Many customers book into the same time slot, each taking one of a fixed number of spaces. Unlike an appointment app, where one customer gets the whole slot, your 6pm session takes bookings until its spaces run out. Session prevents overbooking and shows customers how many spaces are left.
One session, every way to book it
In many booking systems you build a separate slot for each way people book - a communal session, a private session and a group session at the same time. In Session you build the session once and add each way to book it as a price:
- Spaces are how many people the room holds. Every price on the session draws from them, so the room can never be sold twice.
- Prices take what they need: a communal ticket takes one space, a group price a block, and private hire all of them. A private booking closes the session to everyone else, and a communal booking takes private hire off sale for that date.
- Your schedule says when the session runs, and every way to book it moves with it. With session lengths, bookings of different lengths overlap and still share the same spaces.
Don't create a separate "Private" session at the same time as your communal one. The two would have separate spaces, so the room could be booked privately and communally at once. Add a Whole session price to the communal session instead.
While you're setting up, you can see this again in the app: go to Sessions and select the ? button (or + on a phone or tablet, then How sessions work), or select How sessions work in any session except a by request one. It goes away once your venue is live.
Spaces, not appointments
A space is one place in the room - the unit your capacity is measured in. Each booking takes one or more spaces, so a 10-space session could be ten people booking one each, or one person booking four and others filling the rest. When the last space goes, the session shows as full and stops taking bookings.
Set capacity per session
- 1Open the Sessions page and create or edit a session.
- 2Set Spaces available to the number of people the room comfortably holds, then save. For a session that's only private hire, the field reads Holds up to.
If you lower the spaces below what's already booked on an upcoming date, Session lists those dates and asks before saving. Existing bookings are kept, and those dates show as over capacity and stop taking new bookings until spaces free up. Choose Go back to change the number, or Save anyway if you mean it - for example when a bench is out of use.
The capacity hierarchy
Session uses the most specific capacity that's set:
- Single-session override - a capacity set on one date wins over everything else. See override a single session.
- Schedule capacity - the Spaces field on a time in a repeat schedule, for every session that time generates. Blank follows the session default. See different spaces at different times.
- Session default - the capacity on the session itself.
Most venues set it once on the session. Use a time's Spaces field when one slot is always bigger (say a second room opens in the evenings), and a single-session override for the odd day with fewer or more spaces. Lowering capacity below current bookings never cancels anyone - the session just stops taking new ones.
Overbooking prevention
Session checks capacity at the moment of booking, so two customers can't claim the last space at once. This covers every customer booking - paid, free, voucher and membership. If two people try for the last space together, one gets it and the other is told how many spaces are left. You can still add a booking beyond capacity yourself from the admin. A full session shows as sold out, and a waiting list appears automatically, emailing customers when a space frees up.
Group and private bookings
- Group bookings let one customer book several spaces while others book the rest.
- Private sessions let one customer book out every space.
Both are priced as a single unit and capped to the session's real capacity.
Limit spaces per booking
By default a customer can book as many spaces as are available. To keep sessions open to more people, open Space limits under the capacity and set Max per booking. A single multi-space price like private hire is exempt, since it's sold as one unit. When a customer reaches the limit the quantity stops there. Nothing is shown until they press + to go past it; then a short note appears under the ticket: "Bookings are limited to 4 spaces. For larger groups, please contact us directly." To say something else, such as a phone number for group bookings, write your own under Message for larger groups.
Common questions
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How do customers choose how many spaces? Each session on the booking page shows its remaining spaces and a quantity stepper, up to the spaces left and any per-booking limit.
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Do shorter bookings share the same capacity? Yes. With session lengths, shorter and longer bookings draw on the same spaces.
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Can customers change their booking afterwards? See how customers manage their own bookings.
Next, build a repeat schedule, override a single session, or browse all sessions and scheduling articles.