Quotas, permissions and booking rules

Every subscription comes with a complete rules engine: quotas, permitted calendars, time limits, cancellation, restrictions, credits and guests. This page guides you goal by goal through the configuration of a subscription.

Limiting the number of bookings

In the Quota tab, the Booking Quota sets how many bookings a subscriber can schedule at the same time. When booking a time slot, the subscriber uses up one quota unit; as soon as their booking ends, the unit becomes available again.

• Enable Hide calendars when the booking quota is reached to also block access to the daily and weekly calendar views. The Availability view remains available: the quota is checked there at the moment of booking.
• Click Advanced Configuration then Add a quota to set several quotas depending on calendars, days or time ranges.
• If needed, add Limit bookings on a fixed calendar (for example 5 bookings per calendar week) or Limit bookings on a rolling calendar (over the last X days).

Filling courts at the last minute

The Ignore the quota and limits before the start of the time slot option lets a subscriber book even when their quota has been reached, provided they do so shortly beforehand. It's 2:45 pm and the 3 pm time slot is free: the subscriber can take it despite their quota.

This is the best way to avoid leaving a court empty when a player is available, without loosening the general rule.

Restricting calendars and the booking horizon

In the Permissions tab, the Authorized Calendars & Number of Days for Booking section determines what the subscriber sees:

• Untick a calendar to forbid it and hide it completely.
• Set the number of browsing days for each calendar: for example, show the calendars up to D+14 but only allow bookings up to D+7.
• Transition time to an additional day: give access to the next day from a specific time, without waiting until midnight.

Controlling when a booking can be made

By default, a subscriber can book a time slot up to the very last minute, and the time slot becomes unavailable as soon as it has started. Four options in the Permissions tab change this behaviour:

• Allow the subscriber to book a time slot that has already started: the 10 am time slot can still be booked until 10:15 am.
• Limit booking a few minutes before the start of the time slot: the 10 am time slot can no longer be booked after 9:45 am.
• Limit booking a few hours before the start of the time slot: the Monday 10 am time slot closes on Sunday at 10 am.
• Open the booking a few hours before the start of the time slot: conversely, the time slot only opens a given time in advance, adjustable day by day.

Offering custom time slots

A grid of fixed time slots does not suit every use: a padel player wants to play for 1 h 30 rather than an hour, a ball machine is rented by the half hour, and a golf tee time is taken at whatever time suits. The Custom Time Slots option lets the subscriber choose the length of their booking within the limits you set. If you allow it, they can also choose the start time.

1. In Administration›Users›Access Rights›Subscriptions, open the subscription and go to the Permissions tab.
2. Enable Custom Time Slots, then click Advanced Settings.
3. Set up the configuration described below, then click Save.

This setting is specific to the subscription. Holders of other plans continue to book the usual calendar time slots, on the same courts.

Setting the available durations

Three values determine the times the subscriber can choose:

• Interval between each time slot: the gap between two available times, counted from the calendar's opening time. With 30 minutes on a court that opens at 8:00, the times fall at 8:00, 8:30, 9:00, and so on.
• Minimum booking duration and Maximum Booking Duration: the shortest and longest possible booking.

With the configuration above, a subscriber who clicks the 16:00 time slot on a padel court can finish at 17:00, 17:30 or 18:00: one hour minimum, two hours maximum, in 30-minute steps.

When The subscriber can modify the start time of the time slot is disabled, the booking starts at the time of the clicked time slot. Enable it to let the subscriber also choose the start time from the times of the day, for example 16:30. The available end times then follow this new start.

What the subscriber sees

In the booking form, the time is chosen from drop-down lists: the end time, and the start time if you allow it. When the booking is paid in credits, the displayed cost follows the chosen duration.

On the calendar, the booking covers the time slots it spans. From 16:00 to 17:30 on a court with one-hour time slots, it occupies the 16:00 time slot and part of the 17:00 one. If moving bookings is allowed, the subscriber can then lengthen or shorten it from the calendars, always between the minimum and maximum durations.

Choosing what the booking uses from the quota

The quota is counted in calendar time slots. A free-length booking often covers several of them: from 16:00 to 18:00 on a court with one-hour time slots, it covers the 16:00 and 17:00 ones. The One quota unit per booking, regardless of duration option determines what it uses:

• enabled: one quota unit, whether the booking lasts one hour or two;
• disabled: one unit per time slot covered, even partially. From 16:00 to 17:30, that is two units.

Take a subscriber whose quota is 2 simultaneous bookings and who books from 16:00 to 18:00. With the option enabled, they have one unit left and can still book another time slot. With the option disabled, their quota is reached. If the remaining quota does not cover the whole chosen duration, only the first time slots are booked. A message indicates the ones that could not be booked.

Leave the option enabled to offer flexibility on duration. Disable it if a long booking should count as much as several short ones.

The option also applies to credits when the price is set per booking (1 booking in Booking Rates). Enabled, the booking is charged once. Disabled, each time slot covered is charged as a booking. For a cost proportional to the duration, express the price in minutes instead: at 10 credits per 60 minutes, a 1 h 30 booking costs 15 credits.

Combining free length with consecutive time slots

If the subscription forbids consecutive time slots (Prohibit Consecutive Time Slots, Rules tab), a booking that covers several calendar time slots is treated as a series of consecutive time slots: anything beyond the limit is not booked. Enable Ignore consecutive time slot restrictions so that the chosen duration is exempt from this rule. The restriction still applies between two separate bookings.

Adapting the configuration by calendar, day or time

Each configuration applies to the calendars, days and, with Define a time slot, the hours you choose. It has its own durations and options. Click Add a Configuration to create more, up to 10: for example from 1 h to 2 h on the padel courts, and from 30 minutes to 1 h on the ball machine. Add a criterion also restricts a configuration to a Period, to a period between two dates, or to Holidays and public holidays.

With a time range, the available start times stay within the range, and the booking cannot end after it closes. If several configurations target the same time slot, the most specific one applies. If they are equally specific, the first one in the list applies. Outside any configuration, the subscriber books the calendar's usual time slots.

Managing partners

The Permissions tab brings together the settings relating to the players on the booking:

• Book with Partners: the subscriber selects other users, who are notified by e-mail; set the minimum and maximum number of partners.
• Book Without a Partner: useful for a practice wall or a driving range.
• Partner search (open booking): the subscriber opens their booking to others, who can add themselves to it. The Automatically cancel incomplete bookings option frees up the time slot if nobody joins.
• Offer additional time if multiple partners: for example 30 minutes extra from 3 partners onwards, if the next time slot is free. This extra time is not deducted from the quota.

Extra time is the setting that elegantly solves doubles: instead of imposing 90-minute time slots on everyone, you keep one-hour time slots and automatically extend those played with four players — without tying up the court if the next time slot is already taken.

Controlling cancellation

In the Permissions tab, the Booking Cancellations section determines whether the subscriber may cancel:

• Maximum allowed cancellation period: for example up to 60 minutes before the start of the time slot.
• Cancellation of Guest Passes: turn this option off to prevent the cancellation of a booking that includes guests.

A cancellation deadline that is too short backfires on the organization: a player who can no longer cancel leaves the court empty rather than freeing it up. A generous deadline, combined with a cancellation notification, puts the time slot back into circulation.

Forbidding time slots and combinations

The Rules tab brings together the restrictions:

• Restrict certain time slots from booking: for example, no booking on weekdays from 4 pm to 7:30 pm on certain courts.
• Prohibit Consecutive Time Slots: prevents several time slots being taken in a row, either globally or on certain time ranges.
• Prohibition Rules with a Subscriptions criterion: makes two groups incompatible on the same booking.

The Allow multiple time slots on the same day at the same time option (Permissions tab) is turned off by default: a subscriber cannot book two courts at the same time.

These restrictions are different from calendar closures: a closure removes the time slot for everyone, whereas a restriction only removes it for the holders of that subscription. To reserve the indoor courts for competitive players on Saturday mornings, it is a restriction that must be set on the other subscriptions — not a closure.

Charging for bookings in credits

In the Credits tab, enable Activate the credit system. The subscriber must then have credits in their account to book. Credit accounts manually after an on-site payment, or enable online payment.

1. With Advanced Configuration then Add an activation rule, restrict the credit system to certain calendars, days or time ranges.
2. Under Booking Rates, click Add a pricing rule to set the cost by calendar, day and time. If needed, add criteria such as the number of participants or the notice before the start. When several pricing rules match a booking, the most specific one applies.
3. Under Payments & Billing, enable online credit purchases and define the prices offered to subscribers. Quantities, volume discounts and payment in instalments are covered on a dedicated page.

As long as a subscription credit is not worth €1 (or one unit of your currency), the Enable Wallet mode box appears at the top of the tab. It converts the subscription to 1 credit = €1 without changing the value of balances. Subscriptions you create are set up this way from the start.

The Who pays for the booking? block in the same tab determines whether only the booking owner is charged (Charge only the booking organizer) or whether Each participant pays for their own spot. With this second option, Allow the subscriber to pay for their partners' spots lets the subscriber making the booking comp their partners' places.

Allowing guests

In the Guest Passes tab, enable Allow booking with guests to welcome people from outside the organization:

• Set the minimum and maximum number of guests per booking. Each guest uses guest credits, or booking credits with the Unified credit system.
• Set prices and offer credit packs, as with booking credits.
• Under Who pays for guest passes?, choose whether only the booking owner is charged, or whether Each participant pays for the guest passes. With the second option, Allow the subscriber to pay for their partners' guest passes lets the subscriber making the booking pay for them.
• Leave Have guests pay via link enabled. When the subscriber pays for guest passes alone, each of their guests can then pay their own share online.
• Choose whether guests' names must be entered.
• Enable Combine partners and guests in a single tab so that your subscribers can add their guests from the With a partner tab, without a dedicated tab.

Asking for guests' names changes the nature of the feature. Without names, you count visits. With names, you know who came, which is essential if your insurer or federation requires it.

Allowing labels

In the Labels tab, the Allow booking with labels option lets subscribers create a limited number of bookings with predefined labels (championship, tournament, etc.), with options to ignore the quota or the consecutive time slots rule.

This is the right way to open labels up to a team captain: they schedule their team matches without using up their personal quota, but remain limited to the labels you have allowed — unlike the profile right, which opens up all labels without limit.