Durations, Categories, Guests, Limits and Visibility
Most businesses outgrow “one service, one length, one price” quickly. A coach sells 30, 60 and 90-minute sessions. A clinic wants a private service only existing patients can book. A tutor lets parents bring a second guardian. These options handle that without creating a separate service for every variation.
They’re always included, with no module to switch on. Open a service from Bookings → Services and scroll to Booking form and visibility.
Offer Several Durations
Extra durations lets a one-to-one service offer up to five more lengths next to its own duration, each with its own price. Fill in Option 2 minutes and Option 2 price, and so on. Leave a row blank to skip it.
- Each extra length runs from 5 to 480 minutes and must differ from the service duration and the other options.
- On a paid service, each option needs a price of at least 0.50. Free services stay free, so the price fields hide.
- Customers pick from a Duration choice on the form, with the service’s own length selected first. The choice changes the available times, the price, the deposit and the length of the reservation.
- A rescheduled booking keeps the length and price the customer chose.
You can see three lengths side by side on the Coaching Sessions demo.
Group Services into Categories
Type a Category (up to 60 characters) or pick one you’ve used before from the suggestions. A service has one category. The service directory turns your categories into filter tabs, and you can show a single category with [core_bookings_directory category="Massage"].
Choose Who Can See and Book It
| Visibility | Directory and service pickers | Who can book |
|---|---|---|
| Listed (default) | Shown | Anyone |
| Unlisted | Hidden | Anyone with its booking page link, a block or shortcode that names it, a prefill link or an invitation |
| Invitation only | Hidden | Only someone with a valid single-use invitation link |
Unlisted works for a follow-up session you send to existing clients. Invitation only is for anything you truly want to restrict. Its booking page shows just the service name and asks for the invitation link. Saved services show a Create or review invitation links shortcut under the setting. See Invitation and Prefill Links.
Let Customers Bring Guests
Guests per booking accepts 0 to 10 on one-to-one services. 0 turns guests off. Customers add each guest’s name and email on the details step with Add a guest.
- Guests don’t take a seat and never get a link to manage the booking.
- Each guest needs a valid, unique email that isn’t the customer’s own.
- When the booking is confirmed or moved, each guest gets the calendar invitation (
.icsfile) by email. If it’s cancelled, invited guests get a cancellation file. - Guests appear on the appointment, the customer’s booking page and booking webhooks.
Group sessions don’t use this setting. They sell seats instead, covered in Group Sessions and Seat Limits.
Set Booking Limits
Two kinds of limits stop a service from being overbooked by one person or wearing out one staff member:
- Upcoming bookings per customer (0 to 50, 0 means no limit) caps how many active, upcoming bookings one email address can hold for this service. Unpaid and unapproved holds count too, and a recurring request counts every session. A customer at the limit is told to cancel one or wait until one has taken place.
- Under Booking options, Maximum appointments per staff/day for this service (0 to 1,000) and Maximum appointments per staff/week for this service (0 to 7,000) cap the service for each staff member, in their own timezone, with weeks starting Monday. 0 means unlimited. A group session counts once, however many seats it sells.
Limits
- Extra durations and guests apply to one-to-one services only. Group sessions ignore them.
- A session pack credit always books the standard duration. When a customer books with a credit, the duration choice disappears.
- Invitation-only services have no waitlist, because an offer from the waitlist would skip the invitation.
- Guests are not added to the staff member’s Google Calendar event. They rely on the emailed calendar file.
- Staff-added appointments and waitlist offers ignore the per-customer limit.