Booking Questions: General & Service-Specific
Add custom questions to your Spatiko order form, asked of every client or only when they book services like drone or video, and see where answers go.
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Booking questions are the custom questions a client answers while booking on your order form: how you get in, whether the home is vacant, and anything else you’d otherwise text them about the night before. Some matter for every shoot. Others only matter for one service, like what the drone should avoid or what music suits the video. Spatiko lets you ask each question of every client, or only when certain services are booked. Booking questions are available on every plan.
General and service-specific questions
Every question has an Applies to setting:
- All bookings. The question is asked on every booking through this form. Use it for access and occupancy questions that apply to any shoot.
- Only these services. The question is asked only when the client’s order includes one of the services you pick. That counts a service booked on its own and a service that comes inside a package they selected. If the client books two services that the same question targets, it’s still asked only once.
Service-specific questions keep the form short. An agent booking photos alone never sees your drone or video questions, so each extra question only reaches the clients it’s about.
Adding a question
Questions belong to an order form. Open Settings → Services & Forms → Order Forms, open the form, and scroll to Custom questions. Click Add to open the question dialog:
- Question label, the question as the client reads it (“Is there a lockbox?”).
- Answer type:
- Checkbox for something the client ticks when it applies (“Is the property vacant?”). An unticked box isn’t recorded, so only ticked answers show up on the order.
- Short text for a free-text line (“Gate or alarm code?”).
- Dropdown for a pick-list of options you write. It needs at least two options, and you can add up to 20.
- Applies to: All bookings or Only these services. With Only these services, you tick services from a checklist. The list covers every service on this form, including services that are only offered inside one of the form’s packages. A service that comes in one of the form’s packages is marked “also in: package name”. Pick at least one service, or switch back to all bookings.
- Required, off by default. When it’s on, the client can’t finish booking without answering. For a checkbox, that means the box must be ticked, so only require a checkbox when it’s a confirmation, like “The home will be photo-ready”.
Questions save with the form, so click Save changes on the form when you’re done. Drag the handle on a row to change the order the questions are asked in, or use the pencil to edit one.
Reading the question list
Each row shows who the question is for, next to its answer type and a Required badge when it’s on:
- All bookings means it’s asked of every client.
- A service name, such as “Drone Photography” or “Drone Photography +1”, means it’s asked only when those services are booked.
- Not on this form is a warning. The question targets services that this form doesn’t offer, so it’s never asked. Add one of those services to the form, or edit the question.
- No services is also a warning. Every service the question targeted has been deleted, so it’s never asked. Pick a new service in the question, or switch it to all bookings.
Above the list, a summary counts how many questions are asked of every customer and how many more are shown only for specific services. When more than four questions are asked of everyone, Spatiko suggests targeting the ones that only matter for some services. Each extra question on a booking form costs a little conversion.
Copying questions from another form
If you run more than one order form, Copy from sits next to Add. Pick a form and its questions are added to this one, with their answer types, options, and targets. Targets this form doesn’t offer are dropped. If none of a question’s services are on this form, it keeps them all and shows the Not on this form chip, so you can decide what to do with it. A question on the source form that targets no services at all is skipped. Review the copied questions, then save the form.
You’ll also see questions from the service side. When you edit a service, its dialog notes how many booking questions ask about it and on which forms. If you delete a service that questions target, the confirmation lists the booking questions that target it and tells you how many will stop being asked.
What the client sees
Questions appear on the Details step of the booking form:
- General questions sit in the Access & Special Notes card, under the built-in access info and special notes fields.
- Service-specific questions get their own card below it, with the subtitle “A few questions about the services you picked.” When every question in it belongs to one service, the card is titled with that service’s name. When the questions come from several services, it’s titled Shoot details and each question carries a small “For: service” caption.
Required questions are marked with an asterisk. The list updates as the client changes their cart. Drop the drone and the drone question disappears. Add it back and their earlier answer is still there. Only answers to questions that are showing get submitted.
On the Review step, the client’s answers are listed under Contact, with service answers grouped under each service’s name, so they can check everything before they book.
Where the answers go
Answers are saved on the order and reach the people who run the shoot:
- The order sidebar. In the order’s Details section, Booking answers lists general answers first, then service answers grouped by service. You can edit them in place. A checkbox answer is a switch, and text and dropdown answers edit as text. See managing an order.
- The Google Calendar event. If the photographer has connected Google Calendar, each shoot’s event description includes a Booking answers block. Service answers are labeled with their service. A very long answer is cut short there, and if there are too many answers to fit, the rest are replaced by a note to open the order in Spatiko.
- Team emails. The email a photographer gets when they’re assigned to a shoot and your new-order notification both include a Booking answers section.
Answers don’t appear in the client portal or in the emails your clients receive.
Good to know
- Questions are per form. Each order form keeps its own questions. Nothing is shared across forms except through Copy from.
- Orders you create yourself don’t ask questions. An order you create by hand has no booking answers. Put anything you learn by phone in the order’s notes instead.
- Translations. If you offer your booking form in more than one language, each question’s label and dropdown options can be translated in the question dialog. You type these by hand — Draft with AI isn’t offered for questions. See languages and translations.
- Keep required questions to a minimum. A required question stops a client who doesn’t know the answer yet. Make it optional and follow up after booking.
Go deeper
- Order forms — everything else on a form, from the catalog it shows to when clients pay.
- Services & pricing models — set up the services your targeted questions hang off.
- Syncing Google Calendar — get answers onto every shoot’s calendar event.
- Languages & translations — offer your form, and its questions, in French as well as English.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask a question only when a client books drone photography?
Yes. Set the question's Applies to option to Only these services and tick Drone Photography. It's asked whenever drone is in the cart — booked on its own or inside a package — and skipped for everyone else.
Do booking questions carry over to my other order forms?
No. Each order form has its own set of questions. To reuse a set, open the other form and use Copy from to bring its questions across, then review them and save the form.
Do orders I create myself ask the booking questions?
No. Booking questions are part of the public order form, so an order you create in Spatiko by hand collects no answers, and there's no Booking answers section to fill in on it.
Can clients see their answers after they book?
Not after booking. Clients review their answers on the Review step before they submit, but answers don't appear in the client portal or in client emails — they're for you and your photographer.