Academy › Courses › Bookings and orders
How many spots fit in each opening on your calendar
You'll know how to decide whether each slot on your calendar works for one booking or several, and how many: by table, by staff member, by machine, or by seat in a class. By the end, you'll have written down the capacity for each type of slot and the buffer between bookings, and you'll apply what you can to your calendar: the number of tables and the length of each service with its buffer.
You've got tables, classes, pros, or machines on a calendar, and you fill each slot a little by feel: you take one more booking because it "fits," or you leave a spot open just in case. Then two appointments overlap, or a class runs half empty and you're not sure whether to keep it, or someone asks for space for a big group and you're not sure whether to combine two slots or just say there's no room.
This course sorts through those decisions one by one. First, you'll separate which slots are for a single booking and which ones can hold multiple spots. Then you'll set the real capacity for each type and the buffer you leave between one booking and the next. After that, you'll decide when to combine slots for a group and when to let a half-full slot go or keep it running. It wraps up by having you correct those numbers based on what actually happened on your calendar, not what you guessed at the start.
This is for anyone running a booking calendar with tables, classes, staff, or machines who has more than one type of slot to manage. It's not for someone who only sells products with no schedule or appointments.
- Decide which slots are for a single booking and which allow multiple seats, and write it down
- Set the real capacity for each table, class, staff member, or machine, written down, not eyeballed
- Add just the right buffer to the length of each service so the next booking doesn't land on a slot that's still half cleaned up
- Use the turned-away requests and empty slots from the past few weeks to decide whether a slot gets combined, kept, or canceled
It helps to have your current calendar or booking schedule in front of you, with the types of slots you offer today.
The 6 lessons
In the order it makes the most sense to read them.
- 1
One slot for one person, one slot for multiple spots
You'll walk away knowing which slots on your calendar hold a single booking and which ones allow multiple spots, with that decision written down so you can apply it when confirming each booking and avoid double-booking two people at once.
7 min - 2
A slot's capacity isn't what fits, it's what you can serve well
When you're done, every table, class, professional, or machine has its real seat count set and written down, not eyeballed, and you know to respect it when confirming each booking.
7 min - 3
The buffer that decides whether the next customer walks into a ready slot or one that's still being reset
You'll come away knowing how much buffer to add to the length of each type of slot so the next booking doesn't land on something half-ready.
7 min - 4
When you combine two slots for a big group, and when you don't
You'll come away knowing at what occupancy it's worth combining two slots for a big group, and when it's better to tell them it doesn't fit that way.
8 min - 5
Whether to keep a half-full slot running, or not
By the end, you'll have written down, for every slot with a fixed cost, a minimum headcount and a cutoff time that tell you whether the slot stays, gets merged, or gets canceled.
7 min - 6
The capacity you correct based on what actually happened, not what you expected
The course wraps up with you adjusting each slot's spots based on the turned-away requests and empty slots from the past few weeks, not the number you set on day one.
8 min