Managing Your Availability Calendar
Your calendar controls when practices can book you. Keeping it accurate is one of the most important things you can do to maximise booking requests — practices only see you in search results for days you are marked as available.
There are two layers to your availability: your weekly pattern and your individual day blocks. Understanding how they work together makes managing your calendar quick and straightforward.
Layer 1 — Your Weekly Pattern
Your weekly pattern is your default availability. It tells Airlocum which days of the week you are generally available to work. Days included in your pattern show as available every week automatically — you do not need to mark them individually.
To set or update your weekly pattern: go to your profile and select the days you want to work. Tick the days you are available, untick the rest, and tap Save.
💡 Days outside your weekly pattern are automatically unavailable You only need to manage the exceptions — you do not need to block out days that are not in your weekly pattern. If you never work Saturdays, simply leave Saturday unticked in your weekly pattern. It will never show as available. |
Layer 2 — Blocking Individual Days
Individual day blocks are for one-off exceptions within your weekly pattern — a holiday, an appointment, or any day you are unavailable that would otherwise be open.
• To block a day: go to Calendar in your profile and tap the date. A diagonal grey line appears on that date, marking it as blocked. Practices will not see you as available on that day.
• To unblock a day: tap the blocked date again. The diagonal line disappears and the day returns to available.
Calendar colour | What it means |
Green (solid) | Booked — a confirmed shift is in place |
Green (light) | Available to work — practices can find and book you |
Grey | Not available — outside your weekly pattern |
Diagonal line | Date blocked — manually blocked for a one-off exception |
Choosing Which Practice Types You Work With
You can also control which types of practices can find and book you — for example, if you only want to work with NHS practices, or want to exclude a particular practice type.
• Go to Your Details in your profile.
• Tick or untick the practice types you want to include or exclude.
• Unticked practice types will not see you in their search results.
💡 Keep your calendar and preferences current An out-of-date calendar is one of the most common reasons locums miss booking requests. If your available days are not marked correctly, practices searching for cover on those days will not find you — even if you are free. Update your calendar whenever your availability changes, including holidays and one-off commitments. |
