Host availability & staffing
Staff mark the sessions they can work, and sessions without a host can be hidden from players.
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A host here is anyone on your team who works a session: owners and admins too, not only people with the Host role. This page explains three things that fit together:
- Team members mark the sessions they can work on the Availability page.
- Owners and admins assign a host to each booking.
- Optionally, the venue can hide sessions nobody can work from players for the coming days (the staffing rule).
Mark the sessions you can work#
Every role has the Availability page. You only ever mark yourself.
Open Availability
Go to DashboardOperateAvailability. The page shows one week of the venue's sessions at the venue's time, grouped by day and start time. Use Previous week and Next week to move around (up to 13 weeks ahead).The Availability page: a switch for each session, and who else can work it. Switch on the sessions you can work
Each session has an I can work this switch. Next to it you see the names of others who said they can work it, or "No one else yet". The right side shows the session's state: Free, Booked (with who the host is, or "No host yet"), Being booked, Walk-in, Locked (a session you keep back from players, with its note and host), or Hidden — no host yet.
Use the shortcuts for many sessions
- I can work all of this day marks every session that day. It changes to Clear my whole day once all are marked.
- All rooms at 18:00 (with the time of the group) marks every room that starts at that time. It appears when more than one room starts then.
Your marks save as you click. If something is refused you get a message and the switch goes back. Some things to know:
- You can only mark sessions that have not started.
- You cannot unmark a session you are assigned to. Ask an owner or admin to reassign it first. When you clear a day or a time in one go, assigned sessions simply stay marked and you are told how many.
- Marks belong to the session. If a free session is removed from the schedule, its marks go with it, and a new session at the same time starts with nobody marked. Booked sessions are never removed, so their marks stay.
- Someone who leaves the team stops counting as available straight away.
Assigned to you#
At the top of the page, Assigned to you lists the bookings you have been assigned to: day and time, room, number of players and booking reference. Choose Open to see the booking. You are also emailed when you are assigned.
Assign a host to a booking#
An owner or admin decides who works a booked session. One host per booking.
Open the booking
Open the booking from the Bookings list or the Calendar. Its ticket has a Host section.Pick who works it
Choose a name in Who works it. People who marked the session as available are listed first under Available, everyone else on the team under Not marked available. No host clears the assignment. You may assign someone who did not mark the session; the form tells you so.
The Host section of a booking: choose who works the session, then Save host. Save host
Choose Save host. The new host is emailed. If you replaced someone, they are emailed that they are no longer assigned. Saving what is already set sends nothing.
You can assign a booking that is confirmed and whose game has not started. A booking that is still being paid has no host section. After the game has started the host can no longer be changed. A cancelled booking keeps the name of whoever was to work it, and that person is emailed about the cancellation while they are still on the team.
A host sees the name of the host on a booking but no way to change it. Nobody is warned when a booked session has no host. The Calendar and the Availability page show "No host yet".
The staffing rule: hide sessions without a host#
Some venues only want players to book sessions that someone can actually work. The staffing rule does that for the first days ahead.
| Setting | What players see |
|---|---|
| Off (the default) | Every free session in the booking window, whether or not a host marked it. |
| On, for the next N days | Inside N days, only sessions that at least one team member has marked as workable. Further ahead, every free session. |
N is counted in calendar days from today at the venue, and today itself is day 1. With N = 14 on 16 October, every session before 30 October is covered by the rule.
Turn it on#
Open Settings
Go to DashboardSetupSettings. Only an owner can change this. Find the Staffing section.Switch it on and choose the number of days
Switch on Only offer sessions with a host available. Under Within the next choose 3, 7, 14 or 30 days, or Another number of days for 1 to 365.Save changes
Choose Save changes at the bottom of the page.
What it does and does not do#
- It applies everywhere players book: your public page, your booking widget and the API.
- It is a view of the schedule, not a change to it. Nothing is deleted or blocked. A session is offered again the moment a host marks it.
- Staff always see every session. A free session players cannot see is marked Hidden — no host yet on the Availability page and the calendar.
- It never undoes a booking. If a host unmarks themselves after someone booked, the booking stands. (A host cannot unmark a session they are assigned to anyway.)
- A player who tries to book a hidden session, for example from an old page, is told it is no longer available.
Frequently asked questions#
Does a host have to be assigned before a player can book?#
No. With the rule on, a team member must have marked the session as one they can work. Assigning someone to the booking comes afterwards, by an owner or admin.
Who can see the Availability page?#
Everyone on the team: owners, admins and hosts.