Real-time availability checking vs cached availability — how the difference affects double-booking risk. Cal Clear uses real-time checks on every request.
Real-Time vs Cached Availability Explained
Real-time availability means your scheduling tool queries your calendar API fresh on every booking page load. Cached availability means the tool stores a snapshot of your availability and refreshes it periodically. Real-time is always current; cached can become stale.
The Stale Cache Double-Booking Risk
If your scheduling tool caches availability and refreshes every 15 minutes, here's the risk: you accept a manual calendar appointment at 3:00 PM. At 3:05 PM, someone visits your booking page. The cache still shows 3 PM as available. They book 3 PM. You now have two appointments at the same time. Cal Clear's real-time API calls eliminate this specific failure mode.
Performance vs Reliability Trade-Off
Cached availability loads slightly faster because no API call is needed on page load. Real-time availability adds a small latency (typically under 500ms for Google Calendar API calls). Cal Clear accepts this trade-off because for scheduling software, the consequences of stale availability (double booking) are far worse than slightly slower page loads.
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