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How to build your availability window policy as a solo beauty pro

· 22 min read · back to blog

A client messages you on Thursday afternoon asking to book Saturday at 2pm. You say yes, you'll hold the slot. You move another inquiry to a different time to protect that 2pm. Friday morning you send a deposit link. No response. Friday afternoon you send a follow-up. Still nothing. Saturday morning the slot is still on your calendar, still technically hers, still blocked from anyone else — and at 1:45 you already know she's not showing up. The 2pm passes. You've lost the appointment, the slot, and the revenue you could have booked with the person you turned away on Thursday.

This is a ghost booking. The client claimed a slot she never confirmed, you held it longer than you should have because there was no defined point at which it expired, and the result is a gap in your schedule that doesn't look like a no-show because it never turned into a real appointment. Ghost bookings are different from no-shows — a no-show is a client who confirmed and didn't appear; a ghost booking is a slot that was never confirmed and therefore never really existed as a booking at all. But they cost the same amount of revenue.

The fix is an availability window: a defined period of time during which you hold a slot while the client completes the step that converts a claim into a commitment. That step is almost always a deposit, though in some business models it's an explicit booking confirmation. The window has a length, a trigger, and an expiry. When the window expires with no confirmation, the slot is released — without a conversation, without an apology, without the awkward "I had to give your spot away" message that makes you feel bad about enforcing your own time.

This post covers what an availability window is and how it differs from a no-show policy, a cancellation policy, and a same-day booking policy; the three types of availability window and which one fits your business model; how to calibrate the window length to the lead time of the booking request; how to configure the window in your booking system; what to send when a window expires; the deposit-hold window as the most reliable implementation; the confirmation-hold window for businesses that don't charge deposits; and vertical-specific patterns for colorists, lash artists, nail technicians, PMU artists, and mobile groomers. This is distinct from: the no-show policy post (that covers confirmed appointments where the client didn't appear); the cancellation policy post (that covers clients who cancel with some notice); and the same-day booking post (that covers whether and how to accept requests for today).

What an availability window is and isn't

An availability window is the time between the moment a client claims a slot and the moment the slot either converts to a confirmed appointment or expires and is released. It is not a grace period. It is not a holding queue. It is not an informal "I'll wait and see if she sends the deposit." It is a defined, documented, communicated time limit with a specific trigger and a specific outcome when the limit is reached.

The window starts when the client claims the slot. Claiming is the act of expressing intent to book: a DM saying "can I get Saturday at 2?", a booking request through your online system, a verbal request during checkout to hold next Tuesday. The window ends when one of two things happens: the client completes the confirmation step (pays the deposit, clicks the confirmation link, sends the reply you asked for), or the window expires and the slot is released.

What makes an availability window different from just "trying to collect a deposit" is that the window has a defined length and a defined consequence. Without the defined length, holding becomes indefinite. Without the defined consequence, expiry becomes negotiable. Most solo pros have something like an intention to collect a deposit but no policy about what happens if the deposit doesn't arrive — which means they keep holding, keep following up, and keep hoping the client will confirm rather than releasing the slot to someone who would.

Three things an availability window is explicitly not: a no-show policy (which applies after a slot is confirmed), a cancellation policy (which applies after a slot is confirmed and the client then cancels), and a same-day booking policy (which governs whether you accept last-minute requests, not how long you hold slots after accepting them). Each of these is a separate policy with separate language and separate consequences. The availability window governs only the pre-confirmation phase.

The three types of availability window

There are three ways to structure an availability window, and the right one depends on your business model — whether you charge deposits, how far in advance clients typically book, and whether your booking happens through a system or through direct messages.

Type 1: The deposit-hold window. A slot is held only for the period required to complete a deposit. Once the deposit is paid, the slot is confirmed. If the deposit isn't paid within the window, the slot is released. This is the most reliable implementation because the confirmation step (deposit payment) is binary and unambiguous — either the payment exists or it doesn't. There's no "she said she'd do it" or "she sent a screenshot of the transfer." The deposit-hold window is what every booking system handles natively when you configure a "deposit required at booking" setting. It is the recommended implementation for any solo beauty pro who charges deposits.

Type 2: The confirmation-hold window. A slot is held for the period required to receive an explicit confirmation from the client. This applies in businesses where deposits aren't charged or aren't yet in place. The confirmation might be a reply to a booking confirmation text ("Reply YES to confirm your appointment on Saturday at 2pm"), a click on a confirmation link, or a response to a manual DM follow-up. This is more fragile than the deposit-hold window because confirmation is softer than payment — a client can confirm and still not show up — but it is better than no window at all, and it's appropriate for businesses that are building toward a deposit policy but aren't there yet.

Type 3: The hybrid window. An initial confirmation hold (shorter, for new clients or high-demand slots), followed by a deposit requirement to keep the slot past the initial hold. For example: "I'll hold this slot for 2 hours. If you want to lock it in, here's the deposit link — $30 secures it." The hybrid is useful if you want to give clients a brief window to respond before requiring payment, especially for clients who need to check their schedule before committing. It requires more active management than the deposit-hold window but gives clients a lower-friction entry point.

For most solo beauty pros who charge deposits, Type 1 is the correct answer. The rest of this post assumes the deposit-hold window as the primary model, with notes for Type 2 where the mechanics differ.

How to calibrate window length to lead time

Window length should be calibrated to the lead time of the booking request — how far in advance the appointment is from the moment the client claims the slot. The shorter the lead time, the shorter the window. The longer the lead time, the longer you can afford to hold without giving away too much.

The logic: a client booking for tomorrow afternoon has limited time to respond because the appointment is imminent. If she doesn't confirm within 2 hours, you need to release the slot to fill it before it's too late to rebook. A client booking for three weeks from now has much more time, and holding for 24 hours costs you less because there's no immediate opportunity cost of waiting.

A practical calibration framework:

The key principle: send the deposit link or confirmation request immediately at the time you say you'll hold the slot, not a few hours later when you remember. Every hour between the "I'll hold it" and "here's the deposit link" is an hour the client's interest can cool, her schedule can shift, and the friction of completing the payment increases. The window starts ticking the moment she claims the slot. If you send the link three hours later, your effective window is the stated window minus three hours — which you've lost to your own delay.

How to configure the window in your booking system

The goal is to make the window automatic so you don't have to manually track who has or hasn't paid and decide whether to release their slot. Manual tracking of deposit status is the thing that breaks in practice — you get busy, you forget, you feel bad releasing a slot for someone you like, and you end up holding indefinitely again.

Square Appointments: In your Square Appointments settings, navigate to Booking preferences → Deposits. You can require a deposit at booking and set the percentage or flat amount. When a client books online, they must complete the deposit during the checkout flow — no deposit, no booking. This is the native implementation of a deposit-hold window: the system never holds the slot without payment. For phone or DM bookings where you're entering the appointment manually, you'll need to follow up with a payment link (Square payment links are available under Payments → Payment links in your Square dashboard). Set your manual follow-up window based on the lead time calibration above.

Acuity Scheduling: In Acuity, go to Business Settings → Payments. You can require a deposit as a fixed amount or percentage, and you can configure whether the deposit is due at booking or can be paid later. Set it to "required at booking" so that any online booking that doesn't include payment is not completed. For manual bookings, Acuity allows you to send a payment request from the appointment record. The same lead-time calibration applies.

Booksy: Booksy allows deposit configuration under Services → your service → Deposit required. The deposit is collected at booking time and the slot is not confirmed without it. As with other systems, manual bookings require a follow-up payment link.

Manual / DM-based booking: If you're not using a booking system, your availability window becomes a payment-link workflow. When a client requests a slot via DM or phone, your response is: "Yes, I can hold [date + time]. Here's the deposit link — $[amount] secures the appointment. It's held for [window length] while you complete it." Then you calendar a reminder for when the window expires. If the deposit hasn't arrived, you release the slot and send the expiry message (see below). This is more work than system automation, which is the main reason to migrate to a booking system with native deposit support.

What the configuration actually controls: For online bookings, the system should prevent slot confirmation without deposit. This removes the problem entirely — the client can't book without paying. For phone or DM bookings, the system or your own calendar reminder handles the window. The goal is to reduce the number of manually tracked windows to zero, or at most to the subset of clients who prefer to book by phone or message.

What to say when the window expires

When a window expires without a deposit, you send one message. The message has three components: the state of the slot, the reason, and the path forward. It does not include an apology. It does not explain the policy in detail. It does not offer an extension.

Example for a deposit-hold window expiry:

Hi [name] — the hold on [date + time] expired without a deposit, so I've released that slot. If you'd still like to book, here's the link — [URL] — or just let me know and I'll look for another opening that works.

That's the complete message. "The hold expired without a deposit, so I've released that slot" is a factual statement, not a judgment. "If you'd still like to book" gives her a path forward without pressure. The deposit link or an offer to find another time means the message doesn't close the relationship — it just accurately describes what happened and makes it easy to re-engage.

What the message does not say: "I'm so sorry but I had to give your spot to someone else." There's no apology because there's nothing to apologize for. The window was communicated at the time you held the slot. The client had the deposit link and the window length. The slot expired on the terms that were stated. An apology implies fault, which implies the window policy was unfair, which undermines the policy for the next time you need to enforce it with the same client or a different one.

The message also doesn't say "someone else took your spot." Whether another booking came in or not is irrelevant to the client and introducing it adds social pressure to the message — pressure that sounds like manipulation ("you snooze you lose") rather than policy. The slot expired because the window expired, not because a competitor arrived. Keep the message neutral.

One message only. If the client doesn't respond to the expiry message, don't send a follow-up asking whether she wants to rebook. You've given her the path forward. If she wants to book, she has the information. Following up after the expiry message puts you back in the position of chasing a client who didn't prioritize confirming in the first place.

The deposit-hold window as the best implementation

The reason the deposit-hold window is the recommended implementation is that the deposit makes the window self-enforcing. When your booking system requires payment to complete a booking, clients who aren't ready to commit don't generate bookings — they generate booking attempts that expire automatically. You never hold the slot because the system never considers the slot held until payment arrives.

This also changes the psychology of the interaction. When a client books online and the deposit is required at checkout, she knows at the moment of booking that her card was charged and her slot is confirmed. There's no ambiguity. She didn't "claim" the slot — she purchased a confirmed appointment. This is a materially different feeling from "I think she's going to hold it for me while I figure out if I can make it." Confirmed clients cancel at lower rates, show up more reliably, and treat the appointment as the commitment it is, because the payment made it one.

For DM and phone bookings where the system can't auto-collect, the deposit-hold window is still the right framework — it just requires a manual payment link and a calendar reminder for the window expiry. The same principles apply: send the deposit link immediately, state the window length at the time you send it, release without conversation when the window expires.

The deposit-hold window also makes your cancellation policy more enforceable. When a client who paid a deposit cancels, the question of whether to refund the deposit is governed by your cancellation policy — and that question has a clear, documented answer because the deposit exists as a concrete record. When a client who only verbally confirmed cancels, there's nothing to withhold and the cancellation costs you the full slot without recovery.

The confirmation-hold window for deposit-free businesses

If you're not yet charging deposits, the confirmation-hold window is the appropriate implementation. The mechanics are similar but the confirmation step is softer: instead of payment arriving, you're waiting for a reply, a confirmation click, or a response to a direct question.

The most common implementation is a booking confirmation text or email that requires an explicit reply:

Hi [name], your appointment on [date] at [time] is on hold. Reply YES to confirm, and I'll lock it in. If I don't hear back by [specific time], I'll release the slot.

The "reply YES" requirement filters out passive holds — clients who have the appointment on their calendar but haven't actually decided whether they're going. The specific release time makes the window concrete. "If I don't hear back by 6pm tomorrow" is a date and time, not a vague "soon."

The confirmation-hold window is less reliable than the deposit-hold window because a confirmation reply is reversible. A client can reply YES and still not show up, whereas a paid deposit at least creates an incentive to show or to cancel in time to get a refund. But the confirmation window is significantly better than no window, and it functions as a stepping stone toward a deposit policy — once you have clients in the habit of confirming, adding a deposit requirement to the confirmation step is the natural next move.

For confirmation-hold windows, the expiry message is slightly different:

Hi [name] — I didn't hear back to confirm the [date + time] slot, so I've released it. If you'd still like to book, let me know and I'll find you another opening.

Same structure: state of the slot, factual reason, path forward. No apology, no explanation of the policy, no offer of an extension.

New clients versus returning clients

The window length doesn't need to be identical for new clients and returning clients, but the policy should be consistent in its application. One reasonable distinction: new clients get a shorter window (2 hours for same-week, 24 hours for next-week+) because you have no prior relationship to draw on; returning clients in good standing get a slightly longer window (4–6 hours for same-week, 48 hours for next-week+) because they have a track record of showing up.

The important thing is that the difference is policy-based, not feeling-based. "I'll hold it longer for her because she's a regular" is the beginning of indefinite holding for regulars, which produces the same ghost booking problem just with a familiar face. The policy distinction should be documented ("returning clients in good standing get a 48-hour window; new clients get 24 hours") and applied consistently, not decided case by case.

"Good standing" needs a definition too. A client who has no-showed twice and has a pattern of confirming late is not in good standing regardless of how long she's been a client. A reasonable definition of good standing: no no-shows in the past six months, no unresolved deposits, no cancellations within 24 hours in the past six months. Clients who fall outside that definition get the new client window until they re-establish a track record.

Vertical-specific patterns

Colorists

Color services have longer appointment durations (90 minutes to 3+ hours for complex work) and significant prep time investment (color mixed, foils staged, time blocked in advance). A ghost booking in a color-heavy schedule isn't a 45-minute gap — it can be a 3-hour gap that's impossible to fill on short notice.

For colorists, the availability window should be paired with a higher deposit amount: flat-rate deposits of $50–75 for single- process work, $75–100 for complex color (balayage, full highlights, correction work). The higher deposit reflects the higher cost of the ghost booking — a $25 deposit on a $200 correction appointment is not enough to create meaningful commitment, and it's not enough to cover any materials cost if you mixed product in anticipation.

For new color clients — particularly those requesting consultations before a color service — a consultation deposit is the appropriate first window. The consultation itself converts into the service booking, and the consultation deposit converts into the service deposit or is forfeited on no-show. This creates two windows: one for the consultation slot (shorter, 24 hours) and one for the service slot (longer, 48 hours, because the service is usually scheduled further out after the consultation).

Colorists who take DM bookings from prospective clients without a system face the highest ghost booking risk in any beauty vertical, because new clients haven't been through the booking process before and often don't understand that "I'll hold it for you" is not an appointment until money changes hands. Making the window explicit — "I can hold that 90-minute block for you. Here's a $50 deposit link. It holds the slot for 24 hours. If the deposit isn't in by [specific time], I'll release it" — sets the expectation clearly at the first message.

Lash artists

Lash artists face a specific problem that the availability window is well-suited to address: slot-squatting, where clients book multiple slots across different artists "to see which one works" and cancel or ghost the others. Because lash appointments are typically 2 hours for a full set (and clients can't see the results during application — eyes are closed for the duration), the appointment is a significant time commitment on both sides, and clients who aren't fully committed are disproportionately likely to ghost.

For lash artists, a 2-hour availability window for same-week bookings and a 24-hour window for next-week-plus is standard. The deposit amount should be set high enough to create real commitment — $30 minimum, $50 for full sets booked by new clients. The deposit link should go out in the same message where you confirm the hold: "Yes, I have [date + time] available. Here's the deposit link — $[amount] locks in your slot. It's held for 2 hours from now."

For fill appointments with returning clients, the window can be slightly looser because the relationship is established and the fill is a shorter, lower-risk appointment. A 48-hour window for fill bookings made more than a week in advance is reasonable, with the same same-day/next-day truncation.

Lash artists who use online booking systems should ensure the deposit-required-at-checkout setting is on for full-set bookings. This eliminates the DM-to-deposit workflow entirely for online bookers and reserves your manual window management for the subset of clients who book by phone or message.

Nail technicians

Nail technicians who run appointment-only schedules face the same ghost booking problem as any other beauty vertical, with one complication: the walk-in culture in nail care creates a segment of clients who don't fully understand the commitment difference between "walk in whenever" and "book an appointment." A client who has always gone to a walk-in nail salon doesn't necessarily understand that booking an appointment with you means the slot is yours and that not showing up has consequences.

For nail technicians, the availability window is partly an educational tool. The message "I can hold [date + time] for you. Here's a $20 deposit link — it's held for 24 hours while you complete it. The deposit applies to your service total" does two things: it defines the window, and it implicitly communicates that this is a committed appointment, not a reserved seat you can skip without notice.

For nail technicians who offer both walk-in availability and appointment slots, the two-track system requires clarity in messaging: walk-in slots are first-come-first-served with no hold; appointment slots require a deposit and have a defined window. This distinction should be on your booking page and in your Instagram bio link if that's where clients initiate bookings.

Nail nail-art specialty bookings — custom designs, 3D nail art, freehand work — warrant a longer deposit-hold window (48 hours) and a higher deposit amount ($30–50 or 30–50% of the service price) because these appointments require advance preparation: reference image review, supply ordering, design planning. A ghost booking on a custom nail art slot has a higher cost than a ghost on a standard manicure because the prep work is already done.

PMU artists

PMU artists typically work with a double-window structure because the booking process itself has two stages: a consultation and a procedure. Each stage is a separate appointment, and each requires its own hold.

The consultation window: shorter (24 hours), lower deposit (or sometimes no deposit, depending on the market). Some PMU artists charge a consultation fee of $25–50 that applies toward the procedure cost if the client books. This creates a consultation deposit-hold window that functions identically to the service deposit-hold window but at a lower entry cost.

The procedure window: longer (48 hours), higher deposit ($100+ for brows, lips, eyeliner — reflecting the 2–3 hour procedure duration and the significant revenue loss of a ghost booking). The procedure slot is only offered after the consultation is complete. This means the client has already demonstrated commitment (she showed up for the consultation and paid if a consultation fee applies) before you hold the most valuable slot.

For PMU artists, the availability window policy should explicitly address patch test requirements. If your process requires a patch test before a pigment procedure, the patch test is a third step with its own window consideration — the patch test appointment is typically shorter (15–30 minutes), low-cost or free, and needs to happen at least 48 hours before the procedure. The hold on the procedure slot should not be issued until the patch test is scheduled, to avoid holding a procedure slot for a client who hasn't yet cleared the patch test requirement.

Mobile groomers

Mobile groomers face a slot-value problem that makes ghost bookings particularly damaging: every slot is also a route slot, and route optimization means geographic position matters. A ghost booking in a mobile grooming schedule isn't just a lost appointment — it's a gap in a route that may or may not be refillable by another client in the same geographic zone.

For mobile groomers, the availability window should account for geographic specificity. When a client requests a slot, the hold message should include the location-specific nature of the hold: "I can hold the 10am slot on Thursday for [neighborhood/address area]. Here's the deposit link — $30 locks in your spot. It's held for 4 hours." This communicates to the client that the slot isn't just any open time — it's a route position, which has additional specificity and therefore additional value.

Mobile groomers who accept bookings from clients in different geographic zones on the same day should configure their availability windows to be shorter for same-day zone planning. If you're locking in your Thursday route by Tuesday afternoon, a slot requested on Wednesday for Thursday needs a 1-2 hour window — not 24 hours — because you need to know whether that client is confirmed before you finalize the route and potentially add a backtrack.

For recurring grooming clients (those who book the same day every 4–6 weeks), the window can be integrated into a rebooking workflow where the deposit for the next appointment is collected at checkout from the current appointment. This eliminates the window entirely for recurring clients because the next slot is purchased at the end of each visit. This is the highest-reliability implementation for mobile groomers who work with a stable client base.

Six mistakes that break the availability window policy

1. No window policy at all. This is the default state for most solo beauty pros, and it's where ghost bookings live. Without a defined window, holding is indefinite, releasing is awkward, and the slots you should be filling sit blocked by clients who never intended to commit. The fix is not complicated — define the window, send the deposit link immediately, and release on expiry.

2. Window too long. A 72-hour window for a same-week booking is not an availability window — it's an informal hold that produces the same outcome as no window. For same-week bookings, the window should be measured in hours, not days. Longer windows are appropriate only for appointments that are weeks out, and even then 48 hours is usually the right ceiling.

3. Sending the deposit link late. The single most common failure in an otherwise correct availability window policy is the gap between "I'll hold it for you" and "here's the deposit link." Every hour that passes between those two messages is an hour the client's attention has drifted, her schedule may have filled, and the friction of completing payment has increased. The deposit link goes in the same message as the hold confirmation, or in the next message sent within minutes. Not hours.

4. Apologizing when the window expires. "I'm so sorry — I had to release your slot." This reframes your own policy as an inconvenience to the client rather than a normal operating procedure. The apology signals that the window was imposed on the client rather than agreed to, and it creates an opening for the client to argue she deserved more time. The correct message is factual and forward-looking, not apologetic.

5. Making exceptions for regulars. "I'll hold it for her — she's been coming to me for three years." This is the most understandable mistake and the most corrosive one. The first exception trains the client that her regular status exempts her from the deposit requirement. The second exception confirms it. By the fifth exception, you're holding slots indefinitely for your most loyal clients — who are also your highest-revenue clients — and absorbing the ghost booking cost from the subset of them who over-commit their schedules. Apply the window to everyone, with the policy-based exception for verified good-standing clients (longer window, same requirement).

6. Not configuring the booking system to enforce the window automatically. A policy that depends on you remembering to send the deposit link, track who paid, and calendar a reminder to release the unpaid slots is a policy that will break when you're busy. The whole point of configuring a deposit-required-at-booking setting in your scheduling system is to make the window automatic for online bookings. Do this first. It removes the most common failure mode (forgetting) from the equation entirely.

Three-year compound: the revenue gap from an undefined window

Two nail technicians. Both appointment-only. Both charging $65 for a standard gel manicure. Both receiving 20 appointment requests per month. Both with an 18-slot calendar (12 per week across two days of full bookings, rounded to 18 per month for scheduling variance).

Nail Tech A has no availability window. When a client requests a slot via DM, she holds it. She follows up with a deposit link the same day, then again the next day if no response. By appointment week, 8 of the 20 requests have gone silent — no deposit, no confirmation, no reply to her follow-up. She keeps them on the calendar because she's not sure whether to release. On appointment day, 6 of the 8 don't appear (the other 2 message the morning of to say they're on their way, then pay deposit on arrival or promise to Venmo). She books 12 confirmed clients and loses 6 slots to ghost bookings. Monthly revenue: 12 × $65 = $780.

Nail Tech B has a 24-hour deposit-hold window for all bookings. When a client requests a slot, she sends the deposit link in the same message. "Yes, I can take [date + time]. Here's the deposit link — $20 locks in your slot, and it applies to your service total. It's held for 24 hours." Of 20 requests per month: 15 complete the deposit within 24 hours. 5 don't. She releases the 5 slots immediately. From her waitlist, she fills 3 of the 5 released slots within the week. Monthly bookings: 15 confirmed + 3 waitlist fills = 18 booked slots. Monthly revenue: 18 × $65 = $1,170.

Monthly gap: $390.

Year one: Nail Tech A earns $9,360. Nail Tech B earns $14,040. Gap: $4,680.

Year three: The gap compounds because Nail Tech B has built a waitlist culture — clients who aren't immediately confirmed know to go on the waitlist, so her fill rate on released slots improves from 3/5 to 4/5 as the waitlist grows. Nail Tech A's ghost booking rate stays flat because there's no policy change. By year three, Nail Tech B is filling 18–19 slots per month consistently; Nail Tech A is still filling 12. The three-year total gap from one defined window policy: approximately $15,000–$18,000 in revenue from the same demand, the same market, the same service quality, and the same 18-slot calendar.

The $65 in gap revenue per unreleased-and-refilled slot is the unit to track. Every ghost booking you eliminate and replace with a paying client is $65 recovered. The availability window doesn't create new clients — it converts existing demand into confirmed appointments instead of ghost bookings. The demand was always there. The window captures it.

What to document

Your availability window policy should be in three places: your booking confirmation message (sent when a slot is held), your booking page or booking link description, and your online booking system's cancellation/deposit policy field. It doesn't need to be in a separate policy document. It doesn't need to be explained in detail. It needs to be communicated at the moment you issue the hold, and it needs to be consistent every time.

The booking confirmation message template:

Hi [name] — I'm holding [date + time] for you. Here's the deposit link: [URL]. The $[amount] deposit locks in your slot and applies to your service total. The hold is good for [window length] — if the deposit isn't completed by [specific time], I'll release the slot. See you [date] ✂️

That's the full policy communication. It's not a lecture. It doesn't ask for confirmation that she understands the policy. It states the hold, provides the deposit link, names the window length, and names the consequence. That's enough.

When you release a slot, the expiry message goes in your DM thread with the client, so there's a record of the communication. If the client later disputes that she knew the slot was going to be released, the thread shows the original hold message, the deposit link, the window length, and the expiry notification. You don't need anything more formal than that.

The one thing worth tracking in your client records: whether a client has had deposits expire before. A client who has had two slots released due to window expiry in the past year gets a shorter window and a higher deposit on the next booking request — or, if she's a pattern rather than an exception, you decline to hold future slots for her and require same-day deposit payment before adding her to the calendar at all. The window policy and the client record work together. The window catches the problem. The client record decides what to do about the pattern.