I wanted to get some advice on how does one go about deciding which calls should be taken, between a booking made in advance that same day or from calls recieved at the moment.

I have arranged bookings recently for later on the same night, and have put other callers on hold until later by waiting for this client who was keeping me on hold, and didnt end up showing. I have ones who even go as far as to say, "I want to be the first client of the day", confirming at the proper intervals, and have me turning down any other calls for that day, only to have him not show that evening since he initially made an appointment, but didnt bother to show up at the agreed time.

Whats the standard operating procedure thats done in a situtation like this? Should it come on a 1st come 1st served basis? And how would I know if the caller is for real about the advanced booking instead of me missing other potential clients I could be meeting?

I don't hold bookings. If someone says they'd like to see me at a certain time I'll try to leave it open, but people who are ready to confirm always take precedence.

It sounds like you need to stop catering to guys who say they want to be the first to see you. Normally when this is the case they take the earliest available booking rather than being promised that you'll turn away bookings.

If you're having a lot of problems with advance bookings you could stop taking them all together, or take them only on receipt of a deposit.

That is a difficult one. I usually get customers to confirm, but that's for a booking taken the day before or earlier. Can you not get your first booking to confirm at a certain time during the day, say 5pm, and if he doesn't then open his booked time back up to take phone calls.