Public booking requests

In short: share your public booking link (in your Instagram bio, for example) and new clients can request a booking without you adding them first. They confirm their email, with no password, and you accept or reject every request.

What is the public booking link?

Your public booking link lets new clients request appointments without you first adding or inviting them. Barkway verifies their email and signs them into the client portal, with no separate account-creation or password step. You still accept or reject each request.

What should I check before turning it on?

• Check your business details and opening hours.
• Check service prices and durations, and groomer availability. These decide the times clients can request.
• Decide whether to require a deposit. Deposits and saved cards explains the separate payment settings.

How do I turn on public booking requests?

1. Open Settings → Portal and turn on Enable client portal globally.
2. Turn on Allow clients to request bookings.
3. Under Public booking requests, turn on Allow new clients to request bookings, then save your changes.
4. Open each relevant service in Services. Under Client Booking Requests, enable Available for client booking requests and save.

Clients choose one core service and optional add-ons. Turning on public booking requests does not turn on deposits.

Where do I find and share my public booking link?

1. In Settings → Portal, under Share your booking request page, copy the link.
2. Open it in a private browser window to check your business name, services and request form.
3. Put it in your Instagram bio first, then anywhere else clients find you: your Facebook page, Google Business Profile, a booking button on your website, messages to prospective clients, or a QR code on a sign or business card.

Your public booking link ends in /portal/request, for example https://yourbusiness.barkway.app/portal/request. The separate /portal/ link takes returning clients to portal sign-in. Copy your own link from Settings so it uses the correct business address.

What do clients fill in on the request form?

• Client details: first name, last name, email address and phone number.
• Pet details: name and sex, with options for breed or breed mix, date of birth or age, and weight.
• Health and care: temperament, allergies, medical conditions and vet details. Vet details are required if your business requires them.
• Appointment details: one core service, optional add-ons, an available time and, where offered, a groomer.

Clients can add notes and review the request before completing the security check and continuing to email verification. No payment is taken before verification.

How does email verification work?

1. The client sends the request form. Barkway shows Check your email to continue. The request is not yet ready for your review.
2. The client opens the verification email and completes the verification check. Barkway finds the client record for that verified email in your business, or creates a new one, and signs the client into the portal.
3. For a new client, Barkway adds the pet from the request form and continues the request if the details and time are still valid.

Email verification confirms who the client is. It does not confirm the appointment.

How long is the chosen time held?

Barkway holds the chosen time for 30 minutes from when the client sends the request form. If the client verifies their email while that hold is still active and the time is still available, they get one fresh 30-minute continuation window to finish, including any required deposit. Moving on to payment does not restart the clock; the deposit must be paid within the time shown.

A temporary hold is not an accepted booking. Barkway checks availability again during the request and again when you accept it.

What happens when an existing client uses the public booking link?

A signed-out existing client can use the request form with the email already on their client record. After verification, Barkway signs them into that existing record for your business. The request form does not overwrite their saved contact or pet details.

The client picks one of their existing pets, or chooses to add the pet from the request form as a new pet. Barkway does not guess which pet they meant. A client who is already signed in goes straight to the portal request form and uses their own pets.

Clients whose portal access has been disabled cannot use the public booking link to get access back. See Enable the client portal for access controls.

Do clients pay a deposit when they request?

Only if you require one.

• No deposit required: after verification and any pet or time selection, Barkway submits the request and opens My booking requests.
• Deposit required: the client pays the deposit by card first. Barkway checks the payment result and availability, then submits the request and opens My booking requests. A payment that is still processing is not a submitted request.

Paying a deposit does not mean you have accepted the appointment. The portal tells the client that you will review the request before confirming it. If you reject the request, or it expires, Barkway refunds the deposit in full. See Deposits and saved cards.

When is the appointment confirmed?

Only when you accept the request. The stages are:

1. Time held: reserved briefly while the client continues. Not an appointment.
2. Request submitted: ready for you to review.
3. Request accepted: you accept it and Barkway creates the booking.
4. Appointment confirmed: the booking is scheduled and the client can see it in the portal.

Review requests in Bookings → Requests. Accepting creates the booking and invoice, applies any paid request deposit and attaches all eligible default booking contracts. The client does not need to confirm anything else. They can view the appointment and review or sign attached contracts in Documents.

Booking contracts do not block onboarding, request submission, deposit payment, acceptance or confirmation. An unsigned contract does not make a confirmed booking unconfirmed.

How do I pause new public booking requests?

Turn off Allow new clients to request bookings in Settings → Portal and save. New public requests stop. Submitted requests and confirmed bookings are not cancelled. Verification links already sent, and saved requests, can still be continued while the portal and booking requests stay on.

• Allow clients to request bookings also controls requests from signed-in clients.
• Enable client portal globally controls access to the whole portal.

To pause only new public requests, use Allow new clients to request bookings.

What if something goes wrong?

• The hold expired before the client verified: the verification link normally lasts 24 hours. A still-valid link verifies the client and signs them in. Their details are kept, but the old time is cleared and they choose an available time. The same happens if the time became unavailable during verification.
• The email needs resending or correcting: use Resend verification email or Correct your email address on the check-email screen. Only the latest link works. Neither action extends the original hold.
• The client closed the browser: before verification, the same browser can restore the check-email screen. After verification, the client continues from My booking requests, using the portal's normal email sign-in link if signed out. Unfinished details are kept for up to seven days from submission; the time is not held for seven days.
• The client wants to start again: after an unverified hold expires, Start a new request opens a fresh request form and invalidates the old link. To keep saved details, use the latest valid verification email instead.

Next

Follow Review booking requests to accept or reject requests and confirm appointments.