How to manage booking availability and costs

BySupport Admin

Managing your booking calendar and pricing ensures you only take appointments when you’re actually available and that you’re charging the right amount for peak times. Whether you run a salon, a consultancy, or a rental space, these settings help automate your schedule and prevent double-bookings.

How to set up availability and costs

Follow these steps to configure your booking rules within your WooShop dashboard.

  1. Open your product: Go to Products > All Products and click on the bookable product you want to edit.

  2. Go to the Availability tab: Scroll down to the Product Data box and click the Availability tab.

  3. Set your base rules: Define your "Minimum block duration" (how long a booking lasts) and "Maximum bookings per block" (how many people can book the same slot).

  4. Add custom availability rules: Click Add Range. You can choose to make specific dates or days of the week "Bookable" or "Not Bookable." For example, if you are closed every Sunday, set a rule for "All weeks" -> "Sunday" to "No."

  5. Go to the Costs tab: Click the Costs tab on the left.

  6. Set your standard prices:

    • Base cost: A flat fee charged regardless of the duration.

    • Block cost: The price charged per time slot (e.g., per hour or per day).

  7. Add pricing rules: Just like availability, you can click Add Range to change prices based on specific times. If you want to charge an extra $20 on Saturdays, create a rule for "Saturday" and set the "Block cost" to "+ 20."

  8. Update: Click the Update button on the right to save your changes.

Practical scenarios

The Weekend Surcharge
If you run a photography studio and want to charge more for weekend sessions, go to the Costs tab. Add a range for Saturday and Sunday, then set the "Block cost" to a higher amount. The system will automatically update the price when a customer selects a weekend date on your calendar.

Seasonal Closures
If your business closes for two weeks in December, go to the Availability tab. Add a range for "Date range," select your start and end dates, and set "Bookable" to "No." This instantly removes those dates from your public calendar.

Troubleshooting common issues

The calendar shows no available dates
Check your "Minimum/Maximum advance reservation" settings in the Availability tab. If your "Minimum" is set to 2 days, customers won’t see any slots for today or tomorrow. Also, ensure your "All slots are…" setting is set to "not-bookable by default" if you are manually adding specific "bookable" windows.

Pricing is calculating incorrectly
Rules at the bottom of the list take priority over rules at the top. If you have overlapping pricing rules, move the most specific rule (like a single holiday date) to the bottom of the list to ensure it overrides your general weekly pricing.

Conflicts with other appointments
If you have multiple bookable products and can only be in one place at a time, make sure "Resources" are set up. This prevents a customer from booking a "Consultation" at the same time someone else books a "Strategy Session" if you are the only person available to host both.

Quick Recap

Setting up rules for when you are open and how much you charge keeps your business running smoothly without manual intervention. You can always tweak these rules as your seasonal demand changes.

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