Availability and capacity
How Bookings decides whether a window can be booked, and how it counts capacity.
Availability windows
A resource's availability windows are its weekly opening hours. Each window is a weekday plus a start and end time, set in wall-clock terms in the venue's timezone. Add more than one window for the same weekday to model split shifts (for example 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 17:00). A resource with no windows cannot be booked.
To edit windows, open Clubs & venues, then Resources, then the resource's Edit page. Add a window with a weekday, start and end, or remove an existing one. The end must be after the start, and a window stays within a single day.
Blackouts
A blackout is a one-off closure for a specific date and time range (a bank holiday, maintenance, a private hire). Blackouts override the availability windows: while a blackout is in effect, the resource is closed even inside its normal opening hours. Add and remove blackouts on the same resource edit page.
Capacity
Each resource has a capacity: the number of concurrent units it can take. A booking consumes party_size units of that capacity for its window. A single-court hall has capacity 1; a 20-desk space has capacity 20; a 15-person class has capacity 15.
Bookings counts and compares rather than blocking on the first overlap. A window is available when the total party size of the overlapping bookings, plus the party size you are requesting, stays within the resource capacity. So two people can each book a desk in a 20-desk space at the same time, but the twenty-first is refused.
Requested and confirmed bookings both hold capacity, so a slot held while a customer is still deciding cannot be double-taken. Cancelled and no-show bookings release their capacity.
Buffers and lengths
Buffers add a gap before or after each booking. An after-buffer of 30 minutes blocks the next 30 minutes on that resource, which is useful for cleaning or turnaround. Buffers shape when the resource can next be booked; they do not consume capacity.
Minimum and maximum length bound how short or long a single hire can be.
Slot minutes sets the natural slot size used when listing free slots.
Why a booking might be refused
The new-booking quote reports the reason a window cannot be booked: the resource is inactive, the party size is outside its capacity, the window is outside the opening hours, a blackout covers it, the hire is shorter or longer than allowed, or there is no capacity left for that window.