Same-visit add-ons and product upsells
Let customers stack appointments into one trip, and recommend products afterwards.
Booked has two separate ways to add something to a booking, and they behave very differently. Appointment bundles let a customer stack extra appointments onto the same visit, back-to-back. Upsell products recommend items from your WooCommerce shop once the booking has gone through. One books time; the other sells product.
Bundles and upsells at a glance
Read this table before you switch either on — the difference in how the money is handled is the part that catches people out.
| Same-visit bundles | Product upsells | |
|---|---|---|
| What it adds | Another appointment, booked immediately after the first one | A product from your WooCommerce shop |
| When the customer sees it | During booking, as an Add-ons step after they pick a time | After booking, as a pop-up on the confirmation screen |
| Needs | Nothing extra — it is built in | WooCommerce active on the site |
| Switched on at | Settings › Booking rules › Appointment bundles | Per service, on the service’s General tab |
| Paid how | Not charged online — only the main service's deposit is taken | A second, separate purchase through your WooCommerce checkout |
| Shows up in | Booked — one appointment per service, linked together | WooCommerce only — never in Booked |
Switch on same-visit bundles
Bundles are off until you turn them on. There is one global switch, and then a per-form switch that can hide the step on a particular booking form.
- Go to Settings › Booking rulesThe sections run down the left of the screen; Booking rules is under Taking bookings.
- Turn on Appointment bundlesIt is in the More than one appointment card and reads “Add other services to a booking, done back-to-back in the same visit: a Typhoid jab on the end of a Yellow Fever appointment.” The Bundles & upsells switch on the Features page is the same setting.
- Press SaveNothing is stored until you do: Save at the top right, or Save changes on the bar that appears at the bottom once you have changed something.
- Check the formBooking form › Convert › Add-ons & upsells holds “Offer same-visit add-on appointments (bundle step).” It is on by default — turn it off only if you want a plain booking form with no add-on step.
Several people in one slot, or several services in one visit.
Settings › Booking rules, with Appointment bundles switched on.
- 1Booking rules — under Taking bookings in the Settings list. Its More than one appointment card holds Group bookings and Appointment bundles; deposits, references and the other rules sit in the cards around it.
- 2Appointment bundles — the master switch. With it off, no booking form will ever show the add-on step, whatever the per-form toggle says.
What the customer sees in the add-on step
Once a customer has chosen their service, branch, date and time, an Add-ons step appears, as long as at least one other active, in-person service is offered at that branch. It opens with the line "Want to add anything to this visit? We'll book it right after your appointment — one trip." Each option is a card showing the service name, its duration and its own price, with a + Add button that changes to Added.
Before the cards appear, Booked asks the schedule which services genuinely fit straight after the slot the customer picked. While it checks you see “Checking what we can add to your visit…”, and only the services that fit are offered. Each one is checked on its own, straight after the first appointment. If nothing fits, the step says "Nothing can be added right after this appointment at the time you picked. Just continue."
Want to add anything to this visit? We’ll book it right after your appointment — one trip.
The Add-ons step on a Yellow Fever appointment at the Bramhall branch.
- 1Add-ons step — it sits after Time, because Booked can only work out what fits once it knows when the first appointment starts.
- 2An added appointment — tapping the card switches it between + Add and Added. Each add-on is placed at the end time of the one before it, preferring the same member of staff and otherwise any free one.
- 3Total — one line, adding the main service to every add-on at its own price. It is a total for the visit, not the amount taken from the card.
- 4Continue — reads "Continue with 2 added", or "No thanks, continue" if nothing is selected. The step is never compulsory.
On the confirmation screen the extras are listed under Also in this visit, each with its time and price, followed by a combined total. In your Bookings list each add-on is saved as its own appointment at its own price, linked to the first one.
What bundles will not do
Bundles are deliberately simple, and there are a few limits worth knowing before you rely on them.
- You cannot choose which services pair with which. Any other active service offered at that branch, in any category, is offered as an add-on. There is no per-service list and no way to exclude one — your only levers are the service's Status and which branches it is available at.
- Video consultations are never offered as add-ons. They are filtered out of the list, so a video appointment can never be stacked onto an in-person visit.
- Bundles and courses do not combine. If a customer picks add-ons on a service that is set up as a course of repeat visits, those add-ons are silently dropped when the booking is made.
- Only the first appointment sends a confirmation. The add-ons are created quietly, but that email lists the whole visit: a panel headed Everything in this visit gives each service with its times and its own price, marks the appointment the email is about “(this one)”, and ends “These run one after another in the same visit.” Each add-on gets its own reminder, carrying the same panel, so a customer with two add-ons receives three. Cancellation and refund emails leave the panel out.
- Add-ons look like course visits in your Bookings list. They reuse the same machinery, so a visit with two extras tags all three rows “Visit 1 of 3”, “Visit 2 of 3” and “Visit 3 of 3”. It is not a course.
- After booking, each appointment stands alone. Approving, moving or cancelling the first one does nothing to the others. If new bookings wait for your approval, approve each one.
- Bookings you add by hand ignore bundles. Adding an appointment from the Diary or Bookings screen gives you one appointment of that service's duration — add the second yourself.
Only the main service's deposit is taken at booking. The confirmation screen shows a combined total, but the added appointments are effectively pay-on-the-day — collect the balance in the pharmacy.
One more thing can go wrong at the last moment. When the booking is made, the add-ons are placed one after another, so two that each fitted on their own may not fit together. The same happens if somebody else takes the time while your customer is filling in their details. Either way the booking is refused with a message such as ““Typhoid vaccination” isn’t available straight after your appointment. Please remove it or pick another time.” Nothing is booked, so they can go back and try again.
Recommend products with WooCommerce
Product upsells are set per service. Open Services, open the service, and on the General tab find Upsell products in the Options card. The row is hidden if WooCommerce is not active on your site — if you cannot find it, that is why. It does not depend on the Appointment bundles switch.
Only the ones that apply to this service.
Three products attached to the Yellow Fever service, at the bottom of its General tab.
- 1General — upsells sit in the Options card at the bottom of the first tab, below The basics and Time and money. All six tabs share one form: switching tabs does not save, only Save service does.
- 2Chosen products — each shows its name and price with a × to remove it. You can attach up to 20 to one service. A chip showing only a number, such as “#312”, is a product that is no longer published or can no longer be bought.
- 3Search products to add… — starts searching your published WooCommerce products once you have typed two characters. Click a result to attach it; one already attached is greyed out with a tick.
Only published, purchasable products reach the customer. Anything else is dropped without a warning, so a product sitting in the picker is not a guarantee it will be shown. If an upsell never appears, check the product in WooCommerce first.
The upsell is a separate purchase
When the booking is confirmed, a pop-up opens by itself headed For your appointment, with the line "Customers often add these — pick any you'd like and check out in a couple of taps." Every product is ticked already, so the button reads something like Add 3 & check out. No thanks dismisses it, and Add recommended extras reopens it. You can turn the pop-up off with “Show the product upsell pop-up after booking.” at Booking form › Convert. It belongs to the full booking form: the shorter card a booking link opens does not show it.
Choosing products sends the customer out of Booked to your WooCommerce basket and straight on to the WooCommerce checkout. That is a second, entirely separate transaction: it does not go through Booked Payments, it is not part of the appointment's deposit, and it appears only in your WooCommerce orders — never in your Booked bookings or Insights revenue.
So the customer pays twice and may see two confirmations, and when you reconcile takings the appointment money and the shop money come from two places. Refunding a product is a WooCommerce job; refunding an appointment is a Booked job. If the customer abandons that checkout nothing is lost — the appointment is already booked and confirmed.