New in Sharetribe 🎉 Fixed booking slots

Not all services fit neatly into hourly booking slots. Service marketplaces can handle very different kinds of bookings, each varying in duration.

So if you’re building a marketplace that offers things like: 

• 30-minute consultation calls
• 45-minute haircuts
• Two-hour workshops
• Four-hour city tours

…or any other service, event, or experience that isn’t sold by the hour, our latest no-code feature, fixed booking slots, is for you. When this feature is enabled, the provider determines the length of a booking session.

Read on to learn more!

How fixed booking slots work

Fixed booking slots add support for a lot of different types of services to Sharetribe. 

For context: other booking units available in Sharetribe (hour, day, and night) let customers choose the start and end time of their booking. This is great for most rentals and services booked by the hour, like babysitting: the customer is charged according to the number of hours booked. With fixed booking slots, the provider decides the length of the booking session instead.

You can enable fixed booking slots in the listing type settings. Choose the calendar booking transaction process and enable the booking unit “Fixed”.

Here’s how fixed booking slots work for your providers:

1. The provider gives the booking session a price.
2. They pick a session length, such as 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, one hour… The maximum length is 11 hours and 45 minutes. 
3. They choose if new bookings start every hour, half hour, or quarter hour. This is great for providers who need some buffer between bookings.
4. Then, the provider adds availability and photos and publishes the listing.

This means that when a customer makes a booking, they choose the date and start time, but the booking will always last for as long as the provider determined.

Learn more about how fixed booking slots work for providers and customers in our Help Center!

Update marketplace and email texts

This launch introduces both new marketplace texts and email texts. 

• Copy the new marketplace texts from our Help Center and paste them into your marketplace text editor.
• Copy the new email texts from our Help Center and paste them into your email text editor.

Enable fixed booking slots today

Head over to Console and enable fixed booking slots for your marketplace.

If this feature was a crucial addition to your marketplace, an upcoming feature, price variations, is worth keeping an eye on too. (Sharetribe's changelog and roadmap keep you up to date on what's new and what's coming.)

Let’s say your providers want to offer services at different prices and durations. An example could be a hairdresser, who offers haircuts, hair dyeing, and hairdos. Or a wellness center with 30-minute, 60-minute, and 90-minute massages.

With price variations, they’ll be able to do just that. Stay tuned!