Overview
The Booking Restrictions feature gives you control over when customers can book sessions. You can set two types of restrictions to manage your booking calendar effectively:
Maximum Advance Booking - Controls how far into the future customers can book
Booking Blackout - Prevents bookings for sessions occurring too soon
Accessing Booking Restrictions
Navigate to your Settings / Bookings & Timetable
Under Bookings enable one or both of the settings
Maximum Advance Booking
Booking Blackout
Rule 1: Maximum Advance Booking
What it does
This rule limits how far into the future customers can make bookings. For example, if you set this to 30 days, customers can only book sessions that occur within the next 30 days from today.
How to configure
Find the Maximum Advance Booking and set the toggle to On
Enter the number of days (e.g.,
30)Save your changes
Example scenarios
30 days: Customers can book sessions for the next month only
90 days: Customers can book up to 3 months ahead
7 days: Customers can only book for the current week
Best practices
Consider your typical booking patterns when setting this limit
Balance customer convenience with your operational planning needs
Review and adjust seasonally if your business has peak periods
Rule 2: Booking Blackout
What it does
This rule creates a buffer period, preventing customers from booking sessions that occur too soon. For example, if you set this to 2 days, customers cannot book any sessions that start within the next 2 days.
How to configure
Find the Booking Blackout setting and set the toggle to On
Enter the number of days for your buffer period (e.g.,
2)Save your changes
Example scenarios
2 days: Customers must book at least 2 days in advance
1 day: Customers cannot book sessions occurring tomorrow or today
7 days: Customers must book at least a week ahead
Best practices
Use this to ensure adequate preparation time for sessions
Consider staff scheduling and resource allocation needs
Balance between preventing last-minute bookings and customer flexibility
Using Both Rules Together
You can combine both rules to create a booking window, For example:
Maximum Advance Booking: 30 days
Booking Blackout: 2 days
This means customers can book sessions that occur between 2 and 30 days from today.
Note: you cannot create a Maximum Advance Booking that has less days than Booking Blackout to avoid shut outs in your scheduling.
Example Timeline
Date Range | Status | Reason |
18-19 March | ❌ Not bookable | Within 2-day blackout period |
20 March - 16 April | ✅ Bookable | Within the allowed booking window |
17 April onwards | ❌ Not bookable | Beyond 30-day advance booking limit |
⚠️ Settings to Avoid
Warning: Conflicting Settings
If your Booking Blackout period is equal to or greater than your Maximum Advance Booking, customers will have no available booking window.
Examples of problematic configurations
Blackout: 30 days | Maximum Advance: 30 days
Result: No sessions available for booking (the blackout cancels out the entire advance booking window)
Blackout: 45 days | Maximum Advance: 30 days
Result: Impossible to book anything (blackout period extends beyond the maximum advance window)
Best practice formula
Maximum Advance Booking > Booking Blackout
Example:
✅ Maximum Advance: 30 days, Blackout: 2 days = 28-day booking window
✅ Maximum Advance: 90 days, Blackout: 7 days = 83-day booking window
❌ Maximum Advance: 14 days, Blackout: 14 days = 0-day booking window
💡 Tip: Always ensure your Maximum Advance Booking is significantly larger than your Booking Blackout to give customers a reasonable window to make bookings.
Common Questions
What happens if a customer tries to book outside the allowed window?
What happens if a customer tries to book outside the allowed window?
They'll see a message indicating when the session, course or group booking is available to be booked.
Can I change these settings at any time?
Can I change these settings at any time?
Yes, you can adjust these restrictions whenever needed. Changes take effect immediately for all bookings.
You can also make the changes via the bulk schedule function in Schedule> Agenda view updates if you need to make multiple adjustments.
Do these restrictions affect existing bookings?
Do these restrictions affect existing bookings?
Yes, these rules will apply to new & existing bookings.
Can I set different restrictions for different session types?
Can I set different restrictions for different session types?
Yes, you can override the global settings on a per session, course or group booking.
What if I don't want any restrictions?
What if I don't want any restrictions?
You can leave the global settings off, or set them to very high values (e.g., 365 days for Maximum Advance Booking and 0 for Booking Blackout).
Need Help?
If you have questions about configuring booking restrictions or need assistance with your specific use case, please contact our support team.