Articles on: AI Booking

How to Set Up AI Booking in Housecall Pro

📝 With AI booking enabled, LeadTruffle checks Housecall Pro for real-time availability, offers times to your leads, and creates the appointment and job automatically.



Table of contents





What is AI booking?


AI booking gives your LeadTruffle agents access to real-time availability in Housecall Pro based on your calendar, employees, and booking settings. The AI can offer specific time slots to leads, lock in the time during conversation, and create the appointment and job directly in Housecall Pro.


For example: "2 PM tomorrow is available — does that work?" If they say no, the AI offers the next slot, confirms it, and the job is created automatically.


Once set up, LeadTruffle can run the entire process from initial touchpoint — Yelp, Thumbtack, Google LSA, phone leads, website texting — all the way through to a confirmed booking.



Step 1: Prerequisites


Before setting up AI booking, make sure of the following:


  • Housecall Pro is connected to LeadTruffle. If you haven't done this yet, follow Connecting LeadTruffle and Housecall Pro (Direct Integration) first. The connection uses your Housecall Pro API key.
  • You're on the Housecall Pro Max plan or higher. API access is required for AI booking, and only Max-tier plans and above include it.


If you're on a lower-tier Housecall Pro plan, you can still use link-based booking instead. Reach out to support and we'll help you set that up.



Step 2: Enable AI booking in LeadTruffle


  1. In LeadTruffle, go to External CRMs in the left sidebar
  2. Scroll down to Housecall Pro and click Settings
  3. Open the Basic Settings tab
  4. Turn on Enable Calendar Availability and Scheduling
  5. Turn on Allow AI to Book Housecall Pro Jobs
  6. Leave the requirements for email, phone, and address before booking turned on
  7. Click Save


We strongly recommend keeping the email, phone, and address requirements on so you have a complete picture of the customer before the appointment is booked.



Step 3: Select your technicians


Housecall Pro accounts often include employees who aren't doing the work — owners, office admins, dispatchers. Select the technicians whose calendars LeadTruffle should use for these appointments.


  1. In the same Housecall Pro settings, find the Employees section
  2. Check the box next to each technician who should be assigned these appointments
  3. Leave admin staff, office team, and owners unchecked unless they also run jobs
  4. Click Save



Employee selection can be left empty. When employees are selected, LeadTruffle requests and verifies availability for those employees. When none are selected, LeadTruffle does not send employee IDs and can use any employee Housecall Pro considers bookable.



Step 4: Configure scheduling


LeadTruffle pulls booking windows directly from Housecall Pro, so you don't need to recreate your weekly schedule here.


  1. Open the Scheduling tab
  2. Set how many days in advance a lead can book — 5 days is a good default
  3. Confirm the saved slot length for the amount of continuous time each appointment requires
  4. Click Show Availability to preview which slots will be offered to leads right now
  5. Click Save



Most leads just want the next available slot. Capping how far out they can book prevents customers from accidentally scheduling weeks or months away.


Slot length and service duration are the same setting. For example, a slot length of 120 minutes is sent to Housecall Pro as a 120-minute service duration. Housecall Pro booking mode and LeadTruffle availability mode share this value. If you do not see Slot Minutes while Housecall Pro booking mode is selected, contact LeadTruffle support to confirm or adjust it.



How LeadTruffle checks Housecall Pro availability


When the AI needs appointment times, LeadTruffle requests Housecall Pro booking windows using:


  • The selected employee IDs, when employees have been configured
  • The saved slot length, sent as the service duration
  • The starting date for the search
  • The configured number of days ahead


LeadTruffle does not currently send a Housecall Pro service ID when checking availability.


Housecall Pro first returns booking windows that fit its booking settings and the requested duration. When specific employees are selected, LeadTruffle then checks their calendars and removes times that conflict with existing, non-cancelled jobs.


How slot length works with flexible scheduling


Slot length does not replace or change your flexible scheduling settings, booking hours, or customer-facing arrival windows in Housecall Pro. It tells Housecall Pro how much continuous time the appointment needs when calculating which booking windows can fit.


For example, a 120-minute slot length means the appointment requires two continuous hours. Housecall Pro still uses the booking preferences and flexible scheduling windows configured in your account to determine which times it returns.


LeadTruffle reads availability from Housecall Pro; it does not switch your Housecall Pro account between flexible scheduling and specific start times.



Step 5: Confirm your Housecall Pro booking settings


LeadTruffle inherits your availability from Housecall Pro, so the schedule LeadTruffle offers will only be as accurate as your settings on the Housecall Pro side.


  1. In Housecall Pro, go to Settings → Booking → Flexible scheduling (LeadTruffle follows the booking windows set in "Flexible scheduling")
  2. Confirm your booking preferences, scheduling type, and time windows are accurate
  3. Confirm your team list is up to date
  4. Once you're done configuring your "Flexible scheduling" time windows, you can select Set specific start time if that's what you want the rest of your Housecall Pro account to follow



If your Housecall Pro settings are wrong, the times LeadTruffle offers leads will be wrong too. Always validate this side before going live.


A note on addresses and ZIP codes


LeadTruffle will try to fill in a missing ZIP code automatically — deriving it from the address, city, or state the customer provided. That said, including a full address with ZIP gets the booking through faster and avoids any delays. If the AI pauses to ask for more address detail, that's why.


A note on customer identity


Housecall Pro requires at least a name or email before it can create a booking. If the AI doesn't have that information yet, it will pause and ask the contact before attempting to book. This is expected behavior — keeping the email and phone requirements turned on in Step 2 helps prevent this from coming up mid-conversation.



Step 6: Turn on AI booking for each lead source


AI booking has to be enabled per channel — Yelp, Thumbtack, Google LSA, website SMS, AI call answering, missed call text-back, and so on.


For each lead source you use:


  1. Open the channel's settings in LeadTruffle (e.g., Yelp, Thumbtack, Website SMS)
  2. Find the AI Booking Mode setting
  3. Select Housecall Pro AI Booking
  4. Click Save



Repeat this for every lead source you want AI booking enabled on.



Step 7: Update your prompts


Your existing prompts may include instructions that conflict with AI booking — like sending a booking link or telling the AI never to confirm appointment times. Review and update each prompt before going live.


Remove or update:


  • Instructions to send a scheduling or booking link (the AI is doing the booking now)
  • Rules like "never confirm an appointment time"
  • Anything that tells the AI to hand off to a human just to schedule


Add:


Make sure the prompt explicitly references AI booking. For example:


"Drive towards booking an in-person estimate as fast as possible. Use the Housecall Pro AI booking to set the appointment."


If your prompt contains a strongly conflicting instruction, LeadTruffle will display a warning in the prompt editor flagging exactly what to remove.


Not sure what to change? Reach out to support — we're happy to review your prompts.



Step 8: Test your setup


Before turning leads loose on the AI, run a test:


  1. Open any lead source's settings (e.g., Yelp)
  2. Use the Test AI Response tool
  3. Role-play as a customer and walk through a booking conversation
  4. Confirm the AI offers real time slots and locks one in


If the booking goes through, you'll see a green Booking Confirmed badge in the test environment. That confirms LeadTruffle successfully created the appointment and job in Housecall Pro.


Ready to activate? Once your CRM is connected, update your AI prompts so the AI books directly instead of just gathering time preferences. → Update your AI prompts after activating AI booking



Need help? Contact us at support@leadtruffle.com or message the team via the chat on this article or in-app.

Updated on: 12/08/2026

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