Docs

Availability & session length

Which days and times a listing can be booked, how many people fit in one slot, and how long a session actually runs.

Quick answer

Availability is set per listing, day by day, in the listing's calendar. Set Session length once at the top and every slot you add gets a proper start and end time. Use Fill Day to generate a whole day of slots instead of adding them one at a time.

What a bookable day looks like

A day holds any number of slots. Each slot has a time, a capacity, and a price inherited from the listing. Customers see only slots that still have room.

Saturday, October 3

Session length: 45 min
09:00 - 09:452 of 4 booked
10:00 - 10:454 of 4 booked
11:00 - 11:450 of 4 booked
14:00No end time set

Full slots disappear from the customer's calendar. A slot with no end time falls back to one hour on calendar invites, which is why setting a session length is worth it.

Session length

Session length sits at the top of the Availability section on the listing form. Pick anything from 10 minutes to 4 hours, and:

  • Slots you add by hand or from the time grid are written as ranges, for example 09:00 - 09:45 instead of just 09:00.
  • Fill Day uses it as the default duration, so a whole day of slots comes out the right length.
  • Any slot still missing an end time is expanded when you save the listing.
  • Calendar invites sent to both sides carry the real end time instead of assuming an hour.

Different lengths for the same service

One listing carries one session length. If you offer a 30-minute and a 60-minute version of the same service, publish them as two listings. Price variants change the price, not how long the slot runs.

Filling a day quickly

Adding slots one at a time gets tedious past a handful. Fill Day generates a run of slots from a start time to an end time, using the appointment duration you choose plus an optional gap between sessions. Your choice is remembered, so the next day you fill starts from the same settings.

  • Add as time range is available on individual slots too, under the advanced options, if you want one slot that runs longer than the rest.
  • Slot capacity decides how many people can book the same slot. Leave it at 1 for one-to-one sessions; raise it for classes, tours or workshops.
  • Booked slots are blocked automatically. You never have to remove them by hand.

Advance notice

A listing can require a minimum amount of notice before a slot can be booked, so a customer cannot book a session starting in ten minutes. Slots inside that window stop appearing as bookable. This applies to new bookings; it does not restrict a seller moving an existing booking, which they can do at any time.

Set the session time zone first

Slot times are plain clock times, so the marketplace needs to know where those times apply before it can tell which of today's slots are still upcoming. Set it under booking settings — especially if you run the marketplace from a different country than your sellers work in.

Keeping outside calendars in step

If your sellers also list on Airbnb, VRBO or Booking.com, two-way iCal calendar sync keeps dates blocked in both places so the same slot is never sold twice. Sellers can also subscribe to their own booking feed and see it in Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.

Where to set all this

Availability, session length, slot capacity and advance notice all live on the listing itself. See Listing Form for the full field-by-field reference, including which listing types show a calendar.

Odd scheduling shape?

Overlapping classes, multi-day courses or seasonal availability are all worth a conversation before you build them out. Write to [email protected].
OverviewBooking Settings
Availability & Session Length | Prometora Docs