Booking messaging for locums

Once a workplace has booked you, there is usually a handful of practical things to sort out before the day: a slightly earlier start, where to park, which entrance to use, who to ask for at reception, what the rooming or billing setup looks like. Booking messaging gives you and the workplace a small, shared conversation that lives on the booking itself, so none of it gets lost in a personal inbox or a string of texts.

Every message, from either side, is attached to that one booking. You keep a tidy record of what was agreed, the workplace can look back at the same thread, and nothing depends on remembering which email address the original request came from.

The workplace never has to sign up. Every booking confirmation Sessional sends embeds a secure, signed link to a workplace view of the booking. On that page, alongside the booking detail, the contact sees three buttons: Acknowledge booking, Send a message, and Raise a dispute. To message you, they choose Send a message, type into the box, and send. That is the whole flow on their side, no password, no portal.

The same no-account signed link is what the workplace uses to view and respond to invoices and bookings generally, so it is one familiar place for them. You can read more about how that link works, how long it lasts, and how to withdraw it on the workplace access guide.

When a workplace sends a message, it lands two places for you. You get an in-app notification titled “New message from a workplace” with a preview of the first line, and the same conversation is reachable from the booking in your requests list. Open it and you are on the messages screen for that booking.

• The notification links straight to the conversation. See your in-app inbox for how that drawer works.
• You can also open it from an accepted booking in your booking requests list.
• The messages screen shows the whole thread in order: your replies on one side, the workplace on the other, each stamped with the time.

To reply, type into the box at the bottom and send. Your reply appears in the thread immediately, and the workplace is emailed a copy so they can carry on the conversation from their link without checking back manually. Replies are plain text, capped at 2,000 characters, the same as theirs.

• It is tied to the booking, not your email. The conversation is threaded behind the scenes, so a workplace replying weeks later still reaches the same place rather than starting a fresh chain.
• You control the link.If you withdraw the workplace’s signed access to a booking, they can no longer message you, but your copy of the conversation stays on your dashboard. A withdrawn link tells them the access was removed rather than failing silently.
• Cancelled bookings stop accepting messages. If a booking is cancelled, the message box closes, while the history you already have remains readable.
• There are sensible limits. Messaging is rate limited on both sides to protect your inbox from being hammered, so a burst of rapid sends may be asked to wait a moment.