The booking page checklist to run before you go live, and again every quarter
A tick-list for testing your booking page like a customer would: devices, links, time zones, calendar conflicts, emails, rescheduling, payments, accessibility, copy and tracking, grouped so you can work through it in about an hour.
Most booking pages are built once, admired once and then left alone. Meanwhile a calendar gets disconnected, a price changes, a team member leaves, the clocks go forward and a link in last year's newsletter quietly points at an event type you deleted. Nobody tells you. Customers simply fail to book, or book something that no longer exists.
This checklist is a testing routine, not a design guide. It assumes your page is already written and asks one question for each item: does this actually work when a stranger uses it? Run the full list before launch, then a shorter pass every quarter. If you want to know what typically goes wrong first, our round-up of common booking page mistakes that cost customers is a useful companion, and the checklist below is how you catch those mistakes on your own page before customers do.
The checklist, section by section
Work through each group with a notepad open. Write down what you tested, on what device and what happened. A tick only counts if you actually did the thing, not if you assume it works.
1. Devices and browsers
- Open the booking link on your own mobile, using mobile data rather than office Wi-Fi.
- Open it on a second phone (ideally the other operating system) and on a desktop browser.
- Check the page in a private or incognito window, so you see what a logged-out visitor sees.
- Confirm the available times are readable and tappable without zooming.
- Rotate the phone and check nothing breaks.
Small screens deserve their own pass; our guide to mobile-friendly appointment booking covers what to fix if this section fails.
2. Every link that points at the page
- List every place your booking link lives: website buttons, email signature, digital business card, social bios, Google Business Profile, invoices, old newsletters, printed QR codes.
- Click or scan each one. Does it land on the right event type, not a deleted one or a generic profile?
- Check that any links on the booking page itself (privacy policy, terms, your website) open the right pages.
3. Time zones
- Confirm the time zone set on your account matches where you actually work.
- Change your device time zone (or ask someone abroad) and check the slots convert correctly.
- Book a test across a daylight saving change. The UK clocks go back on Sunday 25 October 2026; most of south-east Australia moved forward on Sunday 4 October.
- Check that confirmation emails state the time zone, not just a bare time.
4. Calendar conflicts
- Add a dummy personal event in your connected Google Calendar or Outlook calendar and check that slot disappears from the page.
- Check all relevant calendars are connected (the Free plan connects one; Individual connects up to six).
- Confirm buffers between appointments show up as expected.
- Make a test booking and check it lands in the right calendar with the right title.
5. Emails the customer receives
- Book with a personal email address you rarely use and check the confirmation arrives, and not in spam.
- Read it on a phone: date, time, time zone, location or video link, what to bring, how to change the booking.
- Check the reminder arrives when you expect it.
6. Reschedule and cancel paths
- Use the link in the confirmation to reschedule. Does the old slot free up and the calendar event move?
- Cancel a test booking. Does the calendar event go and does the customer get a cancellation email?
- Check your policy wording matches what actually happens.
7. Payments (if you charge)
- Run a real low-value transaction on a paid event type, then refund it.
- Check the amount, currency and any deposit wording match your page and your terms.
- Check the receipt and booking confirmation both arrive.
8. Accessibility and copy
- Tab through the page with a keyboard only. Can you reach and select a time?
- Check headings, button labels and form questions make sense out of context.
- Read every word aloud: names, prices, durations, addresses, spelling.
9. Analytics
- Check page visits and completed bookings are being counted where you expect.
- Make sure test bookings are labelled so they do not inflate your numbers.
Why a booking page needs testing, not just writing
A booking page is a small piece of software that depends on other software: your calendar, your email provider, your video account, perhaps a payment provider. Each of those can change without the page itself looking any different. A disconnected calendar is the classic example. The page still loads and still shows times, but it no longer knows about your existing commitments, so double bookings start to appear.
The failures are also silent. A customer who cannot find a suitable time, or who never receives a confirmation, rarely emails to say so. They go elsewhere or simply do not turn up. You see the symptom (fewer bookings, more no-shows) months later and have to guess at the cause. A quarterly test catches problems while they are still small and easy to trace.
Testing also keeps the page honest. Prices go up, services are renamed, a deposit rule changes and the page lags behind. Under consumer law in the UK and Australia, what you tell customers about price and terms before they buy matters, so a stale page is more than a cosmetic issue. Our guide on how calendar sync prevents double bookings explains the conflict-checking side in more detail.
Finally, a written checklist means anyone can run it. If you have a colleague or assistant, hand them the list and a fresh email address. Someone who did not build the page will find problems you have learned to look past.
What a regular checklist run gives you
Fewer silent failures: broken links, disconnected calendars and missing emails are found by you, not by lost customers.
Confident launches: you go live knowing every path has been tried at least once.
Accurate prices and policies: copy is checked against what you actually charge and enforce.
Cleaner data: test bookings are labelled and conversion numbers stay trustworthy.
Easier delegation: a written list lets a colleague run the test without a briefing.
Earlier warning on time zones: daylight saving and travel issues show up before a customer misses a call.
How to run the checklist in under an hour
Set up a test identity — Create or reuse a personal email address you do not use for work, so you see exactly what customers receive and nothing gets filtered as internal mail.
Book on a phone first — Start with the device most visitors use. Pick a slot, answer every booking question and complete the booking without switching to a computer.
Check the downstream results — Open your calendar and inbox. Confirm the event, the meeting link, the confirmation email and the reminder timing.
Walk the change paths — Reschedule the test booking, then cancel it. Check the calendar and emails update each time.
Test the edges — Change your device time zone, add a dummy calendar conflict and, if you take payments, run a small real payment and refund it.
Audit every inbound link — Work through your list of places the booking link appears and click or scan each one.
Log, fix and diary the next run — Note what failed, fix the biggest problem first and put the next quarterly test in your calendar now.
Pre-launch run vs quarterly run
| Feature | Pre-launch | Quarterly | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Devices and browsers | Two phones and a desktop | One phone | 10 minutes |
| Inbound links | Every link and QR code | Anything changed since last run | 10 to 15 minutes |
| Time zones | Full test, including a clock change | Check around daylight saving dates | 5 minutes |
| Calendar conflicts | Dummy event in each connected calendar | One dummy event | 5 minutes |
| Emails | Confirmation, reminder, reschedule, cancel | Confirmation and reminder | 10 minutes |
| Payments | Live payment and refund | Only if prices or terms changed | 5 minutes |
| Accessibility and copy | Keyboard pass and full read-aloud | Read prices, names and policy | 10 minutes |
| Analytics | Confirm tracking works | Compare visits with bookings | 5 minutes |
Habits that make the checklist stick
Put the quarterly test in your calendar as a repeating task, not a vague intention.
Test with a fresh email address each time so filters and previous history do not hide problems.
Name test bookings clearly, for example 'TEST please ignore', and delete them afterwards.
Rerun the relevant section whenever you change prices, connect a new calendar or add a team member.
Keep a running list of every place your booking link appears, and add to it when you print anything new.
Ask one real customer each quarter how booking went, and add anything surprising to the list.
Schedule a quick time zone check in the week before each daylight saving change.
Where checklist runs usually go wrong
Testing only on a desktop while logged in, which hides what a first-time mobile visitor sees.
Assuming emails arrive because they did last time, rather than checking the inbox and spam folder.
Leaving test bookings in the calendar so they block real customers or skew reports.
Checking the booking page but not the old links and QR codes that point at it.
Skipping the payment test because it involves a real charge, then finding the deposit amount is wrong.
Fixing everything at once without noting what changed, so you cannot tell which fix helped.
Example: a career coach in Norwich launches a new booking page
Take a fictional career coach in Norwich who helps mid-career professionals change sector. She has three event types: a free 20-minute intro call, a paid 60-minute CV and LinkedIn review, and a paid 90-minute career strategy session. She plans to launch the new page on Monday 2 November 2026.
Pre-launch run, Thursday 29 October. She books from her phone on mobile data and finds the CV review slot list shows times in GMT correctly, since the clocks went back the previous Sunday. Her email signature still points at last year's single event type, and the QR code on her printed flyers goes to the old page. She updates the signature using our guide to adding a booking link to your email signature and reprints a small run of flyers. The confirmation email for the strategy session does not mention that clients should bring their current CV, so she adds that line. Her paid sessions use Stripe on the Individual plan; she runs a £1 test event type, pays and refunds it. Total time: 70 minutes.
Quarterly run, Thursday 4 February 2027. The second run takes 25 minutes. She finds that a client who works in Singapore saw times correctly, but her reminder email for the intro call had been switched off when she edited the event type. She turns it back on and checks how her figures compare using our guide to measuring booking page conversion rate.
Illustrative maths: if the broken signature link had cost her two intro calls a month, and one in four intro calls becomes a £180 CV review, that is roughly half a paid session a month, or about £1,080 a year, from one wrong link. The numbers are made up, but the shape is typical: small faults, repeated quietly, add up.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Test it yourself
Build a booking page worth testing
Start free with one event type, calendar conflict checking and email confirmations, then run this checklist before you share the link. Upgrade when you need more event types, calendars or paid bookings. No card needed.