How it works
Calendar links work in both directions. A busy-times link tells the Groupon booking tool or Treatwell when you’re already booked, so they only sell times you’re free. Their calendar link brings their bookings into your diary.
This comes with Standard integrations. In HQ, go to Diary › From other sites and find the Linked calendars card. The owner sets up the links.
Your busy times, for other sites
- Under “Your busy times, for other sites”, give the link a name, such as “Treatwell”, and choose whose busy times: the whole business, or one team member.
- Choose “Make the link”. Copy it straight away: we show it only once.
- Paste it into the other site (below).
The link shows “Busy” and the times, nothing else: no names, services or notes. A link for the whole business is busy whenever anyone is booked; a link for one person follows only their diary. If a link gets out, choose “New link” and the old one stops at once, or “Turn off”.
The Groupon booking tool
- Make a busy-times link named “Groupon”, for the whole business or the person who does Groupon visits.
- Sign in to your Groupon merchant account and open the booking tool’s calendar settings. Find the option to add or subscribe to an external calendar (it may say “iCal” or “calendar sync”), paste the link and save.
- To see Groupon bookings in your diary, connect the booking tool to a Google Calendar (its calendar sync setting).
- In Google Calendar on a computer, open Settings, choose that calendar under “Settings for my calendars”, then “Integrate calendar”, and copy the “Secret address in iCal format”.
- Back in HQ, on the Linked calendars card, choose Groupon, choose whose diary it fills, paste the address and choose “Link this calendar”.
Treatwell
- Make a busy-times link named “Treatwell”, for the whole business, or for one person if each person has their own Treatwell calendar.
- In Treatwell Connect, open the calendar settings and look for importing or syncing an external calendar (iCal). Paste the link and save. If you can’t find it, ask Treatwell’s partner support to add it.
- To see Treatwell bookings in your diary, look in Treatwell Connect for exporting your calendar or syncing it to Google Calendar, and copy the link it gives you. If it syncs to Google Calendar, use Google’s “Secret address in iCal format”, as in the Groupon steps.
- Back in HQ, choose Treatwell, choose whose diary it fills, paste the link and choose “Link this calendar”.
Tip: Groupon’s and Treatwell’s screens change from time to time, so we name what to look for rather than every click. If you get stuck, ask us.
Their bookings in your diary
- We read each calendar link straight away, then every 10 minutes, for the next 90 days. “Read now” reads it again at once.
- Their bookings show on Diary › Day, Week and List as dashed blocks with the site’s name. With “Block this person’s time when they’re booked there” ticked, nobody can book that person here at those times.
- A booking that overlaps one made here gets a “!” and a red edge, and is listed in the “to check” card at the top of Diary › From other sites.
- A booking that also came in by forwarded email shows once.
- Change renames a link, changes whose diary it fills, stops it blocking time or pauses it. Unlink takes its bookings out of your diary.
- If a link fails three times in a row, we email the owner.
Make it a full booking
A booking from a linked calendar is a time, not a customer. To keep it as a full booking, open it in the diary and choose “Make it a booking”: pick the service and enter the customer’s name. If it overlaps another booking, we ask “Book it anyway?” first.
Nothing is sent to the customer, and the notice that follows has Undo.
Good to know
- Other sites read your busy times on their own schedule, often every hour or so, so a booking made here a minute ago may not stop them straight away.
- Keep these links private. Anyone with a busy-times link can see when you’re busy.
- Venakis never changes or redeems anything on the other site. Vouchers are still redeemed there, by you, after the visit.