Booking Rules and Cancellation Policies
- emilia.stern
Analytics
General Information
A booking rule determines how a product can be booked and canceled. Remember to link the booking rule to the products it applies to once it’s created.
Rules linked to Group Activities: Only affect your customers’ ability to book spots through your online booking.
Rules linked to Services: Affect both online bookings and when you manually book customers in BRP.
Below is an English translation of your text, with slight rewrites for clarity and coherence. All references to the interface and system paths remain intact.
Create a Booking Rule
Go to Configuration > Booking > Booking Rules, then click the "+" (Plus) button.
Fill in the desired details for the booking rule, such as:
Name
Earliest time to book/cancel
Maximum number of simultaneous bookings
Whether a cancellation rule should be linked, etc.
If certain customers should be exempt from the booking rule, use a replacement rule:
In the "Replacement Rules" field, create an exception so that if the customer has a specific right, it overrides the standard booking rule with a different one.
Priority only needs to be specified if you use more than one replacement rule.
Click OK to save your booking rule.
Explanations
“Maximum number of bookings”
You can enter several options here, for example, a total of 5, with a maximum of 2 per day.
Below is a breakdown of an example configuration:
Maximum total bookings = 3
Maximum bookings per day = 3
Maximum bookings per week = 3
Max bookings per week applies to each calendar week.
If, on a Monday at 5:00 a.m., a customer books classes at 7:00, 9:00, and 11:00, they cannot book any more classes for the rest of that calendar week.
Max bookings per day means a customer cannot book additional classes on that specific day once they’ve reached the daily limit.
Using the same example above (7:00, 9:00, and 11:00), they can’t book more that Monday.
Max total bookings indicates the customer can’t exceed that total number of bookings at any one time.
In the same scenario, the customer can’t book a new class until the start (or end) time of the earliest booking has passed—depending on whether the booking rule is based on the start or end of the booking.
If it’s based on start time, once the 7:00 class starts, the customer can make a new booking.
If it’s based on end time, then the customer has to wait until the 7:00 class has ended (say at 7:45) before they can book another class.
“Count Waiting List Separately”
If this is checked, you can specify separate limits for the waiting list. Otherwise, waiting list spots and regular spots are combined in the same overall count.
Note: If a person is on the waiting list for a class where participants can no longer cancel (because it starts soon), that class no longer counts toward the maximum number of booked classes—there’s no way for them to move into an actual spot.
"Max number of waiting list spots"
This can also have multiple settings, such as a total of 5, with a maximum of 3 per week (counted in calendar weeks).
“Allow simultaneous internet bookings”
This option lets a person book two group activities at the same time online.
One scenario where this is necessary is if group activity products are used for childcare, which must be bookable at the same time as a regular group activity. Only the childcare product needs this setting enabled. The group training’s booking rule should not have this enabled.
Note! This does not allow booking multiple spots for the same childcare session. To achieve that, you would need service bookings with capacity.
Fixed Times for Latest Cancellation
(TP47156 / 2022.3303)
Booking rules can now have fixed times for cancellation on booking rules. For example, all classes during the day may not be cancelled later than 21:00 the night before, and classes during the evening may not be cancelled later than 15:00 that afternoon. The fixed times is required to be used in combination with "May be cancelled no closer than" minimum 1 min. (TP47156 / 2022.3303)
If one or more fixed times have been added, the timepoint of the class - the days, hours and minutes before which the class participant must cancel, will be adjusted to the first (back in time) fixed time.
Example: If the class is at 14:00 on Friday, it must be cancelled 2 hours before, but we have also entered two fixed times "15:00, 21:00" for cancellation (yes, we need to be able to add more than one time), then 14:00-2 hours is 12:00, and 12:00 is adjusted to the earliest time before that which is 21:00 on Thursday.
Exceptions for Daylight Saving Time
(TP46105 / 2022.3304)
When the clock shifts between daylight saving time and standard time, the earliest booking time is adjusted so that customers can still book, for example, three days in advance, rather than three days plus or minus one hour. This ensures a consistent window despite time changes.
May leave the waiting list no closer than
(TP55283)
Prevents to leave waiting list later then time described in "May leave waiting list no closer than"
If the 'Use fixed time for cancellation' option is enabled, it takes precedence and overrides both the 'May be cancelled no closer than' and 'May leave waiting list no closer than' settings.
Create a Cancellation Policy
Note! Activate the system setting “Enter reason for cancellation” (debookReason) to use cancellation fees.
This feature allows you to charge a fee when a customer cancels. To apply this fee, you must link it to a booking rule.
If you haven’t already, create a product for cancellation fees
Create an item with the correct revenue account and VAT rate for cancellation fee income.
Give the product a name that will clearly appear on the invoice, for example, “Cancellation Fee.”
In Configuration > Facilities > Facilities, open the desired facility. Scroll down, and under "Product cancellation" select the product you just created.
Go to Configuration > Booking > Cancellation Policies and click "+" (Plus).
Define how late you want to charge the cancellation fee and what percentage of the original price should be charged (see the example below).
Click "OK" to save the cancellation rule.
Go to Configuration > Booking > Booking Rules and locate the booking rule that should include this new cancellation rule.
In the "Cancellation policies" field, click the pencil icon, select the cancellation rule, and move it to the right side of the dialog. Then click OK.
Click OK again to save your changes.
No cancellation fee is charged for a preliminary booking.
When a cancellation meets the criteria for applying a cancellation fee, the resource will be freed up, and a booking for the cancellation-fee product (a certain percentage of the original price) will be created.
Below is the English translation, with slight adjustments for clarity and consistency:
Connect a Booking Rule to a Product
Go to Configuration > Products > Products.
Find and open the relevant product (for example, a group activity).
Under the “Class” tab, use the “Booking Rule” dropdown to select the desired booking rule.
Click OK.
Recommendations for Group Activities
May be booked no later than: 1 hour before
Latest reservation from waitlist: 2 hours
May be canceled no closer than: 58 minutes
The idea is that customers who are moved from the waitlist still have enough time to get to the facility. Even if someone books right before the start time, they have two minutes to cancel if needed.
Troubleshooting
If the rules do not take effect immediately after you make a change, restart BRP and try again. If they do not take effect right away for web booking, contact BRP to restart the web service.