How your booking calendar stops double bookings

Double bookings are the nightmare of dog boarding. The DoggyDesk calendar is built to stop them, so you never have to work out the maths yourself.

Every day has two halves

Each day on your calendar is split into two halves: before 2pm and after 2pm. You will see each day divided down the middle, with the left half for before 2pm and the right half for after 2pm.

You set each half yourself by tapping it. Grey means unavailable, green means public (anyone can book it) and blue means private (only your approved regulars can book it). Days that are already taken show in amber, or purple for guest bookings you added yourself.

What a booking uses up

When a dog owner asks to book, they choose a drop-off day and a pick-up day, and whether each is before 2pm or after 2pm. That decides which halves the stay uses:

• Drop-off before 2pm: the whole arrival day.
• Drop-off after 2pm: only the second half of the arrival day.
• Pick-up before 2pm: only the first half of the departure day.
• Pick-up after 2pm: the whole departure day.
• Every day in between: fully used.

The one same-day handover

One dog can leave and another can arrive on the same day, as long as the first dog is picked up before 2pm and the next dog is dropped off after 2pm. Anything else on a shared day would overlap, so the calendar does not allow it. For example, if one dog is picked up before 2pm, a new dog cannot arrive before 2pm that day, because a before 2pm arrival uses up the whole day.

Requests never block your calendar

A request does not block anything. Only a booking you accept does. That means several families can ask for the same dates, and you pick who gets them. A busy weekend becomes a choice rather than a pile of lost enquiries.

If two requests overlap, a blue note on each one reminds you that accepting one will rule the other out. If a request clashes with a booking you have already accepted, an amber note tells you it cannot be accepted as it stands, and you can decline with a suggestion or propose different dates. Requests expire after 72 hours if you do not reply.

Even a rush of accepts cannot clash

When you press Accept, the calendar checks every half-day again at that exact moment. So two clashing requests can never both be accepted, even if you tap Accept on two requests at once. The one exception is a guest booking you add yourself: the app warns you if it overlaps another booking, but lets you go ahead, because it is your calendar.

What about dog walking?

Walkers have three slots a day instead of two: Morning (7:30am to 12pm), Midday (12pm to 3pm) and Afternoon (3pm to 7:30pm). You decide how many dogs each slot can take.

Going away? Read how to block off a holiday without pausing your bookings.