The booking page has always offered exactly one path: pick a day, pick a time, submit. That works right up until the client can't do it. They're relocating and don't know their own calendar yet. They're at work. Or — most often — they genuinely don't mind which morning it is and would rather you just tell them.
Until now, all three of those clients had to close the tab and call you. So did anyone who opened the link on a week where you had nothing open: the page said "No open times right now — contact your inspector directly," which is the phone tag the booking tool exists to remove.
There's now a second option under the time slots. Choosing it skips the calendar entirely and sends you a request with no time attached, along with the client's contact details and whatever they typed in the notes — which is where they'll tell you "weekday mornings work best" or "any day after the 20th."
When you have no open availability at all, this is offered on its own instead of the dead-end message. You might still be able to fit them in; now they can ask.
These requests show up on the inspection's Scheduling card as "Client asked you to pick a time." There's nothing to confirm, so there's no Confirm button — you use Set date & time, and the person who asked is already ticked in the email list, so they hear the time you picked.
If you'd rather they pick after all, Ask client to pick a time instead sends them back to the booking page.
Which brings up something the scheduling tool has been quietly bad at: telling anyone. The old date field saved the moment you clicked a day — before you'd picked a time — and the only person who ever got an email was whoever submitted a booking request. The other clients and the buyer's agent, who quite often want to be at the inspection, found out if you remembered to tell them.
Set date & time is now one window. You pick the day and the start time together, tick who should be emailed — clients and the buyer's agent are checked for you — and save it all at once. Nothing is saved and nobody is emailed until you click Save, so you can change your mind about a time without anyone hearing about it.
Afterwards the card just tells you where things stand: "Attendees emailed 2 days ago — betty@…, agent@…", or a plain "Clients and the buyer's agent haven't been told the time yet" with a button to fix that. Reschedule after telling people and it turns into a warning — attendees are holding the wrong time — with Send updated time to email the same people again.
Confirming a booking request still emails everyone automatically. The client picked that time themselves; there's nothing for you to review.
Every booking now asks the client whether they plan to attend — I plan to attend, I won't be there, or Not sure yet. It shows as a badge next to the scheduled time, and unlike the booking notes, it stays on the inspection after you confirm the request rather than disappearing with it.
You can set it yourself too, in Client Attendance on the Inspection Details card, for the clients who tell you over the phone.