Private sessions

Private sessions aren't separate sessions in Session. You add a Private price to a normal session, and the moment a customer buys it the whole session is reserved for them.

This is different from other platforms, where you'd keep a parallel calendar for private bookings. In Session, every session is bookable in any of the ways you choose to price it.

What you can do with it

• Offer private hire on any communal session without creating a duplicate
• Choose which sessions offer it - add a private price only where you want sole-use bookings, and leave it off sessions like sound baths or events
• Sell it side by side with your other prices, like standard, concession, and a "bring a friend" group price
• Give customers an automatic "Private hire" filter on the booking page, so they can find sessions they could book privately
• Override the private hire price on a single session or date, for example a discounted off-peak slot on a quiet weekday

How private hire works

A Private price type reserves the whole session - every space in it. So a single private hire purchase fills the session, and the communal prices disappear from that session for new bookings.

Because a private booking holds the entire session, it's venue-managed by default: only you and your staff can change or cancel it - customers are asked to contact you instead. That protects you from a whole-session booking being cancelled out from under you online. If you'd rather let customers cancel or move their own private hire, you can allow it on the private price - see setting different rules for a single price.

In your Bookings list and check-in roster, a private hire shows an amber Private hire badge with a lock icon next to the customer's name, so your team can spot a whole-session booking at a glance. A group "bring a friend" block shows its price name in a plain outline pill instead, since it doesn't reserve the whole session.

How many are coming

When a customer books private hire, they tell you how many people are in their group with a How many of you? picker on the booking page. This never changes the price or frees up spaces - the whole session is reserved either way - it just records the party size, so your team knows how many to expect and the right number of waivers go out for a group that signs individually.

You set the ceiling with a Maximum guests figure on the private price (below). The picker caps at that number and starts pre-filled to it, so most bookers only adjust down. Leave it blank to use the session capacity. It can be more or less than capacity - handy when the room seats twelve but you only want groups of up to eight, or for a rotating event where more people pass through than the room holds at once.

Add a private hire price

Prices live on the session itself, so you add private hire to whichever sessions should offer it. See price options for the full walkthrough; the private-specific steps are:

1. 1
   Open a session on the Sessions page and find the Prices panel.
2. 2
   Select Add a price, then Create new (or Copy from a session if you already have a private price elsewhere).
3. 3
   Name it - for example "Private hire" - and set the Price for the whole session.
4. 4
   Set Price type to Private. It will reserve the whole session; a note confirms how many spaces that is.
5. 5
   Optionally set Maximum guests - the largest group size a booker can pick. Leave it blank to use the session capacity. The whole session is reserved whatever they choose.
6. 6
   Save. The session now offers private hire alongside its other prices.

Override the price for one date

For a one-off change - say a discounted private hire on a particular Friday - open that session date from your admin calendar and edit its price there.

1. 1
   Click the session date in your admin calendar.
2. 2
   Open the Prices section and click Edit on the private price.
3. 3
   Set a new price and save.

A single-date price beats the session's price, which beats the org-wide default - so you only ever set what's different. See instance overrides.

The "Private hire" calendar filter

When any of your sessions offers a private price, customers automatically get a Private hire filter on your booking page. Selecting it hides every session that can't currently be booked privately, so it doubles as an availability filter for private bookings - the simplest way to give customers a "show me all the private slots I could book" view, with no separate calendar to maintain. You don't set this up; it appears whenever private hire is on offer.

Common questions

1. Which price gets the member discount? The session's default price - the one with Use as the default price turned on. Member discounts and included sessions are priced from it, so set your standard rate as the default rather than the private one.

2. Can a customer cancel a private booking themselves? Not by default - private hire is venue-managed, so customers are pointed to contact you. You can change that per price: open the private price's Changes & cancellations section, choose Custom, and allow cancelling and/or rescheduling (see setting different rules for a single price). A group booking already follows your policy for cancelling and moving; it just can't change the number of spaces.

3. A session reads "Not available" - why? Someone booked it privately. A private hire reserves the whole session, so that date closes to new bookings until the hire is cancelled: the tile greys out, stops being clickable, and shows Not available rather than a space count or the communal prices. It isn't offered a waiting list either - a waiting list exists for a session where a cancellation could free a space, and a private hire is all-or-nothing. The customer who booked it still sees Your booking and can open it as normal.

4. Does the guest count change the price or the spaces? No. The whole session is reserved at the private price whatever the party size - the How many of you? picker only records how many to expect and drives the waiver count. Set Maximum guests on the private price to cap it (blank uses the session capacity; it can be higher or lower than capacity).