# Booking API - How can I get 'customer\_id' for customer side?

**URL:** <https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/booking-api-how-can-i-get-customer-id-for-customer-side/6505>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** booking-api\
**Created:** [July 16, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/booking-api-how-can-i-get-customer-id-for-customer-side/6505 "2022-07-16T18:02:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bk52](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/square/forums/user_avatar/developer.squareup.com/bk52/32/1332_2.png) [@bk52](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/bk52)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/booking-api-how-can-i-get-customer-id-for-customer-side/6505/1 "2022-07-16T18:02:06Z")

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Hello 👋,

I’m a bit confused about the Booking APIs. Can only businesses create appointments with this API? Or can customers book themselves an appointment for the business?

I want to design an application where the customers can make an appointment for themselves.  
But in the Create Booking API, there is a field ‘customer\_id’ and this is required. How can I fill this field?

I can get users information and return a new ID with Create Customer API. But how can I get this id for next time?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bk52](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/square/forums/user_avatar/developer.squareup.com/bk52/32/1332_2.png) [@bk52](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/bk52)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/booking-api-how-can-i-get-customer-id-for-customer-side/6505/2 "2022-07-16T18:14:39Z")

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Let’s assume an appointment app for dentist.

Customer sees the available time slots for treatment. After this stage there are two options.

1. Customer creates an appointment for himself. But this option customer should know his customer\_id.

2. Customer send his info (name, surname, available time slot) to dentist. Dentist create an appointment for the customer. (Create customer if he is not registered).

Which option is suitable for Booking API’s?

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**Author:** ![Bryan-Square](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/square/forums/user_avatar/developer.squareup.com/bryan-square/32/38_2.png) [@Bryan-Square](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/Bryan-Square)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/booking-api-how-can-i-get-customer-id-for-customer-side/6505/3 "2022-07-18T16:19:03Z")

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👋 At the time the custom is booking the appointment your application should know who the customer is and whether or not to create a new customer profile. At the time of booking you could let the customer choose whether they are a new customer or existing one. If they’re existing you’ll need to provide some type of lookup and validation for existing customer so you can pass in the correct `customer_id` at the time of booking. 🙂