A walk-in is a client who turns up without a booking and asks to be seen. Some businesses run almost entirely on walk-ins, such as many barbers, brow bars and express nail bars. Others take none, because their services are long or need preparation, a patch test or a consultation first. Most sit in between, taking walk-ins whenever a chair is free and saying so on the door.
Walk-ins bring impulse trade and new faces, but they make the day hard to predict. A business that takes both bookings and walk-ins needs a rule about who goes first, how long a walk-in might wait, and which hours belong to which.
In practice
A two-chair barbershop takes bookings until noon on Saturday and walk-ins after. On a typical Saturday it does 14 booked cuts before noon and 22 walk-ins between noon and 5 pm, 36 cuts at $40, or $1,440 for the day. Before the split, booked clients were often kept waiting behind a queue of walk-ins, and walk-ins left when they saw a full appointment list. With fixed hours for each, nobody is surprised, and the afternoon queue tells passers-by the shop is busy for a reason.
Tell people how walk-ins work everywhere they might look: the door, your online profile, your booking page notes and whatever answers the phone. "Walk-ins welcome after 12 on Saturdays, bookings before then" is enough. When the wait is long, say so honestly and offer a booked time later in the week instead.