No-shows are part of running a busy business — but a customer who's let you down before shouldn't be able to silently lock in a prime Saturday slot. Suddenly Sorted keeps a simple, private record of who hasn't turned up, shows you a warning at a glance, and automatically holds a new booking for your approval when someone has a track record of not showing. You keep taking bookings from everyone; you just get a heads-up and the final say on the risky ones.
How it works
1. Mark a no-show
When a customer doesn't turn up, open Bookings (or the calendar), find their appointment and set its status to No-show from the red status dropdown. That's the only step you take — there's nothing else to fill in.
2. A ⚠ badge appears
From then on, a small ⚠ N warning badge shows next to that customer's name on any of their future bookings and in your Clients list, with the running count. You'll spot their history before you confirm. It only counts no-shows at your own business.
3. Repeat offenders are auto-held
Once a customer has two or more prior no-shows, their next booking is automatically held for your approval instead of being auto-confirmed — flagged with the reason "Auto-held: customer has N prior no-shows". You then confirm it, ask them to reconfirm, or decline.
What stays in your control
- You decide every time — auto-hold never cancels or blocks anyone. It simply parks a risky booking in Pending so you can confirm it, ask the customer to reconfirm, or decline.
- Nobody is charged by auto-hold. It's purely informational, parking a risky booking for your OK rather than taking any money. Want a stronger deterrent? Confirm to hold sits in the middle — every booking on a service is held until the customer taps a one-tap confirm link, still no payment. And if you'd rather ask for money up front, that's what deposits & pay-to-hold are for: an opt-in, refundable deposit per service, paid straight to your own Stripe with no commission to us.
- Marking the no-show is the only step — set the status once and the badge and auto-hold take care of themselves from there.
- It works everywhere bookings come in — whether the customer booked through the chat assistant or your booking page, a known repeat no-show is held the same way.
- It's your business only — the count reflects no-shows recorded at your salon, not anywhere else.
A softer signal too
Alongside the hard count, your dashboard can show a "likely no-shows" estimate — past appointments that were never marked complete. Treat it as a gentle nudge rather than a verdict: the more you keep statuses up to date (marking visits done or no-show), the sharper the picture gets. The real protection still comes from the mark-status → badge → auto-hold loop.