Velaro Appointments

Velaro Appointments is the text-to-book, multi-calendar-aware add-on that turns any Velaro channel (web widget, SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messages, IVR, Facebook) into a booking funnel. It bundles every connected calendar (Outlook, Microsoft Bookings, Calendly) behind one AI tool surface so customers can say "book me Tuesday at 2" and get an actual booked appointment, not a calendar link.

Marketing overview for prospects: velaro.com/appointments — explains the multi-calendar conflict-aware booking pitch, pricing ($49/mo add-on, included with Enterprise), and the Apptoto/Calendly/Weave comparison table.

What it does

Velaro Appointments wraps your existing calendar integrations and adds three AI skills:

• appointments_find_open_slots — returns truly-open windows merged across every connected calendar. A slot is only returned if it's free on ALL of them.
• appointments_book — actually books the appointment on the orchestrator's first-connected calendar (typically Outlook).
• appointments_manage — reschedules or cancels an existing booking using the provider+event_id returned at booking time.

The AI Q&A bot stays in front of the booking flow so customers can ask "do you take Aetna?" or "are you open Saturday?" before booking, in the same conversation.

Turning it on

1. Connect at least one calendar in Admin → Integrations (Outlook Calendar, Microsoft Bookings, or Calendly).

2. Go to Account → Subscription → enable the Appointments add-on. Professional and above include it.

3. In Workflows, click Use a template → pick "Text-to-book appointments" to get the AI Q&A → FindSlots → Book → Reminder → Review flow pre-wired.

What customers can say

The AI is trained to recognize free-form booking intent on any channel:

• "What times are open Thursday?"
• "Book me Tuesday at 2"
• "Do you have anything tomorrow morning?"
• "Reschedule my appointment to Friday at 10"
• "Cancel my booking"

How conflict-aware booking works

If a customer has both Outlook and Microsoft Bookings connected, Velaro Appointments queries free/busy from both before suggesting a slot. A time only appears as open if neither calendar shows it as busy. This is the moat vs single-calendar tools like Apptoto — no double-bookings across systems.

The write target (where a new appointment is actually created) is the first calendar in the connected list. The orchestrator picks Outlook by default when both Outlook and Microsoft Bookings are connected, since Outlook is the staff member's authoritative calendar.

What gets reminded automatically

The starter template wires a 24-hour-before SMS reminder ("Reply C to confirm, R to reschedule") and a 2-hour-after review request. Both use Velaro's existing scheduled-SMS and review nodes — no extra config.

Channels supported out of the box

Web widget, SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business, Facebook Messenger, and inbound IVR (voice). Channel-aware overrides in the template ensure the IVR path never reads URLs aloud — it offers to text or email the confirmation instead.

What it does NOT do (v1)

• Google Calendar is not yet a first-class provider. Customers using Google Calendar should connect via Outlook (M365 alongside Gmail) or Calendly until Phase 2 ships Google Calendar OAuth.
• Apple iCloud is Phase 2 (CalDAV + app-specific-password).
• The MS Bookings adapter creates appointments but does not yet reschedule/cancel them directly — use the Microsoft Bookings web UI for those, or cancel + rebook via the AI.

Cancellation safety

Cancelling an appointment via the AI is a destructive action and is gated by the EnableDestructiveAiSkills flag on the subscription. When that flag is off, the AI refuses to cancel and offers to transfer the customer to an agent instead. Reschedule (which is reversible) is always allowed when Appointments is enabled.