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Waivers

Collect digital waivers at checkout, verify them at check-in, and share per-guest signing by QR.

5 min read

Collect signed waivers from visitors before they arrive. Choose a single signature from the booker or one per visitor, and Session handles the sharing, reminders, and record-keeping.

What waivers do

  • Capture consent - health declarations, safety rules, house rules
  • Keep an audit trail (who signed, when, from which IP, on which version of the waiver) for insurance purposes
  • Cut paperwork - nothing to print, nothing to store
  • Remember returning customers so they don't sign again unless the terms change
  • Re-prompt returning visitors automatically when you update the terms

Managing waivers

Head to Settings → Policies and find the Waivers section.

  1. Click Create waiver (or edit the one already there) and complete the fields
  2. Pick an agreement method:
    • Checkbox - visitor ticks a box
    • Signature - visitor draws their signature with finger or mouse
  3. Pick a signing mode
    • Single signature - the booker signs once on behalf of everyone on their booking.
    • One signature per visitor - each person attending signs their own waiver via a shareable link or QR code. The booker signs at checkout (counting as visitor 1); the rest sign before the session.
  4. New waivers are set to Active on save, so the waiver goes live as soon as you create it. Only one waiver can be active at a time, so activating one deactivates the others - turn Active off before saving if you're still drafting and don't want it live yet.

Writing a good waiver

Session doesn't provide legal advice - talk to a lawyer or your insurance broker if you need watertight terms. Some patterns that work well:

  • Summarise the terms in the summary - this is good practice for long documents
  • Start with "By signing, I confirm…" - makes it clear the visitor is affirming specific things
  • Keep it short and use bullets. A waiver nobody reads is worse than a short one everyone does
  • List the specific conditions that disqualify someone - pregnancy, heart conditions, recent surgery, whatever's relevant to your activity
  • Cover what happens if something goes wrong - your right to refuse entry, liability for personal belongings, session cancellation

When you change the content of an active waiver, Session automatically bumps the version number. Returning visitors are re-prompted to sign the new version; previous agreements stay as an audit record tied to the version they signed.

How customers sign

Before completing their booking, the customer sees the waiver overlay with the agreement method you chose.

In single mode, they sign once and finish checkout. That's it.

In per-visitor mode, they sign for themselves and then - if there's more than one visitor - Session surfaces a shareable link in three places:

  • The confirmation page the booker lands on after checkout
  • The booking confirmation email
  • The booking details panel staff see on the day

Each visitor opens the link in their own browser, types their name, optionally their email, and signs or ticks. Adding an email means Session saves that visitor to your customer list and won't ask them to sign again next time they visit, so the form nudges them to include it.

Returning customers don't sign again unless you've changed the terms. Session recognises a signed-in customer by their account, and a guest (no account) by the email address on their booking - so a returning guest who books with the same email skips the waiver automatically.

Checking multi-visitor signatures on the day

Every multi-visitor booking shows its signature progress inline, so you can scan a full session or open the booking to gather signatures.

  • Running count and progress bar - "2 of 4 signed"
  • Signer names and timestamps - one row per visitor
  • QR code to show a visitor on the front desk iPad or your phone - they scan, sign on their own device, done
  • Open here to pull the waiver up on your own device and hand it over
  • Add customer on an awaiting-signature slot to attribute it to an existing customer at the door - if they've already agreed the current waiver it reuses that, otherwise it records a staff attestation and tags the slot as added by staff

Security, versioning and audit trail

  • Editing the content bumps the version number automatically
  • Every signature records which version was signed, when, and from which IP
  • Returning visitors are re-prompted when the version changes
  • You can't delete a waiver that has signatures - deactivate it instead. The audit trail stays intact

If the link ends up somewhere it shouldn't (public socials, wrong recipient, left on a shared tablet), open the booking and use the More menu:

  • Regenerate link - rotates the token. The old URL stops working; a fresh one is issued for you to share with the right people. This is the action you want 95% of the time.
  • Revoke link - invalidates the old link without issuing a new one. Rare; mostly redundant with cancelling the booking outright.

Common questions

  1. A returning customer was asked to sign again. Why? Two things trigger a re-sign. Either you edited the waiver's terms (a version change re-prompts everyone, by design), or Session couldn't match them to a previous signature - a guest who books with a different email than last time, or who left the email blank when signing per-visitor, isn't recognised. Ask returning guests to use the same email each time.

  2. Do the people who sign a waiver get added to my customer list? Anyone who makes a booking is on your customer list. For per-visitor signing, a visitor who adds their email when they sign is saved to your list too; a visitor who leaves the email blank is recorded on that one booking only. That's why the signing form encourages an email.

  3. Can I force everyone to sign again after I update my terms? Yes - just edit the waiver's content. Session bumps the version automatically and re-prompts every returning customer on their next booking. Editing only the title, summary, or signing mode does not re-prompt.