Five ways to count
- Places in a session: an outing, a class, a workshop. One time, a number of places, several people per booking.
- A slot for one person: a practice, a salon, a consultation. One appointment takes up the whole slot.
- Nights: a room, a holiday let, a campsite pitch. You arrive one day, leave on another, and every night counts.
- Covers per service: a restaurant, a supper club. The evening service has its own number of covers.
- Rented items: bikes, boats, equipment. The customer chooses how many, for an hour, a day or several.
The pitfall of multi-day bookings
A booking from the 10th to the 12th takes up two nights: the 10th and the 11th. If the tool only checks the first day, it can resell the night of the 11th to someone else. Make sure every night, or every day, of the period is checked before a booking is accepted.
A second pitfall: from the 10th to the 12th, from a 16:00 arrival to a 10:00 departure, that's two nights, not three days. A “per night” price must count the nights.
Prices that follow the duration
Half a day, a day, a week: many businesses lower the price as the duration goes up. Write down your durations and prices before choosing a tool, and check that it applies them without you having to calculate by hand.
Words matter too
A customer renting bikes wants to read “6 bikes left”, not “6 places”. A patient makes an appointment, not a “session”. The words on screens and in emails should be the words of your trade.