Booking exceptions overview

What exceptions are for

Exceptions are date-based blocks that prevent your AI agent from booking appointments during specific times. While business hours define your regular weekly schedule, exceptions let you override that schedule for specific dates or patterns.

Use exceptions when you need to block availability for:

• Holidays — National holidays, religious observances, or business-specific closure days.
• Vacations — Personal or team time off.
• Maintenance days — Office closures, renovations, or equipment maintenance.
• Recurring obligations — Annual events, weekly meetings, or any repeating commitment that conflicts with appointments.
• Partial-day blocks — Morning-only closures, afternoon training sessions, or any time window you need to protect within an otherwise open day.

When an exception is active, the AI stops offering appointment slots during the blocked time. Customers are not shown those slots as options during booking conversations.

Accessing exceptions

From the Calendar screen, click the Exceptions button in the toolbar to open the exceptions management page:

https://panel.interlinked-ai.com/en/calendar/exceptions

This page lets you view, create, edit, filter, and delete all your booking exceptions.

Types of exceptions

Interlinked supports three types of booking exceptions, each designed for a different scheduling need:

Single day exceptions

A single day exception blocks one specific date. Use this for:

• A one-time holiday or closure
• A single day you know you will be unavailable
• A specific date with a scheduling conflict

Example: Block October 24, 2026 because of a team retreat.

Date range exceptions

A date range exception blocks multiple consecutive days. Use this for:

• Vacations that span several days
• Multi-day closures (office renovation, travel)
• Conference attendance or extended events

Example: Block October 24–28, 2026 for a business trip.

Recurring exceptions

A recurring exception blocks a repeating date pattern. Use this for:

• Annual closures (company anniversary, yearly inventory)
• Monthly recurring commitments
• Any date that repeats on a predictable cycle

Example: Block every January 10 for a yearly company closure.

Full-day vs partial-day blocking

Each exception type supports two blocking modes:

Block entire day

When Block entire day is enabled (this is the default), the entire day is blocked. No appointments can be scheduled at any time on the blocked date.

Override hours (partial-day block)

When Block entire day is turned off, you can specify a time range to block. Only that specific window is blocked — the rest of the day remains available.

Example: Block 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on October 24, 2026. Appointments can still be booked from 11:00 AM onward.

For date range exceptions with partial-day blocking, the same time window is blocked every day within the range. For example, blocking 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM from October 24–28 means every day in that range has the same two-hour block.

Effect on existing appointments

Exceptions can affect appointments that were already booked before the exception was created.

If you create an exception that covers a time period where an appointment already exists:

• The affected customer receives a cancellation email
• If you entered a reason when creating the exception, that reason is included in the cancellation email
• The appointment is removed from the blocked time

How exceptions interact with business hours

Exceptions and business hours work together to determine final availability:

1. Business hours define the maximum weekly availability window
2. Exceptions remove specific dates or times from that window
3. Google Calendar events further reduce availability within the remaining window

The formula for actual availability is:

Available slots = Business hours − Exceptions − Existing Google Calendar events

This means an exception always takes priority over business hours. Even if your business hours say you are open, an exception on that date will block the time.

Visual indicators

Exceptions are reflected on the calendar with color indicators:

• Red — A fully blocked day (entire day is unavailable)
• Yellow — A partially blocked day (some hours are blocked, but other hours remain available)

See Blocked days and calendar colors for a complete guide to visual indicators and the interactive drawer behavior.

What to do next

• Create and manage exceptions — Learn how to add, edit, filter, and delete exceptions. See Create and manage exceptions.
• Understand visual indicators — Learn what the red and yellow calendar colors mean. See Blocked days and calendar colors.
• Configure your regular schedule — Go back to Business hours settings to adjust your weekly availability.