Example: How to sell parties as a service

Example: How to sell parties as a service

Overview

Situation: A Swim Club would like to sell pool parties.   Parents can host their child's party at the community pool.      
Policy:
  1. Patrons can request a party.  May, 23rd to Sept. 6th
  2. Parties can start at 12noon or 4pm daily. 
  3. Parties are 3.5 hours long.  
  4. Parties must be requested with a 7 day notice.  (no last minute parties)
  5. $300 per party.
  6. If the party has 15 or more children under the age of 12, an additional lifeguard must be purchased for $75.
  7. Patrons can pay for the party online or bring a check to the party.  
  8. Patrons are allowed to cancel online.  If so, they are auto-refunded any fees paid.  Minimum time to cancel is 48 hours. (no last minute cancelations)
  9. There is no designated party space at the facility. 
  10. The pool manager needs alerted whenever there is a party request or cancelation.   
  11. Maximum 50 patrons per party.  The pool manager needs to know the Adult vs. Child ratio.    
  12. The party host must agree to the party's Terms & Conditions.      
  13. The party host must be given party rules, setup procedure, and cleanup procedure.   

What booking portal features are we going to use?  

  1. Since the party is a time that will be requested by the party host, we are going to build a Service.  
  2. Since the party is manage by the Swim Club's manager, they will be added as a Service Owner.
  3. Since the party has an payment choice, the Booking features will be used to track payment and take notes.
  4. Since the party may require additional staff, the Booking features will be used to track approval and notes.     

Step 1) Create a new service

Use a name and description to help your members choose the service.  The category is optional.  
To learn how, CLICK HERE (part 1).  

Step 2) Edit the service settings

This is the second part of our general help article.  We'll recommend your settings below. 

  1. Click Service Owner.  (CLICK HERE to read more about service owners here)
  2. Select the service owner.  
  3. Click OK
In this case, the above steps assigns your pool manager to the party service.   


  1. First Available Booking: May 23rd because this is the 1st day a pool party is allowed. 
  2. Last Booking Before: Sept. 6th because this is the last day and time a party is allowed.  

  1. Service Hours of Operation: Check Sun- Sat and add the hours, 12 to 8pm.  These are the times a party can occur.  You create the 2 party slots in the next section.    

  1. Interval Length: 3.5 hours because the party length is 3.5 hours long.  
  2. Max Intervals: 1 because they can only reserve 1 party at a time.  
  3. Pre & Post Buffer: In this case, you do not need to use this feature. In other cases, you may need this for setup or cleanup time in-between services. 
  4. Required Lead Time before Booking:  7 days because you want to give your pool manager time to approve the party and find extra staff if needed.  It prevents last minute bookings.     
  5. Align Bookings: Top of the hour because you want your next party slot to start at 4pm rather than 3:30pm.    

  1. Booking Instructions: These instructors will be added to the signup form.  Use this area for instructions, notices, rules, etc.  In this case, we're letting the patrons know about the additional lifeguard and adult vs. child ratio rules.   

  1. Base Cost: $300 because this is the cost of the party.  
  2. Cost per Interval: NA/$0.00 - In this case, patrons can only book 1 party at a time.  
  3. Cost per Patron: NA/$0.00 - This feature is not used in party scenarios.  It is better to use the "Add Cost Item" feature for guest fees or per person fees.
  4. Add Cost Item: Add Lifeguard / $75.00 / 1 - This will add the $75 extra lifeguard to the signup form.       
  5. Service Fee % & Fixed: This is where you would add your community's service fee.  (not matching AGS fees).  In this case, we are not adding these fees.  
  6. Add Matching AGS Service Fee: Check this if you wish to match AGS's service fee.  If a payment is collected via AGS, the patron will pay AGS's fees.  
  7. Allow Other Payment: Checked because you allow your patron to pay online OR bring a check to the party.  Uncheck this if mandate the patron pay online at the time of booking.  

  1. Allow Cancellation: This will allow your member to cancel the reservation online without your help.  
  2. Allow Rescheduling: This will allow your member to reschedule the reservation online without your help. 
  3. Auto Refund Fee on Cancellation: If the party is canceled, AGS will auto-refund the patron. 
  4. Minimum Time for Patron to Reschedule/Cancel: Within 48 hours of the party, the patron can no longer cancel the party online.  This prevents last minute cancelations (and refunds).  They must contact you (or the Service Owner) directly. 
  5. Email Service Owner on Booking Activity: This alerts the Service Owner a party has been booked, canceled, or rescheduled.      

  1. Use the yellow plus icon to add custom questions.
  2. Use the pencil icon to edit the questions.
  3. Use the hand icon to re-order the questions.  
In this case, you use it to ask the estimated number of attendees, adults, children, and any other information the pool manager needs.  

  1. Terms & Conditions: In this case, add your  party T&C's, rules, setup procedure, and cleanup procedure.  Not only do they need to agree to them, they will be added to all confirmation screens and notifications.    

Step 3) Save & Test


  1. Don't forget to Save.  Any changes will not be visible on the live booking calendar until you click SAVE.  
  2. Click Go to Patron Booking Page to view and test your service.  

How will the service/bookings be managed? 

How will payments be tracked?
Since this service allows a payment choice, the pool manager will edit the booking and make notes when payment is finalized.  (CLICK HERE to learn how)

Since some parties require extra staff, how is this tracked? 
After the staff is confirmed, the pool manager will make notes and approve the booking.  (CLICK HERE to learn how)

Other Notes


We did not need or use the following features & settings.  
  1. Resources: Resources are not required for services.  In this case, there is no designated "party space".  Therefore, it was not necessary to use resources.  If you have a pavilion that is rented AND used for parties.  Then you would need to create resource to prevent the pavilion from getting double booked.  
  2. Blocks: Since parties were available all summer, we did not need to block off any dates/times.   If you have a rule "No parties on holidays", then you would need to add a block to the service on July 4th.    
  3. Availability: We did not need to add any special dates/time for parties.  If the Swim Club had bonus days in September when a party could happen, we could add availability.