# Booking a reservation

> Enter an appointment by hand, check the slot is free before you commit, and book straight from a conversation.

- Source: https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/services-reservations/booking-a-reservation
- Category: Services & reservations (`services-reservations`)
- Language: en
- Updated: 2026-09-17

---

The agent books on its own, but plenty of appointments still arrive by phone or over the counter. **New allocation** is where those go.

## The manual form

The form opens on a short brief: *Reserve a resource on behalf of a customer. The system will check availability before creating it.*

![Step one: pick the service among your active resource types.](https://support.unifunl.io/help/screenshots/52-new-allocation-1.jpg)

You start by picking the **Resource type** from a grid of your active types. Only active types appear, which is the point of the **Active** toggle on each one.

![Step two: the slot, the quantity, the party size and the customer's contact details.](https://support.unifunl.io/help/screenshots/53-new-allocation-2.jpg)

Then you fill in:

| Field | Notes |
| --- | --- |
| **When** | **Start** and **End**, each a date and a time. The type's default duration sets the end for you. |
| **Quantity** | How many seats or units this reservation takes. |
| **Party size** | Optional. How many people are coming, when that differs from the quantity. |
| **Customer name** | Required. |
| **Phone** | Required — it is how the reservation is matched to a contact. |
| **Email** | Optional. |

> **Check availability before you create.** **Check availability** tests the slot; **Create allocation** only becomes active once it has run. That check is what stops two bookings landing on the same slot.

## Book from a conversation

You do not have to leave the discussion. In a conversation, the third button in the top-right icon rail opens the **Services** panel: it lists that customer's reservations and lets you create one with their details already filled in.

![The Services panel in a conversation: the customer's reservation history and the button that creates a new one.](https://support.unifunl.io/help/screenshots/54-inbox-services-panel.jpg)

When the contact has never booked, the panel reads *No reservations yet — Create a reservation for this contact*, and **New reservation** opens the same form with the name and phone already carried over.

> **This is the fastest path.** Booking from the conversation keeps the reservation attached to the thread, so the **Source** block can reopen it later.

## FAQ and troubleshooting

### Create allocation is greyed out

Run **Check availability** first. The button stays inactive until the slot has been tested.

### The service I want is not in the list

The grid only offers **Active** resource types. Turn the type back on in [Resources](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/services-reservations/resources), or create it.

### Availability says the slot is full

The type's **Capacity per slot** is already taken for that window. Pick another slot, raise the capacity, or turn on **Allow overbooking** on the type — which accepts the booking and flags it as a conflict.

### What is the difference between quantity and party size?

**Quantity** is how many units the reservation consumes against capacity. **Party size** is how many people turn up, which you may want recorded even when it does not change the capacity taken.

## What's next?

Reservations the agent takes on its own depend on what it knows about your services.

[Resources](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/services-reservations/resources)

## Related articles

- [Allocations](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/services-reservations/allocations.md): The reservations space — statuses, assignment to a team member, search, filters, statistics, and what a single reservation holds.
- [Resources](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/services-reservations/resources.md): Define what customers can book — resource types, individual units, durations, capacity, and the questions the agent asks before it reserves.
- [Using the inbox](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/inbox/using-the-inbox.md): Work every conversation from one screen — the list on the left, the exchange in the middle, and the contact record on the right.
- [Team and roles](https://support.unifunl.io/en/help/account-billing/team-and-roles.md): Invite colleagues by email, understand what Owner, Admin and Member can each reach, and keep an eye on your seat count.