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Block time (vacation, absences, maintenance)

Updated on Wednesday 09 September 2026

How to create blocked time so nobody books hours you can't cover, and what to do about bookings already on the calendar.

A block is a stretch of time that doesn’t accept bookings — it takes up space in the calendar with no client attached. Use it for:

  • Vacation for one professional or the whole business.
  • One-off absences (doctor, birthday, training).
  • Maintenance of the space (renovation, deep clean, an installation).
  • Public holidays and one-day closures.

What you can block

The form first asks “What to block”, with three options:

Option What it does
Whole business Closes every location and the whole team. Ideal for public holidays.
Specific locations Pick one or more locations; the rest keep taking bookings.
Specific team members Pick a location (or “all”), then the people who will be out.

Creating a block

Method 1: from the calendar (quick)

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

  1. Go to Calendar.
  2. Tap the time range you want to block.
  3. In the pop-up form, switch the selector from Booking to Block.
  4. Fill in what to block, the reason, and the times.
  5. Tap Block.

The pop-up arrives pre-filled with the location, professional, and time of the cell you tapped.

Method 2: from “Blocked times”

List of the business’s blocked times

For vacations or multi-day closures:

  1. Go to Blocked times in the sidebar.
  2. Tap the button to create a new block.

Form for creating a new blocked time

  1. Fill in:
    • What to block: business, locations, or team members.
    • Reason: free text, optional (for example “Carolina’s holiday” or “End-of-year closure”). It’s what shows in the list and on the calendar.
    • From: date + time.
    • To: date + time.
  2. Tap Block.

The times are optional: leave the field empty and 00:00 is used. To block a whole day, go from day X at 00:00 to day X+1 at 00:00.

Blocks that repeat

What you do today, depending on the case:

What you wanted to repeat How to do it
The daily lunch hour Set it as a break inside the location’s or the professional’s hours (see Exceptional working hours per professional)
A weekly day off Mark that day as Closed in the location’s or the person’s schedule
A monthly stocktaking day Create one block per date. Since a block can cover a long range, one is enough for a holiday

How blocks look

On the calendar they appear as marked-off blocks with the reason written on them. Tap one to open its detail and edit or delete it.

  • Block team members and each chosen person’s column is marked.
  • Block a location or the whole business and the entire range is marked.

On the client’s side, a block simply makes the slots disappear: on your public link they see there’s no availability for that date and are invited to try another. The reason is never shown to the client — it’s internal text, for you and your team.

What about clients who already have a booking?

The real steps, before you go on holiday:

  1. Open the Calendar on the dates you’re about to block and see what’s booked.
  2. Reschedule or cancel them one by one, from each booking’s detail.
  3. Tell each client. Cancelling or rescheduling in Citauno fires the matching notification; if you want to say more, message them on WhatsApp.
  4. Only then create the block.

Creating the block first doesn’t break anything: the old bookings stay put and the calendar shows them on top of the block. But nothing will remind you about them, so check the calendar regardless.

Use case: end-of-year holidays

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

  1. Review the calendar for those dates and resolve any bookings.
  2. Blocked times → new block.
  3. What to block: Whole business.
  4. From 24-12 00:00 to 03-01 00:00.
  5. Reason: “End-of-year holidays”.
  6. Block.

A week before, message your regular clients:

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

With the block in place nobody can book those dates — but the heads-up avoids misunderstandings and reads as professional.

Editing or deleting a block

  1. Blocked times → find the block in the list (it shows the ones that ended less than a day ago or haven’t ended yet).
  2. Tap Edit or Delete. You can also open it by tapping it in the calendar.

A block covering several people or several locations is stored as one logical block: editing it changes all of its rows at once, and deleting it removes them together. If you want to take one person out of the block, edit it and untick them from the selection.

Professionals blocking their own time

A professional with their own access (Professional role, at citauno.com/p/your-business) can create, edit, and delete their own blocks from their calendar without going through an admin. They can also see — without editing — the business-wide or location-wide blocks that affect them.

Common problems

Symptom Cause Fix
I blocked the day and there’s still a booking The booking already existed: the block doesn’t touch it Cancel or reschedule it by hand
I was able to block a slot that already had a booking That’s expected: blocks aren’t validated against bookings Check the calendar before blocking
The block isn’t in the list The list only shows blocks that ended less than a day ago Look for it in the calendar, on the relevant date
I edited one block and several changed A block covering several people or locations is a single block That’s expected: edit the selection to split them
I don’t want the client to see the reason The reason is never shown to clients Nothing to do

What you’ve got now

  • Blocks created for absences, holidays, and maintenance.
  • Clarity on what can be blocked and what can’t yet.
  • A plan for resolving affected bookings before you block.

Next step

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