Alerts to your phone lock screen

The slot opens at 3am and closes by 3:04

Appointment systems release capacity unpredictably — cancellations, overnight batch releases, extra capacity added without notice. If the only way to find out is refreshing, you will miss most of them.

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How do you monitor appointment availability?

Watch the booking page and select the calendar or slot list. When "no appointments available" changes to anything else, you are alerted — including at 3am, when a great many of these releases actually happen. It works wherever availability is shown on a public page without a login.

Anyone who has tried to get a visa appointment, a driving test, a delivery slot in a busy period or a specialist clinic booking knows the pattern: nothing available for months, then a slot appears at an unpredictable hour and is gone in minutes.

These systems rarely offer notifications, and when they do the notification arrives after the slot has gone. The only reliable approach is checking often, which is exactly what nobody can do by hand at 3am.

This guide covers watching booking pages, and is direct about the substantial share of these systems that a hosted checker cannot reach at all.

Setting it up

What to watch on a booking page

The useful signal is usually a message rather than a calendar.

The no-availability message

Most booking systems display something like "No appointments are currently available". Select that sentence. When it is replaced by anything, you are alerted — the cleanest possible signal.

The calendar or slot grid

Where dates are shown with availability, select the grid. Bear in mind these often carry a current-month indicator that changes daily and can produce false alerts.

The location or centre list

Where several centres are listed with availability, watching the list catches any of them opening rather than one specific site.

Check every five minutes at minimum

These windows are short. Thirty-minute checks on the free plan will miss most cancellation slots, and that is worth knowing before you rely on it.

Being honest

What cannot be watched

This is a large share of appointment systems, and it would be dishonest to bury it.

Anything requiring a login

Most visa and government booking systems require you to sign in before showing availability. A hosted change detector cannot reach those, and we will not ask for your credentials to a government account.

Availability behind a search form

If slots only appear after submitting a form with no resulting URL, there is nothing stable to watch.

Systems with queue or session tokens

Booking systems that issue a session before showing availability cannot be checked anonymously.

It does not book anything

You get an alert. The booking is yours, immediately, and often against other people who were also alerted.

Check first: open the booking page in a private browser window without signing in. If you can see availability there, it can be watched. If you cannot, no hosted tool can.

Where it works

Systems this genuinely helps with

Given the above, these are the cases where people get real value.

Public availability pages

Many services publish a status page showing whether appointments exist before requiring a login to book. That page is watchable and is the signal you need.

Delivery and collection slots

Supermarket and courier slot pages are frequently public and release capacity in batches at predictable-ish hours.

Clinics, classes and courses

Smaller booking systems rarely require a login to display availability, and rarely have any notification of their own.

Restaurant reservations

Cancellations reappear constantly and the pages are almost always public.

How it works

How to monitor appointment availability

Get alerted the moment a slot opens on a public booking page.

1

Check the page works signed out

Open it in a private window. If availability is not visible without signing in, no hosted tool can watch it.

2

Paste the booking page URL

We load it and show it back exactly as we fetched it.

3

Select the no-availability message

Or the calendar grid. The message is usually the cleaner signal.

4

Check every five minutes or faster

These windows are short. Thirty-minute checks will miss most cancellations.

5

Turn on browser push

A lot of these releases happen overnight. Push reaches a phone lock screen; email will not wake you.

6

Be ready to book immediately

The alert is a starting gun, not a reservation.

Typically about 3 minutes from start to finish.

Pricing

What it costs

Uptime monitors, watched pages and heartbeats each get their own allowance, so adding a page watch never costs you a monitor. SSL and domain checks ride along with the monitor they belong to and use nothing extra.

PlanMonitorsWatched pagesHeartbeatsFastest intervalAlert channelsPrice
Free111Every 30 minutes1 email address$0
Founding Member first 20 only252525Every 5 minutesEmail + webhook & chat$5/mo
Basic101010Every 10 minutesEmail + webhook & chat$8/mo
Growth505050Every 5 minutesEmail + webhook & chat$19/mo
Pro100100100Every 60 secondsEmail + webhook & chat$34/mo

Annual billing is cheaper on every paid tier. The pricing page is the authoritative list.

See it

What an alert actually looks like

Every recorded change is compared word by word and kept with a before-and-after image. This is the real output, shown with worked example data.

competitor.com/pricing Watching: Pricing table
Pro plan — $49 per month
+ Pro plan — $39 per month
+ Save 20% with annual billing

Price fell from $49 to $39, and an annual discount was added.

2 words added · 1 removed · 4.1% of the watched region

retailer.com/product/… Watching: Availability
Out of stock
+ In stock — ships tomorrow
+ Add to basket

The item is available again and the basket button returned.

6 words added · 3 removed · 12.5% of the watched region

supplier.com/subprocessors Watching: Subprocessor list
~ Data is processed in the EUthe EU and the United States
+ Added: Northwind Analytics Inc. (United States)

A new subprocessor was added in another jurisdiction.

9 words added · 2 removed · 1.8% of the watched region

Worked example — not live data. Start monitoring free
Alerts

Where we can reach you

The free plan sends to one email address. Every paid plan adds the chat and webhook channels below, with 2 to 10 destinations depending on the plan. However many alerts you receive, the price does not change — nothing here is metered or charged per alert.

Email Before and after images inline
Browser push On a phone or desktop lock screen
RSS feed Every recorded change, as a feed
SlackPaid Through an incoming webhook
Microsoft TeamsPaid Through an incoming webhook
DiscordPaid Through an incoming webhook
TelegramPaid Straight to a chat or channel
FlockPaid Through an incoming webhook
WebhooksPaid Post to anything you run yourself

There are no voice calls and no SMS. If a phone call at 3am is a hard requirement, say so before you subscribe — we would rather tell you now than refund you later.

FAQ

Appointment availability questions

How do I get alerted when an appointment becomes available?

Watch the booking page and select the "no appointments available" message or the calendar. When that text changes you are alerted, including overnight when many of these releases happen.

Will this work for visa appointments?

Only if availability is visible without signing in. Many visa systems require a login before showing any slots, and a hosted change detector cannot reach those. Check in a private browser window first — if you cannot see availability signed out, no external tool can.

How fast should I check?

Every five minutes at minimum. Cancellation slots often last only a few minutes, so the free plan's thirty-minute interval will miss most of them.

Does it book the appointment for me?

No. There is no booking automation. You get an alert and the booking is yours — usually against other people who were also alerted.

Why do I get alerts when nothing is available?

Usually because your selection includes a date, a countdown or a current-month indicator that changes on its own. Re-select just the availability message or slot grid.

What kinds of booking pages work best?

Public availability pages, delivery and collection slots, clinics, classes, courses and restaurant reservations — anywhere availability is shown without a login and there is no notification of their own.

Can it check overnight?

Yes, it runs continuously. Browser push is the alert channel that will actually reach you at 3am, which is when a surprising number of these releases happen.

How many booking pages can I watch?

One on free, 25 on the $5 plan, 50 on Growth and 100 on Pro — useful when you would take a slot at any of several centres.

Keep reading

Related monitoring guides

Last updated August 4, 2026 · Written by Amit Gupta, founder of MonitoringDaddy

AG
Written by

Amit Gupta

Amit Gupta is the founder of MonitoringDaddy , a website and infrastructure monitoring platform built by Toto Dream Marketing. He writes about uptime, change detection, SSL and domain monitoring, and helps teams keep their websites fast, secure and online.

Stop refreshing the booking page.

Free plan checks every 30 minutes. $5/mo checks every five, with push to your phone.