Investigate a Showing Scheduled at an Unusual, Unexpected or Potentially Disallowed Time

ShowMojo's scheduling algorithms are, dare we say, maddeningly complex. We certainly don't want it this way, but they need to be in order to handle all the different scheduling options in use by customers and potential scheduling scenarios that might occur.

While every few months we might find a legitimate gap in the scheduling algorithms (which we address) the routine outcome of an investigation like this is a simple (though understandably unexpected) answer for why the showing was booked the way it was.

When trying to determine the answer behind an unexpected scheduling, follow these troubleshooting steps:

  1. If you are investigating a double-booked showing you did not want, refer to the Investigate the Cause of Double-Booked Showings article.
  2. If this is a lockbox showing, review the settings on the listing and the Options Available for Lockboxes and Prospect Self Showings article to confirm you are appropriately scheduling lockbox showings for the listing using either the default lockbox availability or a custom calendar.
  3. If you Allow Third-Party Agents to Conduct Their Own Showings via a lockbox, ShowMojo will offer the default lockbox availability (and not base this on any calendar settings).
  4. Review the Showing History on the unexpected scheduling you are investigating. If you see the word custom next to the time at which it was scheduled, that means the showing was booked on a custom showtime. This was not a showtime offered by ShowMojo, but a time explicitly selected by you or one of your agents. Custom showtimes are also denoted with a blue asterisk icon on the Dashboard.
  5. On the Calendar page, review all the calendars to which the listing could belong, based on listing-assignment, property-assignment or listing-group assignment. The point here is to look for an unexpected calendar assignment that would explain the selected showtime.
  6. Also on the Calendar page, for each Calendar to which the showing does apply, in the Availability section of the calendar, check the On these dates I am available at different times subsection on the right. Confirm there is no exception day with a schedule that overrides the normal weekday schedule.
  7. If the showing is a lockbox-based self showing, check to see if it might have been scheduled as Now or See it Now. These showings as assigned to the next closest five-minute mark and will not otherwise conform to normal schedulable showtimes.
  8. If the selected showtime was during an allowable show window but at an unusual increment (on the :30 instead of on the :00, for example), this could be explained by either (i) a pre-existing showing scheduled in a similar increment alongside which ShowMojo scheduled the new showing, or (ii) a connected Third-Party Calendar with busy times that ShowMojo dynamically worked around to schedule this specific showtime.
  9. Check to see if there was already another showing scheduled for the same listing at the same showtime. In this case, the Showtime Piggybacking feature is most likely the explainable cause.
  10. Check to see if there was already another showing scheduled for the same listing at the immediately previous showtime. In this case, the Stacking feature is most likely the explainable cause.
  11. On the Listings page, select the listing in question and click on History. Look for calendars, or show windows or listing groups that were removed from the listing since the showing was scheduled. Also, look for "exception" show windows that might have been added -- and now block what were available times. If you find one, investigate the calendar or associated calendars that had been connected to the listing. Quite likely, it was this previous calendar, show window, or listing group association that caused the issue. 
  12. If a custom showtime was involved in the scenario you are investigating, it is possible that the duration of the showtime was different than what might be expected. Locate and click Edit on the showing with the custom showtime and check the duration assigned to the custom showtime. 
  13. As a last step, confirm that no one on your team recently changed any of the above calendar or schedule settings since the unexpected scheduling occurred. If nothing else was amiss, a recent settings change is most likely the reason. 

If, after reviewing this article and confirming your settings are correct, you have another unexpected scheduling on your account that cannot be explained by anything above, please Contact ShowMojo Support with specific details on the unexpected scheduling.

 

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