Booking window rules define how far in advance or how last minute your users can book. These can vary based on the space and user tag!
Create a booking window rule
Select + Add a window rule then choose which users this rule is for, the spaces it applies to, and either the minimum or maximum advance-notice requirement.
For the more than selection there is the option to choose between day(s) ahead (plus current day) or day(s) ahead (strictly X h).
Day(s) ahead (plus current day) means that the threshold is lenient. The days are measured from the end of today. For example, if we choose 3 days and the current time is Monday at 12:01 am, then a user can create a booking for 11:30 pm on Thursday, but not for 12:05 am on Friday.
If day(s) ahead (strictly X h) is chosen then the exact number of hours is computed between the booking's start time and the current time. If it's larger than the number of days specified in the rule, the booking is denied. For example, if the current time is 10:32 am on Monday, then a user can create a booking for 10:30 am on Thursday, but not for 11:00 am.
It is also possible to create a rule for 0 days in advance which limits users to only book "today". With this you can establish a group of users who are lowest priority or only allowed to book "last minute" if no one else with higher priority has booked first.
If you create conflicting rules (i.e. multiple rules for the same spaces/tags) your effective rules will be the most conservative / strict combination (i.e. the least-generous result for the user).
In all cases, if a booking is attempted and it violates one of your rules, regular (non-admin) users will be shown an informative error message.
Examples
We need a minimum amount of notice so that we can prepare
This rule that prevents bookings that are made with less than seven hours notice.
We don't want bookings to be made too far in advance
This one prevents bookings that are made more than three days out. Perhaps you're planning on changing your pricing and you don't want people locking in bookings too far in advance with your current pricing!
We want to give our members preferential/early booking access
For example, perhaps Members have the benefit of being able to book Studio 1 up to 14 days out, whereas all other users can only do so up to 7 days out. This gives those members preferential treatment (i.e. early/priority booking access to Studio 1).
The first rule makes use of "Users with any of the tags...", whereas the second rule makes use of "Users with none of the tags..."
FAQs
What happens if someone tries to move their booking outside of the booking window?
If a user creates a booking within your specified booking window rule(s), and later decides to modify the time/date of it, Skedda will automatically check to make sure the newly selected time/date does not conflict with your current booking window rules. So, no sneaky users making bookings within your booking window, only to try and change it later!