Never double-book a court again

Two people. One court. The same evening. Who finds out first: you, or them?

Most clubs find out on the night. Two names in the diary, a booking taken over the phone, and a message nobody read. And then somebody has to explain.

This is how bookings work at a demonstration three-site leisure business on Parsware. Every picture is the real application, with demonstration data.

Every booking, on one sheet

Bookings opens on today's sheet: every booking at all three sites, hour by hour, tinted by whether it is waiting, confirmed or done. Week and Month are a click away.

Resource sheet is the same day with a column for each court, pitch and lane. Anything already taken is on it, whether it is a booking or a class.

A court, checked when it is booked

A member rings for a court on Tuesday evening. The receptionist picks her name, the time and Court 1, and confirms. Parsware checks the court is free and prices the booking. It is one of the four courts her membership includes each month, so tonight costs her nothing.

Ten minutes later, someone else asks for Court 1, same evening, same hour. It says no, there and then:

A whole pitch, or a quarter of it

Football pitches are harder. Pitch 1 can be booked whole, or a quarter at a time, and on Thursday evening one quarter is already taken. So when a team asks for the whole pitch, it says the whole pitch isn't free, and which part is booked:

Your opening hours, too

It knows when each site is open. The tennis club is closed on Mondays, so a Monday court is refused before anyone turns up to a locked gate:

One booking, one court

Back on the resource sheet, Tuesday evening shows one booking for Court 1: hers. No double entries, and no awkward phone calls.

The checks happen in one place, when a booking is confirmed, whoever confirms it: the front desk, a manager, or, in a later article in this series, the customer booking online.

Tell us how your business runs, and we'll show it to you running. Get in touch.