What is Captivate's Guest Booking System?
It's our completely free, completely integrated interview management and guest booking platform for all Captivate podcasters! This is a complete platform for booking & managing your guest bookings and interviews. It comes complete with a public booking link, total availability control and direct SquadCast integration!
What specific features does the Captivate Guest Booking System offer?
The system is a fully rounded platform for booking & managing guests and interviews:
Fully customisable public booking page for your guests to choose their interview time and submit the information that you require
Guest booking process for you, the podcast host, to proactively book or re-book guests
Complete timezone support for you and your guests
Complete guest management
Built-in reschedule and cancellation processes for both you and your guests
Fully granular availability control
Date blocking for specifically unavailable dates
Podcast creator availability overrides
Custom interview duration and hourly start schedules
Control over how far out guests can book
Custom domain support for your booking page
Custom booking page information & instructions for your guests
Custom interview information for your guests
Set default interview locations that can be overridden on individual bookings
Automated guest calendar files and Google integration
SquadCast direct integration at launch for automated remote recording scheduling (with more to come!)
How does Captivate's Guest Booking System Work?
Here's a short overview video for you and we’ve also created a number of help articles over on the Captivate help portal. Plus, the Captivate team and I are around to help at any time via the support chat.
Is this free? YES !!!!!
It's free to all Captivate podcasters! Our goal from day one is to provide all the tools podcasters need to succeed, without having to pay premium upgrade costs to access. Guest booking is just the latest gift from us to you!
How does my guest access their booking link?
When a guest receives their guest booking confirmation they will need to add the invite to their calendar by using the 'Add to Google Calendar' or 'Download' option. Once added to their calendar, they will be able to access the interview link.
How does my guest reschedule or cancel their booking?
If your guest needs to cancel or reschedule, they simply edit their calendar booking (Google, iCal, etc) and you will receive a notification, allowing you to reschedule if necessary.
What happens when I change my availability but it clashes with a booking I've already made?
If you're changing your availability, this would only impact future bookings. If there's a clash with an existing booking (an unexpected emergency, for example, or trip), you you just need to reschedule the episode and look to rearrange with your guest.
How do timezones work with guest bookings?
For the host, it will use first the timezone from booking settings and otherwise the show’s timezone by default from your podcast settings
For a guest, it will use the browser’s local timezone by default.
On both guest and host booking pages you can choose a different timezone from the dropdown but your choice there won’t be saved anywhere, it’ll only last as long as you’re on that page
Emails to both hosts and guests are sent with times in the dashboard timezone - first the timezone from booking settings and otherwise the show’s timezone by default
How do I manage my bookings?
We've made it really easy to do this! You can access both active and past bookings from your Captivate dashboard, and from there you can view an upcoming booking, reschedule, cancel, and update booking notes. Sweet!
Can my guest add extra info for their bio, etc, once a booking is made?
Yep - they can send you the relevant info, and you can edit their guest profile with that information, and it'll update on the booking.
I use a remote recording platform. Do you support third party integrations?
One of the great things about Captivate is our integration with third-party options, to make your podcasting flow even smoother. This is the same with guest bookings!
Currently, we integrate with SquadCast, so any booking made through your booking page will also show in your SquadCast dashboard.
To set this up, simply click on Integrations in the left hand menu of your Captivate dashboard, and connect your SquadCast account. Once done, it will appear as an option in your Third-Party Integration section. Look out for more cool integrations soon!
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