Can my clients book me from their own AI assistant?
Only once your business qualifies and you switch it on. Then a client's own AI assistant can find your free times and hold one through Bookatu's public booking server, and the client confirms by email before the booking reaches you. Here is what clients see and how to switch it on or off.
People hand more of their everyday errands to an AI assistant, and an appointment is one of them. With this switched on, a client's assistant can get as far as holding a time with you, and the client still confirms it themselves.
What is Bookatu's public booking server?
It is an MCP server that a person's own AI assistant can connect to. MCP is an open protocol that lets AI assistants use other software's tools. Through it, an assistant can look up a business on Bookatu from its booking link, see its free times and hold one for the person. The client needs no Bookatu account and no key.
The server is at https://bookatu.com/api/mcp/book, and it calls itself Bookatu Booking.
What does my client see when their AI assistant holds a time?
- 01They give their assistant your booking link
Bookatu gives the assistant your free times for the service they want, on your clock, and on theirs when they are somewhere else.
- 02An assistant holds a time for the client
It passes on the client's name and email, and a phone number if they give one. A held time is kept from other assistants, but your booking page and your team can still book it.
- 03Bookatu emails the client a code and a link
Nothing is booked until they give the code to their assistant, or open the link and press "Confirm booking". Opening the link books nothing by itself. The page also has a "This wasn't me" button, for an email they did not expect.
- 04Nothing is booked until the client confirms
Once they confirm, it is a normal booking, with your usual confirmation and reminders, and you get their name and email as you would from your booking page. If you accept bookings by hand, even only from new clients, it arrives as a request.
What stays the same when a client's AI assistant books me?
- Your free times, and your minimum notice before a booking.
- Your prices. If a price changes before the client confirms, nothing is booked at the old price.
- Your approval setting. If you accept bookings by hand, even only from new clients, every booking from an assistant arrives as a request.
- Your confirmation and reminders, sent as they are for any other booking. A new client who books this way gets no texts, since texts need the client's own yes.
Which services can a client's AI assistant book?
A plain timed service. Anything that needs more than a time is booked on your booking page instead: a deposit, a card held for your no-show policy, a required intake form or booking question, two or more team members, more than one kind of room or equipment at once, a trip, a class or workshop, an extra, or a group bigger than the service takes. If you have booking terms, that goes for every service, since the client agrees to them on your booking page.
Bookatu tells the assistant when a service is booked on your booking page, and gives it the link to pass on. You can also keep any service out on the settings page, and clients can still book it on your booking page.
Which businesses can let clients' AI assistants book them?
Businesses on a paid plan that have been on Bookatu for a while, with a record of real completed bookings.
Bookatu does not let assistants book health or medical care. If any of your services is health or medical care, assistants cannot book your business at all, and the settings page says so.
Until your business meets all of these, the settings page shows a checklist with a tick or a cross on each line, and a line without a tick says what your business still needs. Once every line has a tick, the switches unlock.
How do I let clients' AI assistants book me?
- 01Open Settings, then Clients' AI assistants
If the checklist shows, work through it first. The switches unlock once every line has a tick.
- 02Tick "None of my services are health or medical care"
Tick it only when it is true of your business. Assistants can't book health services, and Bookatu records who ticked it and when.
- 03Switch on "Let clients' AI assistants book me"
Then save your changes. From then on, an assistant can hold a time with you when a client gives it your booking link.
- 04Check "What an assistant sees"
It shows what an assistant is told when it looks you up, and which services it can hold a time for.
The help guide at bookatu.com/help/let-clients-book-from-their-ai walks through each part of the page.
How do I stop AI assistants booking me?
Open Settings, then Clients' AI assistants, switch "Let clients' AI assistants book me" off and save your changes. To keep only some services out, pick them on the same page instead and save. A time an assistant is still holding is checked again when the client confirms, so nothing is booked after you switch it off.
What does a client's AI assistant see about my business?
Only what your public booking page shows, without your street address. An assistant using Bookatu's public booking server never sees your client list or other clients' bookings.
Bookatu gives it your business's name, your town and area, your opening hours, your services and prices, and your phone number only if your booking page shows it.
Bookatu's emails about the held time, and the page the client confirms on, are in the client's language when their assistant tells Bookatu which one, in any of the 14 languages Bookatu speaks. Your own confirmation and reminders come in your business's language, and service names stay as you wrote them.
Questions owners ask
Does a client's AI assistant take payment?
No. Bookatu never takes payment in a chat. A service that needs a deposit is booked on your booking page, and the deposit is paid there.
What if a client says they did not ask an AI assistant to hold a time?
The email Bookatu sends them links to a page with a "This wasn't me" button. Pressing it means nothing can be booked from that hold, and for a while Bookatu sends that address no more of these emails. Your settings page counts these under "Client said it wasn't them".
Will a time held by an AI assistant block my booking page?
No. Your booking page and your team can still book that time. If they do, nothing is booked over it when the client confirms, and Bookatu can offer the client's assistant other free times instead.
Can AI assistants find my business without my booking link?
Only through a separate switch, "List me when assistants search", and only once listing is open to your business. If you switch it on before then, your settings page says "Listing opens soon". Without it, an assistant can still hold a time with you when a client gives it your booking link.
Does letting clients' AI assistants book me cost extra?
There is no add-on for it. Your business needs a paid plan, and Bookatu takes no commission on bookings made this way.
Where to start
The help guide at bookatu.com/help/let-clients-book-from-their-ai walks through the settings page. For what an assistant can do with Bookatu, see bookatu.com/ai/assistants, and developers will find the server described at bookatu.com/developers#mcp-book.
For the services that stay on your booking page, read bookatu.com/help/your-booking-page and bookatu.com/help/deposits.
