How to Manage Bookings in Airtable and Prevent Double Bookings

Imagine you run a business where customers need to reserve a specific time slot. Maybe it is a photography session, a repair appointment, or a consultation.

You want people to be able to choose the date and time themselves without having to message you back and forth.

But there is one big rule you need to enforce. No two people should be able to book the same slot.

If you try to manage this entirely in Airtable, you could make it work, but it would be tedious, time-consuming, and mentally draining.

While Airtable is excellent for storing, organizing, and displaying data, it is not designed for real-time scheduling or preventing double-bookings.

A better approach is to offload the scheduling tasks to software that is built for scheduling, and then use Airtable to store and manage the resulting data.

This way the booking logic is handled automatically and Airtable remains your single source of truth.

Here are a few options that integrate well with Airtable:

Fillout

Fillout is a powerful form and scheduling tool that works seamlessly with Airtable. It lets you set available days and times, block off busy periods, and automatically prevent double bookings.

The scheduling tool connects directly to Google Calendar, so your availability is always up to date. If you already use a scheduling service like Calendly or Cal, Fillout can integrate with those too.

Once someone books a slot, their details can be sent straight into Airtable, giving you a complete record of reservations without any manual entry.

Calendly or Cal

If you prefer not to use Fillout, you can work directly with Calendly or Cal. Both connect to Google Calendar, which you can then sync with Airtable using Airtable automations or other automation tools like Make, Zapier or n8n.

This keeps your availability up to date and ensures that all confirmed bookings are stored in Airtable automatically.