Taking lesson bookings online

Your barn has one public page - stables.co/f/your-barn - and that address is shown at the top of the Lessons tab with Copy and Open buttons. That is the link you hand out. It publishes the lessons already on your calendar, and riders take the open spots.

Switching it on

Online booking is configured under Facility Settings → Facility Details → Overview, in the Online Booking card:

• Clients can book lessons online - adds a Book a lesson section to your page.
• Approve each booking - on: bookings wait for you before they are confirmed. Off: a booking is confirmed the moment the rider books it, with nothing for you to approve.
• Closes (hours before) - how close to a lesson booking stays open. Zero means right up until it starts.
• Opens (days ahead) - how far into the future clients can book a one-off lesson or clinic. A lesson that repeats can always be booked up to four weeks ahead, whatever this is set to.
• Free cancel (hours) - the cancellation window shown to riders before they pay, and the latest a rider can cancel or change the time themselves, from My Appointments or the link in their booking email. A lesson type can set its own.
• How bookings are paid - tick every way you accept (see below).
• When a rider cancels a lesson paid by card - Give a lesson credit (the default) keeps the payment and gives the rider a credit for another lesson of the same type; Refund their card refunds it in full. The Stables fee isn’t refunded, so a refund costs you the fee. A change applies to bookings made after it, and the same rule settles card-paid riders when you cancel a lesson or remove them. A credited rider shows on the lesson as “Given a lesson credit”, with a Refund to card button you can use while the credit is unused. The same button is on the credit in the client’s Lesson credits card, so you can still refund after deleting the lesson.
• When a rider doesn’t show - what marking a rider as a no-show does to what they owe. Charge them uses a lesson credit if they have one, otherwise the lesson goes on their next invoice. Don’t charge them gives back a credit they booked with and bills nothing. Ask each time (the default) lets you choose when you mark them. A card payment taken at booking is kept either way.
• What riders should know - optional instructions shown during booking, like “Arrive 15 minutes early.”

Then select Save booking settings. The card shows the policy back to you in one line, exactly as riders read it: “Bookings close 12 hours before a lesson · open 60 days ahead · free cancellation up to 24 hours before.”

How bookings are paid

Tick any combination of the three. At least one is required.

• Card when booking - the rider pays by card as they book. This needs your payout account connected - see Connecting your Stripe account. Where you approve each booking, the card is held when the rider books and charged once you confirm.
• On account - a client with a Stables account at your barn is billed on their next invoice. It is not offered to anyone without one.
• In person - nothing is charged and no invoice goes out when the lesson is booked. Each completed lesson becomes a pending charge you invoice when you choose to, or never.

When you accept both card and on account, you are also asked which a client with an account should see first. A client with enough lesson credits for the booking is offered them first, whatever you tick here.

Different rules for one lesson type

Most barns set this once. To give one lesson type its own rules - a clinic you approve by hand alongside weekly lessons that book themselves, say - go to the Lessons tab, select Edit on the type in the Lesson types card, and open Booking rules (it appears once “Clients can book this online” is on):

• Approving bookings - “Use the barn’s setting”, “I approve each booking”, or “Booked without my approval”.
• How this lesson is paid - “Use the barn’s setting”, or “Set for this lesson” to tick its own payment options.
• Its own booking and cancellation windows: Closes (hrs), Opens (days) and Free cancel (hrs). Leave a box empty to follow the barn’s setting, shown in grey. As with the barn’s setting, Opens (days) only limits one-off lessons.
• What riders should know about this lesson (optional) - added to the barn’s note, not instead of it. Riders booking this lesson see both.

Select Save changes on the lesson type. The lesson type’s setting wins over the barn’s.

What riders see

Your page offers the lesson times already on your calendar, each with its spots left, and each lesson shows when its next opening is. A rider picks a lesson, a time, who is riding, and how to pay. A booking can hold up to 12 lessons at once, so a rider can book the same weekday and time for several weeks in one go, as far ahead as bookings are open.

What happens after a booking

• Bookings land on the lesson’s roster just like riders you added yourself.
• A booking that needs no approval is confirmed straight away. The rider gets a “You’re booked” email and notification, and the barn gets a “New lesson booking” email and notification - there is nothing to approve.
• A booking that needs your approval is a request. The rider is told their request was sent, and the barn gets a “New Lesson Request” email and a “New appointment request” notification. Approve or decline it from the lesson’s roster.
• Riders can cancel, or move to another time of the same lesson, themselves until the Free cancel (hours) window closes, and you’re told either way. Where you approve each booking, a time change waits for you as a request, and the rider keeps their spot until you decide.
• The barn’s booking email goes to your barn’s email address. Whoever has a Stables account with that address (otherwise the facility owner) can turn it off with the “Appointments & bookings” email switch in Account Settings → Notifications.
• The evening before, confirmed riders get a reminder - see Lesson reminders and client notifications.