Availability says when each host can be booked: their weekly hours, the days they are off, and rules for seasons or exceptions. Until a host has open hours, their booking types offer no times at all.
Each host has one schedule, shared by all the booking types they take. The booking type then decides which times inside those hours are offered.
Open the Availability screen
Go to HappenBoard → Bookings → Availability. Pick a person in the Host list, and the screen shows their hours.
The list shows every user who can edit posts, such as authors, editors and administrators. If it reads No hosts found, give the person one of those roles first (see roles and permissions).
Administrators and editors also see All hosts (site-wide) at the top of the list. Its days off and rules apply to every host at once, so you enter a public holiday only once. It has no weekly hours: each host keeps their own.
Set the weekly hours
- Switch on each day the host works. A day switched on for the first time opens from 09:00 to 17:00.
- Change the start and end times of that day.
- For a lunch break or a split day, click Add hours and set a second range, such as 09:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 18:00.
- Remove a range with the cross beside it.
- Click Save availability.
A day switched off reads Unavailable. A day switched on with no hours reads No hours yet. Neither offers any time.
A range whose end is not after its start, such as 17:00 to 09:00, is dropped when you save, without a warning. If a range disappears after saving, check its times.
Save availability replaces the whole week for that host, so finish every day before saving. It only saves the weekly hours: days off and rules are saved as soon as you add or remove them.
Block days off
Under Days off, pick a date and click Block this date. A blocked date offers no time at all, whatever the weekly hours say. Use it for holidays, leave or a one-off closure.
Blocked dates from today on are listed below. Click the cross beside one to open the day again.
Add seasons and exceptions
Seasons and exceptions covers what the weekly grid cannot say: a two-week closure, summer hours, Saturdays in December. Each rule opens or closes time over a period.
- In The rule, choose Closes this time (the default) or Opens this time.
- In Covers, choose Dates, Months, Weeks of the year or Days of the week. Then set where it starts and ends. For Dates, leave To empty for a single day.
- Keep All day on, or switch it off and set From time and To time.
- In Booking types, keep Every booking type or pick the one service the rule is for.
- Set Priority, from 0 to 255. Higher wins. The default is 20.
- Click Add rule.
A rule applies as soon as it is added. A range can wrap around, such as November to February or Saturday to Sunday.
Which rule wins
Rules are listed in the order they apply, each with its priority, and a rule lower in the list wins over the ones above it. The weekly hours count as priority 10, so a new rule at 20 overrides them. For example, Closes this time on 1 to 14 August, all day, closes those two weeks whatever the weekly hours say.
A blocked date also wins over the weekly hours. Only a rule with a priority above 10 can open time on it again.
The rules entered under All hosts (site-wide) appear, read-only, at the end of each host’s rules. A host’s own rule with a higher priority can override them.
Rules for one booking type
A rule limited to one booking type changes only that service. Once a host has an opening rule for a booking type, that booking type uses only the time opened for it, not the host’s weekly hours. Closures and blocked dates still apply to it.
Hours kept for one booking type
A booking type can keep weekly hours of its own with a host, set outside this screen (by a developer, for example). They then appear under Hours for one booking type and replace the weekly hours for that service. Click Use the hours above to remove them.
Time zone and week order
Every time you enter here is in your site’s time zone, set in WordPress under Settings → General. Visitors never see those numbers: the booking page shows each time in their own time zone. The week starts on the day chosen in Week Starts On, on the same WordPress screen.
Hours are worked out day by day, so a host open from 09:00 to 17:00 stays open from 09:00 to 17:00 across a daylight saving change.
How hours become bookable times
The hours you set are the outer limit. The times visitors are offered also depend on the booking type’s settings:
- A time is offered only if the whole appointment fits in an open range. Start times follow the slot step, or the First slot at time.
- Days the booking type cannot start on offer nothing.
- Times sooner than the minimum notice, or later than the maximum advance, are left out.
- A host who reaches the booking type’s daily limit is not offered again that day.
- A host is never booked twice at once. A time is left out when it overlaps, buffers included, anything the host already has: a booking of any booking type, a request awaiting approval or a booking awaiting payment. Cancelled bookings and declined requests free their time.
- On a group booking type, a time stays on offer until its seats run out.
With HappenBoard Pro, times when the host is busy in Google or Outlook are left out too (see syncing with Google Calendar). So are times when a shared resource is fully taken.
A booking type set to Open under Time no rule mentions works the other way round. It can be booked around the clock, and only days off and closing rules take time away.
If no times show up
When the booking page says No times available., check these points:
- The booking type has no host, or is a draft.
- The host has no weekly hours, or the day is switched off, blocked or closed by a rule.
- The open range is shorter than the appointment: 09:00 to 09:20 can never hold 30 minutes.
- The minimum notice covers the next open hours.
- The day is not ticked under Bookings can start on.
- Every time is already booked.
- An opening rule limited to the booking type has replaced the host’s weekly hours for it.
Next steps
- Publishing the booking page: show the times to visitors.
- Creating a booking type: adjust the duration, buffers and notice.
- Appointment booking: overview: see how bookings arrive and what customers receive.