Bookable events

What a bookable event is

An ordinary event has dates you set, and people register for them. A bookable event works the other way round: you set when you're available, and each family books a time inside it. It's the right fit for a private trail ride, a pony party, a farm tour, or a weekend group ride.

Everything else works as it does for events: the category, price, add-ons, registration form, waiver, policies, the processing fee, tips, account credit, and the registrants list with its CSV. See Calendar, events, and service days for those.

Single or group

Each bookable event is one of two kinds.

1. Single: one booking at a time, such as a private trail ride or a pony party. Start times are offered every 30 minutes by default, wherever the length of the booking, plus any time you keep free before and after, fits inside your availability.
2. Group: several people join the same run, such as a 10:00 group ride for six. You set the time of each run, and families join it until it's full. The booking page shows what's left, like "4 of 6 spots left".

Create a bookable event

1. Open Calendar and click Add event. Choose People pick a time instead of Fixed date.
2. Give it a name, a description, a category if you like, and a price (0 means free). Under Where, choose At the barn (optionally a place there, like the north trail) or Somewhere else with a name and an address. A slot with its own place wins for the bookings in it.
3. Choose Single or Group. Set how long a booking lasts and any time to keep free before and after it, for tacking up or turning around. For a single event, you can change how often start times are offered.
4. Choose who can book: listed on your booking page, or only people with the link.
5. Turn on Requires approval if you want to say yes to each booking first. See Requiring approval.
6. Add a registration form, add-ons, a waiver, and your cancellation and refund policies, as for any event.
7. Under Sign-ups open, leave Now or pick when booking opens; until then the page says "Registration opens …" and offers no times.
8. Tick Save as a reusable event type to keep it on your list of types under Settings → Events; unticked, it's a one-off.
9. Save it, add your availability, and Publish it. It's a draft until you do.

Availability

Availability is made of slots. A slot is one date, or a weekly repeat: the weekdays, a start and end time, the first and last date it runs, and any dates to skip, like a holiday. Each slot has a quantity.

For a single event, the quantity is how many bookings can run at once. It starts at 1. Set it to 2 if two guides can each take a ride out at the same time. For a group event, each slot is one run, and its quantity is the group size.

One slot can serve several bookable events, and they share it. If Saturday mornings are open for either a trail ride or a pony party, one booking of either uses up that time for both. Manage slots on the bookable event's page, or see them all together under Calendar → Availability.

How families book

A listed bookable event appears on your booking page at app.1barn.com/book/your-barn. One set to only people with the link stays off that page. Share its direct link instead, which looks like app.1barn.com/book/your-barn/b/trail-ride, in an email, a message, or a post.

1. For a single event, they pick a date from a week that starts on Sunday, and then an open start time. For a group event, they pick a run with spots left.
2. They enter their details, answer your questions, choose any add-ons, and sign the waiver if there is one.
3. A priced bookable event is paid in full at booking, by card through Stripe. Deposits aren't offered for bookable events yet. Account credit applies first, as it does for events.
4. They see Booked, or Requested when you approve bookings first, and an email follows.

If two people reach for the same time, the second is asked to pick another. Paid bookable events need Stripe connected under Settings → Payments.

Requiring approval

With Requires approval on, a booking waits for you. The family's card is authorized when they book, but nothing is charged yet. Owners and managers approve or decline requests; other staff see them as Waiting for approval.

1. The request shows in owners' and managers' Open tasks on the dashboard, with Approve and Decline.
2. Approve charges the card and confirms the booking.
3. Decline asks for a reason, releases the hold on the card, and tells the family why.

A card hold lasts about seven days. Owners and managers get a reminder about a day before it runs out. If nobody decides in time, the request expires, the family is told, and nothing is charged.

Emails and reminders

Families get one email for each step: booked, requested, approved, declined, rescheduled, and cancelled. Each has an Add to calendar file, so the booking lands in their own calendar. They also get a reminder about 24 hours before their time.

Bookings on the calendar

Bookings show on the Calendar beside lessons, events, and service days. One waiting for approval says so. Open a booking to manage it:

1. Approve or Decline a request (owners and managers).
2. Reschedule to move it to another open time. For bookings, this takes the place of Move to….
3. Cancel it. Refunds follow the event's policy, as they do for events, and a card hold is released.
4. Mark no-show when someone doesn't come.

Appointments with a specific person, such as "a trail ride with Kayla", are coming later. For now, availability belongs to the bookable event, not to a person.

Which plan

Bookable events come with the Barn plan, alongside events. See Your plan and billing.