Product schedules in ROLLER set the dates and times sessions are available for guests to purchase each day. By linking these schedules to your venue's operating hours, you can make scheduling easier, reduce the number of schedules you need to manage and save time on updating all your schedules individually when your trading hours change.
This guide will show you how to create product schedules using your venue's operating hours.
Access product schedules
You can access schedules in three main ways:
- From operating hours in Venue Manager, you can easily switch to the Schedules at the top right.
- When you finish configuring a party package or session pass product, select Save and go to schedules.
- From Venue Manager, go to Products > Schedules.
When to use
Once you've set up your operating hours, there are four main types of schedules you can create for your session pass and party package products. Select each type to learn more about when to use each type.
- Ideal for session times that occur at regular intervals throughout the day (eg every 30 MINS for guests to purchase tickets), from when your venue opens to when your venue closes each day.
- Can have varying opening hours during the week and for school holidays. Only one product schedule required to manage the different trading hours throughout the week and on school holidays.
- Tickets and resources for each session are consistent.
- You can set a maximum future booking window that extends daily.
- Example: Offering adult, child, and student tickets at set times with varying opening hours across the week and different hours for school holidays, or the same scenario with peak/off-peak ticket pricing (see example).
- Session times run at regular intervals (eg every 30 minutes).
- Custom start or end times within your venue's operating hours.
- Tickets and resources for each session are consistent.
- Example: Morning sessions can start at 9 AM, when your venue opens, and end at noon, even if the venue stays open until 8 PM. See example
- Consistent session intervals that have start and finish times unrelated to operating hours.
- Same ticket and resource requirements for all product sessions.
- By default, bookings are not allowed outside of operating hours, but you have the option to enable them.
- You can set a maximum future booking window that extends daily.
Examples
- Lunchtime sessions (12 PM to 2 PM): No bookings allowed outside of operating hours to prevent future bookings when the venue is closed for lunch. See example
- Halloween special event starting after regular closing hours: Bookings outside of operating hours are allowed for this product to ensure session availability.
- Private event with extended hours: Bookings outside of operating hours are allowed to make tickets available for purchase during this event.
- Unique product schedules with varying session start times, ticket types and resources.
- Custom schedules are not linked to opening and closing times set up in operating hours.
- Changes to operating hours won't affect session times available.
- To allow sessions outside of operating hours or sessions that run past midnight. By default, bookings are not allowed outside of operating hours, but you have the option to enable them.
- You can set a maximum future booking window that extends daily.
-
HQ accounts can't create custom schedules at the HQ level, only at the venue level. Learn more
Examples
-
Parties with irregular start times throughout the day, offering various ticket types, and using different resources for different session times.
- Fitness classes at irregular hours for the quieter times at your venue. See example
- Sessions that run past midnight. See example
Create a product schedule using operating hours
First, set up your operating hours.
Make sure you've set up your operating hours for opening and closing times throughout the week and any temporary hours for school holidays or venue closures.
Next, create the product schedule.
- From Venue Manager, go to Products > Schedules.
- Select the product you want to create a schedule for, then select Create schedule.
- Give your schedule a name (eg Skate sessions - Mon to Sun) and description (optional).
Then complete the options as follows.
| Options | Steps |
|---|---|
| First session starts at | Set the time you want your first session to start. Default selection: Aligns with venue's opening time. Custom: Uncheck the default and set a different start time. |
| Last session ends at | Set the time you want your last session to end. Default selection: Aligns with venue's closing time. Custom: Uncheck the default and set a different end time. Note: Sessions times are automatically generated based on session frequency below, session duration set up for the product and the start and end times for your sessions across the day. |
| Session starts every | Set how often sessions start, for example, every 30 minutes. Guests will be able to purchase tickets for sessions starting every half hour. |
| Tickets and resources | Displays tickets and resources per session, based on your product setup. Tickets and resources must be consistent across all sessions to use schedules linked to operating hours. You can edit individual tickets available by selecting the card and removing any tickets from the search fields. This will apply to all session times. |
| Schedule period | Choose the days you want the schedule to be available, subject to operating hours: Every day of the week, Selected weekdays or Custom dates. For selected weekdays, uncheck unwanted days. For custom dates, select the date (double click) or a date range from the calendar. |
| Start date | Choose the start date for Every day of the week or Selected weekday schedules. Not applicable to custom dates. |
| Maximum booking window |
Set how far in advance guests can book. The booking window automatically extends on a rolling basis each day. Not applicable to custom date schedules. Consider when future changes to operating hours may be changes, particularly if seasonal, when determining the future booking window so guests don't book for dates that may not be available in the future. |
Select Save.
- After saving, you can reserve available sessions for guests via Venue Manager. When products are included in the online checkout or a POS menu, session times and tickets will be accessible through these options.
- The available booking session times in linked product schedules will also automatically adjust to reflect any changes you make to operating hours, including temporary modifications for school holidays or closures.
Different types of schedule setups
Learn how to create other types of product schedules using operating hours or how to create fully customized schedules that are not linked to operating hours.
- Create regular peak and off-peak schedules fully linked to operating hours
- Create a regular schedule that's partially linked to operating hours
- Create a regular schedule that's not linked to opening & closing times
- Create fully customized sessions
- Create late-night, after-midnight sessions for online bookings
Limit bookings per session start time
This option allows you to limit the number of bookings that can start at the same time for single-booking resources (eg parties). Single-booking resources are venue assets or spaces that can only be reserved by one booking at a time (eg party rooms, party tables, cabanas). This feature helps manage guest check-ins and arrivals during peak times to avoid overwhelming your team.
To enable this option:
- Select Limit bookings per start time.
- Specify the maximum number of bookings for single-booking resources that can start at the same time.
Example:
- Silver Party Package: Uses Aqua Park (multiple-booking resource) and Party Tables 1-5 (single-booking resources) – limited to 2 bookings per start time.
- Gold Party Package: Uses Aqua Park (multiple-booking resource) and Party Tables 1-5 (single booking resources) – limited to 2 bookings per start time.
- VIP Park Booth: Uses Aqua Park (multiple-booking resource) and VIP Booths 1-5 (single-booking resources) – limited to 2 bookings per start time.
Let’s say there’s already one Gold Party Package booking at 12 PM, and two bookings for the VIP Park Booth at 12 PM.
- If guests want to book a Silver Party Package at 12pm, they can, because there’s still availability. The limit is 2 bookings per start time for Party Tables 1-5, and so far, there’s only one booking at 12 PM using these resources.
- The VIP Park Booth bookings don’t affect this, as they use a different set of single-booking resources (VIP Booths 1-5).
- If guests then try to book a second Silver Party Package at 12 PM, they won’t be able to, because there are already 2 bookings (1 Gold Party and 1 Silver Party) using Party Tables 1-5 at 12 PM.
- Similarly, guests can’t book another Gold Party Package at 12 PM, as it uses the same resource set (Party Tables 1-5), which has already reached its limit for this time slot.
Allow guests to book sessions outside of operating hours
The Allow sessions outside of operating hours option is available for two schedule types: regular schedules not linked to opening and closing times and fully customized schedules.
- The default is to restrict sessions to the operating hours configured for your venue to make sure session times are only available for sale within these hours.
- However, there may be times when you want to enable this option to allow bookings outside of operating hours.
- Useful for one-off special events starting after your venue closing time, allowing ticket purchases without affecting other schedules tied to operating hours (eg Halloween).
- Handy for private events that begin before the venue opens and end after it closes, as it enables bookings for such events. If you don't add the product to the checkout or a POS menu, staff can control bookings by creating them in Venue Manager.
View operating hours and products for the day
- From Venue Manager, go to Products > Schedules.
- Select a date in the schedules calendar.
- A banner appears at the top of the right panel showing:
- Operating hours for the day including if they are standard hours or temporary hours.
- Products available for the day and the start and finish times for each schedule.
- You can also see which products are linked or partially linked to opening and closing times.
Days already in use schedule conflicts
Choose the days in the new schedule
- These conflicts often occur when creating a schedule for a product that already has an existing schedule or when duplicating an existing product's schedule.
- By default, all days are selected in the new schedules created, leading to the conflict, as there will be two schedules with the same days selected for the same product.
- To resolve the conflict, choose the specific days you want for the new schedule.
Exclude dates from conflicting schedules
When you create a new schedule with custom dates for your schedule period, there's a chance you might choose a date already in use by another of the product's schedule. In such cases, you will receive a "Days already in use" message, which offers two options to resolve the conflict:
- Edit the schedule to adjust the custom dates and remove the conflict.
- Select "Exclude days from conflicting schedules" in the message.
A confirmation pop-up will appear to confirm moving the conflicting dates to the new schedule you're creating.