Advanced Availability Rules

Last reviewed: 2026-05-26

On this page

• When to use a rule
• Step 1: Enable the feature
• Step 2: Add a rule to your event
• Example scenarios
• Scenario 1: Limited Friday night seating
• Scenario 2: Peak summer season
• Scenario 3: Quiet weekday mornings
• Managing your rules
• Overlapping rules
• Frequently asked questions
• Next steps

Advanced Availability Rules are available on the Ultimate plan. You can upgrade from Settings > Pricing in the app.

Most service businesses don't have uniform demand. A wine tasting room is quiet midweek and packed on Saturday afternoons. A fitness studio runs lean through summer and gets slammed in January. A restaurant hosts intimate dinners on Friday nights with fewer seats than the rest of the week. Setting a single fixed capacity for every date and time forces a bad trade-off: cap too low and you turn people away on your busiest days, cap too high and you end up with half-empty sessions.

Advanced Availability Rules solve this by letting you change how your event behaves on specific dates and times of day without touching your defaults. You keep your regular setup for the majority of dates that are predictable, and add a rule only where reality diverges.

For a given date range and optional time window, a rule lets you:

• Change the capacity - raise or lower how many attendees each availability can take per timeslot.
• Target specific times of day - apply the rule only during certain hours (for example, only Friday evenings from 8:30 PM to 10:00 PM).
• Set a repeating schedule - repeat the rule weekly on specific days so you don't need to create a new rule each week.
• Change the availabilities - pick a different set of staff, rooms, or resources to use during that range.

Combined, you can fully tailor a single event to seasonal demand, recurring weekly patterns, staffing realities, and one-off changes without creating duplicate events or constantly editing your defaults.

When to use a rule

Step 1: Enable the feature

Advanced Availability Rules are off by default. Turn them on once at the store level before they appear on individual events.

1. In the app, go to Settings.
2. Under Customer experience, find the Advanced Availability Rules card and click into it.

1. Click Enable.

Once enabled, every event's Availability tab gains a Capacity by date section where you can add and manage rules.

Step 2: Add a rule to your event

1. Go to Dashboard > Show all events and click Edit on the event.
2. Click the Availability tab.
3. Scroll to the Number of Attendees card. Below the default attendee count, you'll see Capacity by date with a Set up link.

1. Click Set up, then + Add rule.
2. In the New capacity rule modal, fill in:
   • Rule name - a short label only you see (e.g. "Varying Capacity Fridays", "Summer season").
   • Starts on - the date this rule begins.
   • Repeats (optional) - set to Weekly and pick which days of the week. For example, select only Friday to create a rule that fires every Friday. Choose when the repetition ends: never, on a specific date, or after a number of occurrences.
   • Time of day (optional) - toggle this on to restrict the rule to specific hours. Set the From and To times to target a window like 8:30 PM to 10:00 PM.
   • Set a custom capacity - toggle on and set the number of attendees per timeslot per availability. The helper text shows what the event's default is.
   • Availabilities for this rule - optionally choose which staff, rooms, or resources should be active during this rule. By default the rule uses all of your event's availabilities.
3. Click Add rule.

Once the rule is saved, you can see it listed under Date-based rules with its status, schedule, and capacity summary. The Calendar Preview on the right updates in real time: notice how the 9:00 PM slot on Friday June 5 shows 5 available while the earlier slots outside the rule's time window still show 6 available (the event default).

Example scenarios

Scenario 1: Limited Friday night seating

A restaurant normally allows 6 attendees per timeslot but wants to cap Friday evenings at 5 for a more intimate experience.

• Rule name: Varying Capacity Fridays
• Starts on: the upcoming Friday
• Repeats: Weekly on Friday
• Ends: Never (or a specific end date)
• Time of day: 8:30 PM to 10:00 PM
• Custom capacity: 5

Result: every Friday from 8:30 PM onward shows 5 available spots per timeslot instead of 6. All other days and times keep the default.

Scenario 2: Peak summer season

A tour company runs at higher capacity during the summer because they have more guides available.

• Rule name: Summer season
• Starts on: June 1
• Repeats: None (continuous date range through end date)
• Time of day: Off (applies all day)
• Custom capacity: 12 (up from a default of 6)
• Availabilities: Add the seasonal guides for this rule

Result: every timeslot from June 1 through the end date allows 12 attendees and uses the expanded staff roster. When the rule ends, everything reverts to the default.

Scenario 3: Quiet weekday mornings

A fitness studio wants fewer spots on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings because only one instructor works those shifts.

• Rule name: Midweek mornings
• Starts on: the upcoming Tuesday
• Repeats: Weekly on Tuesday and Wednesday
• Time of day: 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
• Custom capacity: 4 (down from 8)
• Availabilities: Assign only the single morning instructor

Result: Tuesday and Wednesday morning slots show 4 spots with one instructor. Afternoon slots on those same days, and all slots on other days, keep the default capacity and full staff.

Managing your rules

Each row shows a status pill (Active now, Upcoming, Past, or Disabled), the selected availabilities, the date range, and the per-availability capacity. Use the toggle to disable a rule without deleting it, the pencil to edit, and the trash to remove. Changes save immediately.

Overlapping rules

Keep each rule's date and time ranges distinct when possible. If two rules cover the same dates but target different times of day (for example, one for mornings and one for evenings), they work side by side without conflict.

If two rules overlap on both date and time, the rule listed first applies. For example, with "Holiday closure" (Dec 22-28) above "December special" (Dec 1-31), Dec 24 falls under "Holiday closure" because it appears first in the list. The modal shows a yellow warning when it detects an overlap.

Frequently asked questions

Do rules apply to all events or just one? Rules are per event. If you want the same change across several events, add a rule to each one.

What time zone do the dates and times use? Your event's time zone. If your event is locked to America/New_York, a rule targeting 8:30 PM means 8:30 PM Eastern regardless of where the customer is browsing from.

Can I have a rule repeat on multiple days? Yes. Set Repeats to Weekly and select multiple days (for example, Tuesday and Wednesday). The rule fires on each selected day within the date range.

What happens outside the time-of-day window? Your event's default capacity applies. A rule targeting 8:30 PM - 10:00 PM has no effect on morning or afternoon slots.

Can I close days entirely with a rule? Uncheck every availability in the rule. For a hard block regardless of availability setup, use a date override. See Blocking off time and days.

Next steps

• Group bookings & guest management - configure default capacity and minimum attendees
• Setting your availability - set up the availabilities that rules can include or exclude
• Waitlist - let customers join a waitlist when a slot is full
• Blocking off time and days - close specific dates entirely instead of running a rule