Important
All add-ons for Bookly require Bookly PRO installed and activated.
Bookly Group Booking (Add-on) allows you to accept group bookings for the same service at the same time. Customers can specify the number of persons they’d like to book for when selecting a service at the first step of the booking process.
This screenshot displays the booking form with Bookly Cart (Add-on) installed and activated
Group bookings will be displayed in the Bookly Calendar as a single appointment, including the details of all signed-up customers.
If one customer books the appointment for several persons, the appointment details will display the name of the client who made the booking, along with the number of persons chosen at the time of booking.
A client can be removed by clicking on the trash icon next to their name. This action will cancel the booking for that specific client and free up a place in the group appointment.
To adjust the number of persons, click on the customer’s name and select another value.
Setup and configuration
1. Purchase, download, install and activate the Bookly Group Booking (Add-on) in Plugins.
2. Navigate to the Services section, then click Edit on each service. In the Advanced tab, set a Capacity value for each service. This value determines the minimum and maximum number of customers each service can accommodate.
One booking per time slot feature enables you to restrict the possibility of booking within the service capacity to only one time.
For example, if the service capacity is set to a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 6, and there is already a booking for 2 customers, the time slot will be blocked for further bookings. As a result, no additional customers will be able to join the existing ones.
3. You can customize an employee's capacity settings independently, which can differ from the default values set in Services. Go to the Staff Members section and open the staff member's card. Switch to the Services tab to access individual capacity settings.
Staff capacity settings will always override capacity values set under service capacity settings. Service capacity settings will serve as default values for all newly created staff members.
4. You can display or hide the Number of persons field when placing the booking form on your website. If hidden, all appointments will be automatically booked for one person per booking.
5. If you wish to display information about time slot occupancy in the booking form, navigate to Appearance > Time tab, and select the checkbox next to Show information about group bookings. The format for displaying this information should be configured in Settings > Group Booking.
[Booked/Max Capacity]
[Available left]
Group Booking (Add-on) & Waiting List (Add-on)
If you have both the Bookly Group Booking (Add-on) and the Bookly Waiting List (Add-on) installed and activated, navigate to Settings > Waiting List > Add customers to the waiting list despite the capacity value. Here, you can determine how customers will be placed on the waiting list.
Enabled: If enabled, and there is someone on the waiting list, all other customers attempting to book the selected time slot will also be waitlisted. This occurs even when the service capacity value permits more persons to book an appointment.
Disabled: When disabled, free places will be open for booking on the front-end as long as the number of persons matches the remaining places in the appointment.
Group Booking (Add-on) & Custom Duration (Add-on)
When using both the Group Booking (Add-on) and the Custom Duration (Add-on), if a service with custom duration has a capacity of more than 1, subsequent bookings for the same time slot will be restricted to customers selecting the same service duration as the existing booking. In essence, after the first booking of a specific duration for a selected time slot, other customers can only book this time slot if they also select the same (existing) service length. Customers whose service length doesn’t match the duration of the existing booking will be offered the next available time slot.
Watch this video tutorial to learn how to set up the capacity feature and enable group bookings using the Bookly Group Booking (Add-on).
Try this demo to get a better understanding of how the Group Booking (Add-on) works.
DEMOVIDEO TUTORIALSMAIN BOOKLY SETTINGSFAQADD-ONS
RELATED
Multiply Appointments (Add-on) – set number of identical back-to-back appointments.
Chain Appointments (Add-on) – select several services and get one time slot for back-to-back appointments.