Offering 15, 30, 45, 60 and 90-minute versions of the same service

Which lengths are worth offering?

Start from what you actually deliver, not from a tidy list. Most services settle into two or three useful lengths:

• 15 minutes: quick questions, check-ins, short reviews, triage calls. Useful, but easily overused.
• 30 minutes: the workhorse for follow-ups and focused consultations.
• 45 minutes: a good middle option where 30 feels rushed and 60 feels padded.
• 60 minutes: standard sessions and many first appointments.
• 90 minutes: first assessments, intensive sessions or work that needs set-up time with the client present.

If you cannot describe in one sentence what a client gets in each length that they would not get in another, drop that length.

Pricing each length

Pure per-minute pricing is simple but often undercharges short appointments, which still carry fixed costs such as preparation, admin and the gap they leave in your day. Many businesses price short sessions slightly higher per minute and long sessions slightly lower, so the longer option feels like better value. Whatever you choose, show the price clearly next to each length. On Calenix, paid bookings and deposits are available on the Individual plan and above through third-party payment providers such as Stripe; check which payment options are available for your account and region.

Who chooses the length?

There are three common approaches:

• The client chooses from a small menu. Works well when clients understand the difference, such as 30 or 60-minute massages or coaching calls.
• You decide based on the type of visit. A first visit is always 60 or 90 minutes; follow-ups are always 30. Clients choose 'first visit' or 'follow-up', not a number.
• You decide after a short call. For complex work, offer a short consultation, then send the client a link to the length you recommend.

A rule worth adopting: make first visits longer by default. They involve history, questions and setting expectations, and squeezing them into a standard slot tends to make every later session run over.

One event type per duration

The simplest and clearest way to offer several lengths is a separate event type for each, named from the client's side: '30-minute follow-up', '60-minute first consultation'. Each event type then carries its own price, description, booking questions and buffer. Check whether your tool lets one event type offer a choice of lengths; on Calenix, set each length up as its own event type. The Free plan includes one event type, so offering more than one duration needs the Individual plan, which allows unlimited event types.

How durations affect your available slots

Longer appointments mean fewer start times, and mixing lengths creates odd gaps. As illustrative arithmetic, a four-hour morning holds eight 30-minute appointments, four 60-minute ones or two 90-minute ones with an hour spare. Book one 90-minute session at 10am and a 60-minute one at 12:15, and you may be left with a 45-minute gap at 11:30 that only a 30 or 45-minute booking can fill, and a 15-minute sliver nobody can use. Add buffers and the gaps get more awkward.

Appointment length is one of the main ways clients judge value. If the only option is 60 minutes when they need 15, they either do not book or feel short-changed. If the only option is 30 minutes and the work needs 60, sessions overrun and your next client waits. Offering the right lengths makes both problems go away.

Durations also shape your income more than most settings do. The mix of short and long appointments decides how many slots you sell, how many awkward gaps you are left with and how much admin each hour of client time carries. Two businesses with the same hourly rate can earn quite differently simply because one offers lengths that fit together and the other does not.

There is a client experience angle too. A short menu of clearly described options is easier to choose from than a long list of near-identical services. Our list of common booking page mistakes includes too many choices for exactly this reason, and making it easier to book appointments starts with a clear choice.

Finally, durations are not set and forget. Once you have a month or two of bookings, the lengths clients actually choose will tell you which options to keep, which to merge and where the price needs adjusting.

A fictional dietitian in Coimbatore sees clients in person on weekday mornings and by video in the evenings. She used to offer one 45-minute appointment for everything. First visits ran over, and returning clients with a quick question paid for time they did not need.

She rebuilt her menu on Calenix's Individual plan with four event types:

• First consultation, 90 minutes: history, food diary review and an initial plan. ₹2,400.
• Follow-up, 45 minutes: progress review and plan changes. ₹1,300.
• Quick check-in, 15 minutes (video only): one question, a recipe swap or a plateau. ₹500.
• Family meal-planning session, 60 minutes: for parents planning meals for children. ₹1,600.

Her website and Instagram bio link to the first consultation; follow-up and check-in links go to existing clients in her after-visit emails. She keeps quick check-ins to a 6pm to 7pm evening video hour, so they never break up her morning clinic. Her clinical notes stay in her own records system, because Calenix is a scheduling tool, not a clinical records system.

The illustrative maths: a three-hour morning previously held four 45-minute appointments at ₹1,300, or ₹5,200. It now typically holds one first consultation and two follow-ups, or ₹5,000, but the first visits no longer overrun, and five evening check-ins a week add ₹2,500 that she was not earning before.

For health-specific scheduling, see the scheduling guide for healthcare providers, and to write the descriptions for each length, use our service booking page template.