> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ontimebookings.com.au/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Travel between bookings

> Keep a mobile provider's day in one part of town instead of criss-crossing the city.

Without this, a customer can book any free slot. A provider can end up with a 10am in the north and an 11am in the south.

Turn it on and customers are only offered slots near the bookings a provider already has. The day clusters.

This is only for staff who travel to customers. Leave it off for fixed-site work.

You set it per schedule, under **Optimise travel between bookings**.

## The two settings

### Maximum distance between two bookings

The furthest the provider will travel between back-to-back bookings, in kilometres. Between 0.1 and 100.

### Reservation window

How far either side of a slot to look for existing bookings. Set in 15-minute steps, from 15 minutes to 24 hours. The default is 1 hour.

A short window means only bookings very close in time count. A long window means the rule reaches further across the day.

## How it works

Sam has a booking in Redfern from 10:00 to 11:00. The schedule is set to a 5 km maximum distance and a 2-hour reservation window.

The platform looks 2 hours either side of that booking — 8:00 to 10:00 and 11:00 to 13:00.

* **Inside those windows**, only customers within 5 km of Redfern are offered a slot.
* **Outside them** — from 13:00 on — anyone in the serving area can book as normal.

The further the customer is from Redfern, the later they'll be offered.

## Picking numbers

Start with what a provider can realistically do between two jobs.

| Situation                           | Distance | Window    |
| ----------------------------------- | -------- | --------- |
| Dense inner city, back-to-back work | 5 km     | 1–2 hours |
| Suburban, some driving expected     | 15 km    | 1 hour    |
| Regional, long distances normal     | 40 km+   | 2–3 hours |

Too tight and slots go unsold because nobody nearby wants them. Too loose and it does nothing.

Adjust after a few weeks based on what you see on the calendar.

<Note>
  This works alongside [serving areas](/manage-schedule/serving-areas), it doesn't replace them. The serving area sets where a provider goes at all. This sets how far apart two bookings can be.
</Note>

## It never blocks you

Travel optimisation only filters the times customers see on your website.

From the admin portal you can book anything, anywhere, at any time. If the slot is a stretch, you'll get a **Tight travel window** warning that you can accept. See [Warnings and overrides](/take-bookings/warnings).

## When a day still falls apart

Travel optimisation controls distance, not time. If two bookings are close by but back-to-back with no gap, the provider still arrives late.

Add **buffer time** on the [service's booking settings](/set-up/services/booking-settings) to hold travel time around every booking of that service. The two work together — one keeps jobs close, the other leaves time to get between them.