Solutions · Appointment booking

A WhatsApp bot for appointment booking

A WhatsApp bot for appointment booking answers customers in the chat they already opened, checks your Google Calendar, offers only free times that fit the service's length, and books, cancels and moves appointments itself. Ariko works from the business's information and can hold each booking for your approval. Build and test free; WhatsApp is on paid plans.

Updated: 18 October 2026

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A bot in WhatsApp, or a booking system with a link?

Both put an appointment in a calendar. The difference is where the customer is when they decide.

A booking link

The customer leaves the conversation, opens a link, picks a service and a slot and fills in a form. It works well when customers come from your website or Instagram and know exactly what they want. A question like "is this right for fine hair?" still waits for you.

A bot inside WhatsApp

The customer writes the way they write to you today — "tomorrow after four?", even as a voice note — and in the same conversation asks about price, parking or how to prepare. The bot answers from the business's information, offers free times and books, without the customer leaving the chat.

You can have both: a business with a booking link on its website can keep it, and let the bot handle whoever writes on WhatsApp. Just make sure both book into the same calendar, so the bot sees every link booking as busy time.

What Ariko does when it books

You connect the business's Google Calendar from inside the app and set up your services. From then on the bot checks the calendar before every offer — it never offers a time that didn't come from that check.

A length per service. A haircut half an hour, colour two hours — the bot offers only a window long enough for the chosen service, within your opening hours.
Time before and after. A gap for cleaning or getting ready, so appointments aren't booked back to back.
How much notice, and how far ahead. For example: no less than three hours' notice, and no more than a month ahead.
A specific time the customer asked for. The bot checks it, and if it isn't free says why — taken, too soon, outside hours — and offers the closest.
Cancelling and moving. The customer asks, the bot finds their appointment, cancels or moves it, and the freed time is free again.
Your approval before each booking, if you want it. The bot holds the slot, the approval request reaches you on WhatsApp at the business contact number you set, and the customer gets a final confirmation only after you approve.
A reminder the day before. Sent through a message template approved for the business's WhatsApp; with no approved template, there is no reminder.
A calendar invite by email. A customer who gives an email address can get an invite to their own calendar for an appointment already booked.

What we read from the calendar: only when you are busy and when you are free, and the list of calendars in the account (their names), so you can choose which one to book into. Event titles, contents and attendees are not read or stored, and the bot creates, moves and deletes only events it created itself.

In the dashboard's test chat the bot shows how it would book without writing to the real calendar — so you can try it without creating fake appointments.

What it looks like in a chat

An illustration: a made-up nail studio, not a real customer. Its information lists the services and how long each takes, and says nothing about parking.

Hi, can I get gel nails tomorrow after four?

Hi! Gel nails take an hour. Tomorrow there's 16:30 or 18:00. Which suits you?

16:30. Is there parking nearby?

16:30 is free. What name should I book it under? Someone from the team can answer about parking — shall I pass the question on?

Maya. Yes please

Booked: tomorrow at 16:30, gel nails, for Maya. I've passed the parking question to the team, and they'll continue with you here in this chat.

Oops, can we move it to Thursday?

Sure. On Thursday there's 10:00 or 15:00. Which time should I move it to?

What the bot doesn't do

One calendar per business. The bot books into the one Google Calendar you connect. If every staff member has their own calendar, talk to us first.
No recurring series. "Every Tuesday at five" is booked one appointment at a time, not as a repeating series.
No payment or deposit. The bot doesn't take money or send a payment link as part of booking.
No group places. For a group class with limited places, the bot offers to pass the request to the team.
Up to three upcoming appointments per customer. Past that the bot books no more, and offers to move or cancel an existing one, or to pass it to the team.
It sees only appointments it booked. "When is my appointment?" finds appointments booked through the bot from that number, not ones typed into the calendar by hand.

When a dedicated booking system fits better

A WhatsApp bot solves the conversation. Some businesses have a different problem, and there a dedicated booking system — on its own or alongside a bot — is the right choice:

A large team, a calendar each. A practice with several doctors or a salon with several chairs, where the customer also picks the person.
A deposit or prepayment. When last-minute cancellations cost money and you need to charge at booking.
Group classes. Place limits, waiting lists and class passes.
Doctors and clinics with medical records. Scheduling that has to be part of the medical records system. Ariko is not a medical tool — what does fit a clinic.
Most bookings already come from the website. If hardly anyone writes to you on WhatsApp, a booking link on the site is enough.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a booking bot and a booking system?

A booking system sends the customer to a link and a form. A bot books inside the WhatsApp conversation: it understands "tomorrow after four", answers questions from the business's information in the same chat, and offers only times it checked in the calendar. Both can work on the same Google Calendar.

How much does a WhatsApp booking bot cost?

You build the bot and test it in the test chat on the Free plan, $0 — No WhatsApp connection. WhatsApp connects on paid plans: Solo $99 a month, Business $149, Growth $199 and Scale $399, before VAT. Meta's message charges are included. All the details.

Does the bot send a reminder before the appointment?

Yes, the day before, through a message template approved for the business's WhatsApp. A message the business sends outside the 24 hours after the customer's last message has to be an approved template, so with no approved template there is no reminder.

Can I approve each booking before it's confirmed?

Yes. In approval mode the bot holds the slot and sends you an approval request on WhatsApp, and the customer gets a final confirmation only after you approve.

What happens when a customer wants to cancel or reschedule?

They write to the bot, and the bot finds their appointment, cancels it or offers free times to move it to. The freed time goes back into the calendar as free and is offered to the next customer.

Does it suit a practice with several doctors?

The bot books into one Google Calendar per business, so it suits one practitioner or a team working from a shared calendar. A practice where each doctor has their own calendar and patients choose the doctor should talk to us first, or use a dedicated booking system.

Try it on your own bookings

Enter your services and the business's information, and ask the bot for an appointment the way a customer would. Free, no credit card.

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