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Booking Forms
After picking a time, your guest fills in a short form. You control most of what it asks. All of these options live on the booking link form: go to Bookings, open the Booking Links tab, and create or edit a link.
Every form starts with the basics: Name and Email are always required, Phone appears if you switch on Collect Phone Number, and a free-text question invites the guest to share anything that helps you prepare.
Ask custom questions
In the Guest questions card, click Add a question. For each question you set:
- Question type: Short answer, Paragraph, Dropdown, or Checkbox
- Question: the wording the guest sees
- Required: whether the guest must answer before booking
Dropdowns get an Options list (use Add option to grow it), checkboxes get a Checkbox text label, and text questions can carry a Placeholder (optional) hint shown inside the empty input. Reorder questions with the arrow buttons. Free accounts can add one custom question per link. Paid plans can add up to 10. If you downgrade, existing questions stay on the link and you can remove or reorder them. Editing is locked until only one question remains, or you upgrade to a paid plan.
Guests see your questions grouped under a card called "Questions from your host". Their answers appear on the booking's detail sheet in the Bookings board, on the episode's booking panel, and in your notification email.
Book more than one guest
The Multiple guests card offers two models. They are mutually exclusive: turning one on disables the other, so pick the model that fits the recordings you book through this link.
Several people book the same slot
Turn on Allow multiple people to book the same slot for panel-style recordings. Several guests book themselves into one recording independently, each filling in the form. They share a single episode, calendar event, and show notes.
Set Maximum concurrent bookings to cap how many people can hold the slot, from 2 to 20.
One booker brings additional guests
Turn on Allow the booker to invite additional guests when one person organizes for a group. The booker fills in the form once and adds their companions' names and emails. Set Maximum additional guests to cap the extra people, from 1 to 10.
Every attendee, not just the booker, receives their own confirmation email and guest portal access after you confirm the booking.
Research your guests with AI
A paid feature
AI guest research is available on Creator plans and up. On the Free plan the card shows Upgrade to enable.
The AI guest research card collects a few structured answers from your guest. When you confirm their booking, show.fm reads the pages they shared and prepares a research brief with suggested interview questions, ready on the episode before you record. Each research run uses 5 AI credits.
Turn on Research my guests with AI, then choose which fields to ask. Each field has a default question you can reword (Question shown to guests) and its own Required toggle:
| Field | Default question | How the AI uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Website links | Your website or profile links | The pages read to research the guest; guests can share up to 3 links |
| Topic | What would you like to discuss? | Drives the brief's focus and the suggested questions |
| Bio | Tell us about yourself and your work | Identity context, cross-checked against the pages read |
| Talking points | Key points you want to cover | A must-cover list the suggested questions honour |
| Off-limits | Anything you'd prefer not to discuss? | A hard constraint; nothing in the brief or questions touches these |
Guests see these fields under a card called "Help your host prepare", with a note that their answers help you prepare with AI assistance.
While research is enabled, at least one field the AI can research from (links, topic, bio, or talking points) stays switched on. The off-limits field only constrains the output, so it can't be the only one.
The guest's raw answers also appear on the booking's detail sheet, so you have them even before the research finishes.
Read your research brief
Research runs when you confirm the booking. You can also run it yourself:
- Open the episode and go to the Guests tab
- In the Guests card, expand the guest and open their Brief tab
- Click Run research (it shows the credit cost)
The research appears in the guest's brief: a summary and suggested interview questions from icebreakers through closing questions first, then the topic overview, background, angles worth exploring, glossary, gaps and the cited sources under Full research. The same brief sits in the Guests panel on the Show notes tab, recording view included (see The guest brief). From either you can Copy questions, Add to Host-only notes or Download the brief.
Re-run and Delete live only on the guest's Brief tab on the Guests tab, for Hosts and Producers. Research whose booking was removed stays readable, labelled as such, and can be deleted but not re-run. Links in research notifications still open the research: they land on the Show notes tab with that guest chosen and their brief open.
AI-assisted, so double-check
Briefs carry an AI-assisted badge and list unverified points separately. Treat them as preparation, not facts to read on air.
Customize the button and confirmation
When editing an existing link, the Guest Experience card holds two finishing touches:
- Submit Button Text: the form's submit button label. It reads Schedule Interview on an episode booking link and Book Meeting on a general booking link, unless you change it (up to 50 characters)
- Confirmation Message: an optional message shown to guests on the success screen and included in their receipt email
What's Next?
- The Guest Booking Experience: see the finished form as your guest does
- Manage Bookings: where the answers land
- Create a Booking Link: the full setup walkthrough