Block time (vacation, absences, maintenance)

Blocked time is a period when no bookings are accepted — it’s like a ghost appointment that takes up space on the calendar without being tied to any customer. You use it for:

• Vacation for a professional or the whole business.
• One-off absences (doctor’s visit, birthday, training).
• Maintenance of the location (renovation, deep cleaning, installation).
• Pauses between appointments for rest or prep.

Types of blocked time

Create blocked time

Method 1: from the calendar (quick)

For short blocks (a few hours or a day):

1. Go to Calendar.
2. Drag over the time range you want to block, or tap an empty slot.
3. In the pop-up form, choose “Block time” instead of “Create booking”.
4. Fill in:
   • Reason: free text (e.g. “Extended lunch”, “Doctor”, “Training”).
   • Professional or whole location.
5. Tap Block.

Method 2: from “Blocked time” (recommended for long blocks)

For vacation or multi-day closures:

1. Go to Blocked time in the sidebar.
2. Tap ”+ New blocked time”.

3. Fill in:
   • Title: an identifiable name (e.g. “Carolina’s vacation”, “Year-end closure”).
   • Type: person, location, or whole business.
   • Start date + End date.
   • Time (optional — if you leave it blank, it covers the whole day).
   • Repeat (optional — see below).
4. Tap Save.

Recurring blocked time

For hours that repeat:

• Lunch every day: 13:00 to 14:00, repeat Monday through Friday.
• Weekly closure: full Sundays, repeat every week.
• Inventory day: the first Monday of every month, all day.

In the form, check “Repeat” and choose:

• Daily (the days of the week that apply).
• Weekly (a specific day of the week).
• Monthly (a specific day of the month).
• Custom (enter the dates individually).

Important tip: you set lunch up as a break within the location’s or professional’s working hours (see Create your first location). Recurring blocked time is for exceptions to that pattern, not for the pattern itself.

How blocked time looks on the calendar

It appears as diagonally striped blocks in gray. The reason is written on top.

• If you block a professional, the professional’s column shows the block.
• If you block a whole location, all the columns are striped.
• If you block the whole business, the entire day appears striped.

Customers who visit the public link during a block will see “No times available” for those slots and be offered another date.

What about customers who already have a booking?

Creating blocked time does not cancel existing bookings that overlap with the blocked hours. If you have bookings on the day you’ll be on vacation, you have to:

1. See the affected bookings (Citauno shows them to you in an alert when you create the block).
2. Reschedule or cancel them manually.
3. Contact each customer by WhatsApp or email to let them know.

Citauno helps with this: when you create blocked time that overlaps existing bookings, a warning appears with the list of affected bookings and a “Notify customers and reschedule” button that opens an assistant.

Use case: year-end vacation

Scenario: the business closes from December 24 to January 2.

1. Blocked time → New blocked time.
2. Type: Whole business.
3. Dates: 12-24 to 01-02 (all day).
4. Reason: “Year-end vacation”.
5. Save.

A week ahead, send a message to your list of regular customers:

Hi! Just letting you know we'll be closed from December 24 to January 2. 🌴
Bookings reopen starting Monday, January 5.
Thanks for being with us this year! 💛

Since you have the block set up, no one will be able to book on those dates — but the heads-up avoids misunderstandings and projects professionalism.

Blocked time per service (advanced use)

Useful when a specific service is unavailable but the others are.

Example: the coloring machine is in maintenance from Monday to Wednesday.

1. Blocked time → New blocked time.
2. Type: Specific services.
3. Check the affected services (Coloring, Highlights, Balayage).
4. Dates: Monday to Wednesday.
5. Save.

During those days, customers can still book cuts, styling, and other services — but the blocked services don’t appear as an option.

Edit or delete blocked time

1. Blocked time → find the block in the list.
2. Tap the ⋯ → Edit or Delete.
3. If you edit recurring blocked time, you can choose:
   • This instance only (changes just the one day).
   • This and future ones (changes from that day forward).
   • The whole series (changes every occurrence, past and future).

Blocked time visible only to the team

Sometimes you want to mark your schedule without affecting the customer. For example, “I have a VIP customer at 16:00, don’t book anything close to it.”

For this, use private blocked time:

1. Create the block as usual.
2. Check the “Don’t show the reason in the public list” option (if you enabled syncing with external calendars).
3. The customer sees “Busy” instead of the real reason.

Common errors

What you’ve got now

• Blocked time created for absences, vacation, and maintenance.
• Recurring blocked time for fixed hours you don’t cover.
• A plan to reschedule affected bookings and notify customers.

Next step

To automate reminders and notifications to your customers, set up WhatsApp. Continue with WhatsApp notifications: credits vs. your own account.