Google Calendar now allows users to take paid appointments

Google Calendar has launched a new feature that lets professionals or freelancers allow their customers to book paid appointments.

This could be useful for people such as therapists or teachers providing time-based services.

The company has partnered with Stripe for the facility, so users will need to connect their Stripe account to Google Calendar to start accepting payments. Individual users or admins of a workspace account will be able to form their own cancellation and refund policies, but Google will have no role in that process.

Google also specified that it is not charging any platform fees. Plus, the company doesn’t store or process any payment info — all that workload is handled by Stripe at the moment.

“Requiring payment upfront can help small business owners reduce no-shows and grow their business further. Additionally, this feature enables you to manage your time and payments in a simple and seamless manner,” Google said in a blog post.

The company said the new feature is rolling out to people subscribing to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade edition, Nonprofits and Workspace Individual plans over the next few days.

Notably, the schedule management app Calendly offers a similar paid meeting feature through Stripe and PayPal integrations.

Last week, Google also rolled out a new feature for hybrid workers to indicate their working locations — like Office or Home — during the day to help others choose a suitable slot for a meeting.