Wear shorts or loose trousers so we can look at your knee.

Later, in the same conversation:

Visitor: Something's come up, can you cancel Thursday?

Bot: Done, your Thursday 10:30 appointment is cancelled. Would you like to pick another time?

Pitfalls

  • Linking a scheduling page instead of an event. Both power-ups book one event type. Paste the event's own link, not your profile page, and add a separate power-up for each event.
  • Vague power-up descriptions. The Description decides when the bot offers a booking. "Book a meeting" alone leads to too many or too few offers; say exactly when to use it.
  • Time zone confusion. The widget uses the visitor's time zone. For email and API conversations, set Default time zone on the Cal.com power-up.
  • Expecting Calendly to cancel. The Calendly power-up can't read, cancel or reschedule bookings. If that matters, use Cal.com.
  • Custom booking questions. If your Cal.com event requires answers the chat can't collect, the bot shows Cal.com's own form instead of the picker. Check event warns you about this.

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