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Postcode-based appointment booking for home visits

Postcode-based booking offers customers home visit times that fit around the visits already in your diary. It uses drive times between addresses to show the slots that add the least travel, and books the visit with travel time blocked either side.

An example of how the studio would build it. No live services are connected.

From a postcode to a slot that fits your route.

  1. Step 01

    Postcode entered

    The customer enters their postcode and the type of visit on your booking page.

  2. Step 02

    Diary checked

    Read the day’s confirmed visits and open gaps from the team’s Google Calendars.

  3. Step 03

    Drive times worked out

    Use Google Maps to estimate travel time between the new address and the visits before and after each gap.

  4. Step 04

    Best slots offered

    Show the customer the slots that add the least travel, plus a fallback day if nothing nearby is open.

  5. Step 05

    Diary updated

    Book the visit with travel time blocked either side, checking again that the gap is still open.

The result

Less time on the road, and days that hold more visits.

The slot is rechecked at the moment of booking, so two customers can’t take the same gap. Addresses outside your service area go to a person instead of being offered a slot.

Before we connect it.

Where this is useful

Useful for mobile dog groomers, kitchen and bathroom designers, surveyors, mobile hairdressers, tutors and anyone else who drives between appointments. A sensible first version suggests the best slots to a person who confirms the booking, before the page books customers in directly.

What we need to connect

  1. 01Read and write access to the Google Calendars your team books from, with each visit’s address in a consistent field.
  2. 02A Google Maps Platform key for address lookup and travel times, and the postcodes or radius your team covers.
  3. 03Visit lengths for each service, working hours, and how much travel between visits you are happy to allow.

What needs careful handling

Travel times vary through the day, so estimates use the expected time of travel where Google Maps allows it, with a small buffer added. A day with no visits yet has no route to fit around, so the page offers slots based on travel from your home base instead. Addresses that can’t be found confidently, such as new builds or rural properties, are sent to a person to confirm before a slot is offered.

Questions people ask.

Can Calendly or Cal.com do this already?

Standard booking tools show open time but don’t usually know where your other visits are. A custom booking page adds the travel check, and can still use your existing calendars underneath.

What if a customer needs a time that doesn’t fit the route?

They can ask for a different time, and the request goes to a person who decides whether the extra drive is worth it. The aim is to suggest efficient slots, not to refuse awkward ones.

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