All Booking Reservation Rules Explained – Playbypoint Help Center

Learn the basics for booking reservations - from definitions to examples.

Playbypoint's Reservation Rules define how your club manages court bookings and all the other processes in between.

In this tutorial, we'll go by each and every one of the Reservation Rules available in Playbypoint under the Booking section.

Let's start with the first one…

Limit player reservations allowed during select time slots/shift

This rule restricts the number of bookings a player can make at specific time shifts.
1. Example: You might have different shifts during the day (prime time, low time, peak hours, non-peak hours, etc.). This rule limits the player's booking quantity during a selected shift. So, if you know that your club gets very busy on Saturday nights, then you can limit that daily court usage to open up for more players on that particular shift.
Limit guests to play before a certain hour

This rule sets a restriction on guests, stating that they are not allowed to play before a certain hour.
1. Example: You can use this rule so members cannot add guests during the morning time slots.
Limit amount of guests added per member

This rule limits the number of guests that each member can add at a certain shift.
1. Example: Set a rule where you allow one guest for non-members in a reservation and 3 guests for club members.
Allow Booking by Surface Type

This rule enables the booking of specific surface types, allowing users to choose the surface type of preference (i.e. grass, clay, hardcourt, indoor, outdoor, etc.)
1. Example: Designate which users can book a surface like only members can book clay courts or alternatively, let all affiliations book all surface types your club offers.
Block hours prior to book by Surface Type

This rule blocks a certain number of hours in advance at the time of reservation, preventing users from making last-minute reservations based on the surface type.
1. Example: If this rule is set to the default setting of 1 hour, then all users cannot book a reservation at 11 AM on the same day to play at 11:30 AM. The added options would then allow premium memberships to get different booking windows for clay courts and other courts respectively.
Max Hours Prior to book by Surface Type

This rule limits the maximum number of hours in advance that a reservation can be made based on the chosen surface type and member affiliation.
1. Example: Set this rule so users can book a week in advance or 3 days in advance and segment it by surface type or membership affiliation.
Complete All Players in Bookings by Surface Type

This rule forces bookers to add all users to a reservation based on their member affiliation, court surface type, and time shift.
1. Example: If the reservation is for 4 players, the booker (user making the reservation) will have to fill out all 4 spots before he can check out.
Force Payment for Booker by Surface Type

This rule requires payment by member affiliation and surface type when booking a reservation.
1. Example: Enable members to pay later and enforce non-members to pay at the moment they book a court as well as have surface-type specific rules.
Hours Prior Permitted to Cancel

This rule specifies the maximum number of hours before a scheduled booking that a user is allowed to cancel.
1. Example: Members can cancel 10 hours before a reservation and non-members only 2 hours.
Minimum amount of hours allowed

This rule establishes a set minimum reservation duration in hours required for a booking and can be segmented into affiliations and court surface type.
1. Example: Specify a minimum of 1 hour for members and premium members for all courts, except Padel indoor courts & set non-members to always have a minimum of 2 hours per booking for all their court reservations.
Time prior to capture reservations automatically

This rule specifies the time limit before a reservation payment is automatically captured from the provided credit card.
1. Example: Setting this rule to 12 hours means that the payment will be captured 12 hours before the reservation time.
Allow all players to remove players and Cancel Reservations

This rule grants permission for all players involved in a reservation to remove other players and cancel the reservation if needed.
1. Note: If this rule is not activated, only the booker will have the ability to remove other players and cancel reservations.
Initial Number Of Players Selected By Surface

This rule sets the minimum number of players that must be selected when making a reservation based on the chosen surface type.
1. Example: You can set the minimum number of players for pickleball courts as 4 and 2 for tennis courts.
Booking Pricing Type

This rule defines the pricing structure for surface type applied to bookings, such as hourly rates or fixed fees by players or by time.

With this rule, you can set a price per player as being the same or set it as a price that varies depending on the time.
Grouped Schedules To Book

This rule allows for the adjustment of time slots available for reservation, with the option to differentiate them based on surface type.
1. Example: Set up this rule so it has 1-hour slots in the morning and 2-hour slots in the evening.
Schedules Available To Book

This rule determines the schedules or time slots that are available for users to book, ensuring that only the designated schedules are accessible for reservations.
1. Example: Even if the facility is open between 8 am to 11 pm you can make it so users can only make reservations between 10 am to 8 pm.
Custom Text for Book Button

This rule is simple. It allows customization of the text displayed on the "Book" button.
1. Example: Change the button so it says “Play On.”
Enable Book Now Button

This rule is also a very simple one. It enables the display and functionality of a "Book Now" button.
Initial Number Of Players Selected On Admin Interface

This rule sets the default or the initial number of players pre-selected on the admin interface.
1. Example: When an admin is going to create a booking you can select so the default number of players is 1 or 2.
Limit hours per affiliation

This rule sets a limit on the number of hours that can be reserved per affiliation.
1. Example: Put a cap on non-members so they can only book four hours per week.
Max Reservation Per User

This rule establishes the maximum number of reservations that each user can make at a time.
1. Example: If you want, you can let non-members book only once per week and members three times a week.
Max Reservation Per User in Advance

This rule defines the maximum number of reservations that each user can make in advance, limiting the number of future bookings per user.
1. Example: You can make it so non-members can only have 1 future reservation scheduled while members can have 3.
Allows Users To Auto-fill Courts

This rule allows the selected court to be changed automatically in a reservation if said court is unavailable.
1. Example: If a user is creating a reservation and has selected court 1 in the rare case that court 1 is booked before the user checks out it will automatically change to a court that is available.
Open Last Grouped Schedule Available

This rule automatically opens or makes available the last grouped schedule option for users to book.
1. Example: Imagine that your club has blocks of 3-hour increments and only allows reservations 24 hours prior. So, if it's 5 p.m. on a Tuesday and a member wants to book from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the system won't let them since the entire block is not within the 24-hour time frame. In order for that member to book that block of time, your club needs to enable this rule so it opens up the entire block.
Calendar View - Allow Players' Names for Reservations

This rule allows player names to be displayed on the public calendar view for court reservations.
1. Example: If your club members prefer to keep their name and court reservations private, you can disable this rule and protect their privacy.
Allow Users To Book Multiple Times

This rule permits users to make multiple bookings or reservations.
1. Example: Set up this rule so a user can have two or three future reservations.
Free Players Per Booking

This rule determines the number of player slots available for free within each booking. In turn, this allows users to include a specific number of players in each reservation they make without incurring additional charges.
1. Example: Think of it as if a member was making a two-player reservation. With this rule, the member would pay for one player only so it's basically a free play for the booker.
Service button custom text

This rule enables the customization of the text displayed on a service button.
Enable Services

This rule activates or enables additional services or features.
Refund Policy: When a booking is canceled on time Admins Only

This rule is used to establish the refund method when a booking is canceled on time.
1. Example: You can set up this rule so that when a member cancels within the proper time frame, they'll get a refund to their club credits.
Refund Policy: When a booking is canceled out of time Admins Only

This rule is used to establish the refund method when a booking is canceled out of time.
1. Example: When a member cancels outside of the time frame, you can set up this rule to apply a cancellation fee.
Rainout Policy: Future Bookings Marked as “Rain Out” Admins Only

This rule is used to establish the refund method when a booking is canceled due to rain
1. Example: When a court booking is marked as rain out, set up this rule to process a refund to club credits for your members.
Hours prior to cancel without penalty

This rule specifies the number of hours before a scheduled reservation when users can cancel without incurring any penalties or fees.
1. Example: If you input 24 hours and a user cancels within those 24 hours of their reservation, this rule will enable the system to capture their payment.

But wait! Before we go,

We must set a reminder to always click on the update button to make the rule settings active in your club's bookings!

Also, if any of the rules listed above isn't showing up on your end, please reach out to our team and we'll activate it on your club bookings.

But wait! Before we go,

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