Google Calendar avails paid appointment bookings feature

In a bid to improve upon the current capabilities of appointment scheduling, the Google Calendar feature which allows users to share their availability via a booking page, has launched a new feature that allows professionals or freelancers to allow their customers to book paid appointments.

Admins and end-users may be impacted, though requiring payment upfront can help small business owners reduce no-shows and grow their businesses further. Additionally, this feature enables you to manage your time and payments in a simple and seamless manner. 

The company has partnered with Stripe for the facility, so users will need to connect their Stripe account to Google Calendar to start accepting payments. Individual users or admins of a workspace account will be able to form their own cancellation and refund policies, but Google will have no role in that process. Canceling and refunding need to be handled by providers and bookers via the Stripe dashboard.

Google also specified that it is not charging any platform fees. Plus, the company doesn’t store or process any payment info, such as credit card numbers, and all that workload is handled by Stripe at the moment.

Requiring payment upfront can help small business owners reduce no-shows and grow their business further. Additionally, this feature enables you to manage your time and payments in a simple and seamless manner.

Google blog post.

Google said the new feature is rolling out to people subscribing to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade edition, Nonprofits and Workspace Individual plans over the next few days.

Notably, the schedule management app Calendly offers a similar paid meeting feature through Stripe and PayPal integrations. And recently, Google also rolled out a new feature for hybrid workers to indicate their working locations, like Office or Home, during the day to help others choose a suitable slot for a meeting.