Online booking is the public-facing way clients arrange appointments with your clinic on Lupa, without phoning or emailing. They open a clinic-specific link on their phone or laptop, sign in (or register), pick the right pet and visit type, choose a time, and submit a request — all in about a minute. The clinic sees the request appear in their Lupa diary the moment it's submitted, and confirms it in their own time. This page is the orientation guide to that experience. It covers what online booking is, who it's for, the high-level shape of the journey, and the key concepts that the rest of this section's articles build on. Each step has its own deep-dive page linked at the end.

💡 In short: Clients open the clinic's booking link, complete a short guided wizard (pet → visit type → date and time → confirm), and submit a request. The clinic reviews and confirms; the client is notified by email or SMS once it's locked in.

⚠️ Send the link, don't take the booking by hand. When a client emails or messages asking for an appointment, someone has to type it into the diary later — that's slower and easier to lose. Sharing the booking link puts the request directly into your Lupa diary in real time, with the pet, visit type, and any pre-appointment information already attached.

The booking portal is a short guided wizard. The steps are always presented in the same order, with a progress bar at the top so the client can see how far through they are. Some steps are skipped automatically depending on how the clinic has configured the portal — for example, vet selection only appears if the clinic lets clients pick a person. Every step deep-dive lives on its own page in this section. This page only sketches the shape.

Each clinic has its own booking link — typically book.lupapets.com/booking/<your-clinic-id> — that you embed on your website, share in emails and SMS, or print as a QR code. The link is clinic-specific, so a client always lands directly in the right portal with your branding.

The first screen asks the client to sign in. New clients tap Register and complete a short email-verified registration, including a 6-digit code sent to their inbox. Returning clients sign in with email and password (or recover via Forgot Password). Once authenticated, the wizard remembers them on that device. For the full registration, login, and forgotten-password walkthrough — including how the portal links new accounts to existing client records — see .

The wizard shows the client's pets as a row of cards. They tap the pet the appointment is for, or tap + Add a pet to add one. The pet's species filters the list of visit types in the next step, so the client only sees relevant services.

Clients pick a visit type (vaccination, health check, weight clinic, and so on), then — if the clinic allows it — choose a vet or nurse, then pick a date and time from live availability. All times are shown in the clinic's local timezone, with a notice if the client is booking from elsewhere. The mechanics of this step — including how slot availability is calculated, how the "any vet" option behaves, and what happens when no slots are available — are covered in .

Some clinics attach a short questionnaire to certain visit types — for example, asking whether the pet has eaten today or what symptoms they're showing. The wizard surfaces those questions next, and skips this step entirely if the visit type has none. Questionnaire setup and how the answers reach the clinical record are detailed in .

The final screen summarises the booking — pet, visit type, date and time, vet, optional client notes, optional file attachments. Just above the submit button, the portal shows a short line linking to the clinic's Booking and Privacy Policies — both open in a new tab. Depending on whether the clinic charges a deposit, the submit button reads either Request Booking or Pay [amount] to book appointment.

When the client taps Pay [amount] to book appointment and moves to the payment screen, Lupa immediately places a temporary hold on that slot. In your diary this appears as Online booking — [client name] (pending payment). The hold keeps the slot free while the client completes payment, so no one else can take it in the meantime. Once payment succeeds, the hold converts into a normal pending booking request. If the client abandons payment, the hold clears automatically — you do not need to remove it yourself.

These ideas show up repeatedly in the rest of this section's articles, so it's worth getting them straight here.

📍 A submitted booking is usually a request, not a confirmed appointment. When a client submits, the slot is held for them while the clinic reviews. The appointment is only locked in once a clinic team member accepts the request — and the client receives a confirmation email or SMS at that point. If your practice has Auto-confirm bookings turned on (in Settings → Online Booking), the booking is confirmed straight away and the client receives their confirmation immediately, with no manual review step.

📍 The link is clinic-specific. A booking link belongs to one clinic location. Multi-site groups share separate links per site, so clients always land in the right portal with the right availability, branding, and policies.

📍 Times shown are in the clinic's timezone. If the client is in a different timezone — for example travelling — the wizard shows a small notice telling them how many hours ahead or behind they are. Times never auto-convert to the client's local timezone, so what they see is what they get.

📍 Clients can't cancel or reschedule from the portal. The portal is for new bookings only. To change a confirmed appointment, the client contacts the clinic directly — by reply, phone, or whatever channel the clinic prefers.

Your clinic's link is set up when online booking is first enabled in Lupa. It can be:

✅ Make the link easy to find. Add it as a prominent button on the homepage, include it in every confirmation and reminder you send, and print a QR code for the front desk. Keep the visit-type list short and obvious. Clients pick from a list of clinic-defined services. The fewer, clearer choices you offer, the less likely someone books the wrong thing. Decide your deposit policy early. Whether you take a holding deposit, a percentage of the visit price, or no payment at all has a big effect on no-show rates and on the client experience. See . Treat requests promptly. The client experience depends on how quickly your team reviews incoming requests. Set an internal SLA — same day, or within a working day — and bake it into your reception workflow. Keep the door open for emergencies. Make it obvious on your website and the booking page that urgent or same-day issues should be phoned in, not booked online.