Rules and slots
Choose a resource to manage when it can be booked. A recurring rule (for example "every Saturday at 2 pm") is all you need: the plugin creates the matching slots by itself, ahead of time, and keeps creating them every day. You can then go over them to add a slot, change one (capacity, schedule for a single date) or close it; a slot you changed or closed is never overwritten.
In the Simple display, this screen has three parts. Schedules: the days and times at which it can be booked, said in plain words; to offer a start every 30 minutes with a break at lunch time, fill in "Repeat during the day". Calendar: click a day, tick the slots and close, reopen, delete them or change their capacity in one go. Closures: close for a few days or only between two hours, for example every day from 12:00 to 14:00. The Advanced display shows the same screen with its technical parts (rules, periods, exceptions).
The screen of a resource has four parts, chosen with the buttons under its title: Recurring rules, Periods (seasons), Slots, and Exceptions and blocks. After you save in one part, you come back to it.
If the resource has a duration (set in the Resources tab), you only enter the start time of a rule: the end is calculated. To offer several departures a day, type the other start times in "Other start times" (for example 12:00, 15:00) when you create the rule: one rule is created for each start time, with the same days, capacity and dates. Example: an activity of 120 minutes with start times 9:00, 12:00 and 15:00 gives three slots a day, ending at 11:00, 14:00 and 17:00. Without a duration, you type the end time yourself.
For appointments (massages, lessons…), "Repeat during the day" saves typing every start time: give the first start time, the interval in minutes and the last start time. For example, from 09:00 every 30 minutes until 15:30 creates 14 rules, one for each departure. It needs a resource with a duration.
The Slots part is a month calendar. Each day shows how many slots it has and how many places are still free: grey means nothing is planned, orange full, red closed, and ✎ that a slot of that day was edited by hand. Click a day to see its slots, change their capacity, close or reopen them, add a slot, or close the whole day in one click. "See all the slots as a list" shows the next days as a list (30 by default, you can choose how many).
A rule can be edited or duplicated (the copy is inactive until you activate it). Editing a rule updates the future slots that you have not changed by hand; closing a slot keeps it, so the rule does not create it again. The capacity of a slot can be changed at any time, but never below the places already booked or on hold.
Staff and overlapping slots
When an activity needs people (Resources tab), a slot you create here stays visible but is not offered to visitors if nobody is free during that time. Slots you enter yourself as webmaster are never refused, but they do count when the plugin checks the next ones.
Nights
For a resource booked by the night, a rule runs from the check-in time to the check-out time of the next morning (the end time may be earlier than the start time), and its capacity is the number of identical units. A "Night" rule and a "Day" rule can both exist on the same resource.
A predefined stay has no availability of its own: it uses the resources of its programme.
Closed and full days
In the availability calendar, a day shows "Closed" (hatched) when nothing can be booked online that day: no slot is planned or open, a slot has already started, or it is too close for the minimum notice of the resource. A day shows "Full" only when slots can still be booked online but none has a place left. A day with at least one slot to come, in time and with a place free, stays available. Browsing the months with the arrows does not scroll the page.
For a night or a stay with no arrival time set, the minimum notice is counted from the end of the first day, so tonight can still be booked in the evening with a short notice. Set an arrival time in the opening times to count from that time instead.
Blocking and seasons
You can block a whole resource, a single physical unit or a period — for maintenance, a private hire, or any reason that should stop new bookings without touching the recurring rule.
Periods (seasons) limit the dates on which the resource can be booked online and on which slots are generated. A period can repeat every year, even over the new year (December to April).
Above the dates of a period, a list fills them from a season you named once in the Seasons tab. The dates stay editable, and changing the season later does not change a period already saved.