# How to Manage Expired Bookings and Control Booking Duration

When customers start the booking process but don’t complete payment, it’s important to understand how long their chosen time slots stay blocked on your calendar. This helps prevent double bookings while still keeping your availability flexible. Let’s break it down.

### What Is an Expired Booking?

When a customer adds a service to their cart, Cowlendar temporarily blocks that time slot, marking it as unavailable, even before the booking is confirmed with payment.

This behavior follows Shopify’s default logic for product inventory, designed to avoid overselling. Cowlendar applies the same rule to your calendar to ensure no two customers can book the same time by accident.

If the customer does not complete the booking within a certain time frame, that slot becomes available again. We refer to this as an **expired booking**.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Keep in mind that the expiration countdown feature works reliably with most official Shopify themes. However, it might not be fully compatible with all custom themes or when using upsell apps and features
{% endhint %}

### How to Adjust the Booking Hold Duration

You can control how long a time slot stays reserved while it’s sitting in a customer’s cart:

1. Go to your **Cowlendar Dashboard**
2. Click **My Services** in the left-hand menu
3. Select the service you want to adjust and click **Edit**

<figure><img src="/files/VSF4aVl8r6IdU7tRgdx0" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

5. Scroll down to the **Advanced** section

<figure><img src="/files/M6g83uAzT4ztXXr1eU2y" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

6. Adjust the **Slots lock time** feature to your preference

<figure><img src="/files/V3qOtgBUGbyGa6gKw3Hu" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

This option lets you choose how long the slot will stay blocked before being released back into your availability.


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