Session visibility & bookability

Every session slot you generate carries visibility and bookability settings that decide who sees the slot in your booking calendar, who can book it, and what they see before it opens. This page explains what each setting means for the customer.

These settings live on each generated slot, not on the session type as a whole — that is why the Generate dialog offers Apply to selected, to stamp the same settings onto a batch of existing slots at once.

The four visibility levels

You set these levels in both the Generate and Edit Session dialogs.

• Public — the default. The slot is listed in the booking calendar and bookable according to its bookability mode.
• Hidden — the slot is removed from the booking calendar entirely. The booking app never receives it. Use this for internal or offline sessions you still want on your own scheduler.
• Private — the slot is listed but always locked, shown with a padlock and a generic Private card (with the hint "This time is reserved and not available for booking.") rather than the real session name. Customers cannot reach it through the public calendar at all. Instead, share the direct join link / QR code from the Edit Session dialog; the invited customer books against capacity after signing in. Use this for a slot reserved for one specific client or group.
• Restricted — the slot is withheld from the booking app for everyone who is not eligible. Eligible customers see the real session with a member-group icon and can book it; ineligible customers who somehow reach the listing see a locked "Members only" card with no name or price.

Bookability mode

• Bookable now — bookable immediately (default).
• Not bookable — visible but never bookable (for example, a session shown for information only).
• Bookable from date — reveals a date field. Before that date the slot is not bookable for the public; on and after it, the slot opens automatically. No operator action is needed at the open date.

"Coming soon" display mask

The display mode has two values: Full details (default) and Coming soon (masked). A slot set to Coming soon (masked) with a future Bookable from date shows a generic "Coming soon" card — no session name, no price, no spot count. Once the date passes, the mask resolves itself: the real details appear and the slot becomes bookable, with no manual step. It is date-bounded and self-clearing.

Restricted eligibility and eligible groups

Organisation prerequisite: the eligible-groups and early-access controls only appear once your organisation has designated a client field as the "group membership" field (the groupMembershipFieldProperty setting). That field's options — for example a Membership Tier field with values Bronze / Silver / Gold — become the selectable groups. Until a field is designated, the Restricted controls show an info hint instead of the selector, and eligibility cannot be used at all. Configure the field first in your organisation settings.

With that in place, a Restricted slot exposes an Eligible groups selector. Only customers whose membership field puts them in a selected group can see and book the slot; everyone else is not shown it, or sees the locked "Members only" card.

Early access vs. early-bird price — not the same thing

Two different features share the word "early-bird". Keep them apart:

• Early access (this page) — lets an eligible sub-group book ahead of the public open date. It is a visibility/timing control that lives on the slot's Restricted settings.
• Early-bird price — a separate pricing feature in the booking calendar that offers a discounted price for a limited time. It has its own fields and badges.

Early access changes when a customer can book; early-bird price changes what they pay. A slot can use either, both, or neither.

Early-access tiers

Early-access tiers appear only when a slot is Restricted and Bookable from date. Each tier has its own group list (which can differ from the base eligible groups) and a lead time in days — an eligible tier member can book that many days before the public open date. New tiers default their lead to your organisation's configured default; you can add several tiers and remove any but the last. A tier with no groups is dropped on save.

To the customer, an early-access member sees the session as fully bookable while everyone else still sees the "Coming soon" mask — no action needed beyond being signed in as an eligible member.

Worked example

A gym has a client field Membership Tier designated as the group-membership field, with options Bronze, Silver, Gold. A popular class opens to the public on 1 September. The operator configures one slot:

• Visibility: Restricted
• Eligible groups: Bronze, Silver, Gold
• Bookability: Bookable from 1 September
• Display: Coming soon
• Early-access tier: Gold members, 7-day lead

What each customer sees:

• A Gold member — sees the real class and can book from 25 August (7 days early); the early-access tier bypasses the mask for their group.
• A Bronze or Silver member — is eligible but has no early-access tier, so sees "Coming soon" until 1 September, then books like the public.
• A non-member — the slot is withheld; if it surfaces they see a locked "Members only" card with no name or price, and can never book it.

How configuration reaches the customer

The dashboard stores these choices per slot, omitting anything left at its default. The booking calendar then enforces them per viewer: Hidden slots never reach it, Private and ineligible-Restricted slots are shown locked, and Coming soon slots stay masked until their date passes — while early-access members get the live, bookable card ahead of that date. Set it once per slot (or across a batch with Apply to selected) and the customer experience follows automatically.