On July 10, 2023, Google announced a significant addition to its calendar tool’s appointment scheduling feature, integrating paid appointment bookings into Google Calendar. By July 17, Google made slight adjustments to the end-user rollout, spreading it across several days for better accessibility and user experience.

Enhancing Appointment Scheduling

The new feature is a strategic enhancement to the existing Google Calendar appointment scheduling system, which previously allowed users to share their availability via a booking page. With this update, appointment providers can now connect their Stripe account to the Google Calendar when setting up an appointment schedule and establish a price for the service. The facility to create a new Stripe account from Google Calendar itself adds another layer of user convenience.

Upon visiting the booking page, individuals seeking an appointment can select their preferred time slot and enter their credit card information to secure the booking.

Who Will Benefit?

Both admins and end users are expected to be significantly impacted by this feature. Small business owners, in particular, may find the upfront payment option beneficial, helping them reduce no-shows and further expand their business.

Google and Stripe: A Safe Partnership

In terms of payment security, Google Calendar redirects users to Stripe, ensuring it neither processes nor stores any payment details, including credit card numbers. Consequently, Google will not levy any platform fees or assist with any payment or refund issues. The responsibility for handling cancellations and refunds lies with the appointment providers and bookers via the Stripe dashboard.

Getting Started

For users on Business Standard, the feature is activated by default, but admins can disable it if they prefer. For all other SKUs, the feature is disabled by default and needs to be enabled by the admin.

Users can turn on payments by setting it up in the “Payments and cancellation policy” section of the appointment schedule editor. This applies to users on Workspace Individual and other SKUs, if enabled by their admin. Google has made resources available on the Help Center to learn more about allowing paid appointment schedules and requiring payments for appointments.

The Rollout

Google will implement the rollout gradually over a period of up to 15 days for feature visibility, starting from July 10, 2023, for the admin setting. The end-user setting rollout will commence from July 27, 2023, for Rapid Release domains, and August 7, 2023, for Scheduled Release domains.

The paid appointment bookings feature will be available to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits, and Workspace Individual.

In sum, this new feature promises to streamline the appointment booking process for both providers and clients, adding a layer of financial security for businesses and offering a seamless, convenient booking experience for users.