Sharetribe has availability management features that allow providers to specify when their listings can be booked in the marketplace. Customers can then make bookings by the day, night, hour or a fixed slot from the provider's availability calendar.
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Availability management is automatically enabled whenever a listing is created using the "Calendar booking" transaction setting. The default booking time units are Day, Night, Hour and Fixed. Additionally, you can also define a number of bookings allowed per time unit using the Seats feature. This enables providers to set multiple available spots for the same time slot for customers to book.
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The rest of this article shows you how availability management works for providers and customers using day, night, hours and fixed as the booking units.

The date format used in the calendar view for how days and dates are displayed is set by your locale. Learn more about locale settings.

When creating a listing that operates on a daily or nightly basis, providers can specify their available days or nights. This can be done by selecting specific dates from a calendar or setting recurring availability. For example, a seller can indicate that a service or item is available every Monday, or only for specific dates.

If a seller wants to set exceptional availability outside of their default schedule, they can set an “Availability exception”. Availability exceptions allow providers to add specific days or nights when they are or are not available, overriding their default calendar. If the seller does not have any kind of recurring schedule, they can leave the regular schedule completely unavailable and manage their availability just by adding exceptions.

Providers can also set the number of available seats for each time slot, determining how many customers can book simultaneously. See below for screenshots showing how providers can add their daily or nightly availability, and number of seats available for booking.

Setting a daily/ nightly recurring availability and availability exception for a listing

For services or items that are available on an hourly basis, providers can set their availability by specifying the hours during which they are available. This could include setting availability for specific hours on specific days, or recurring hourly availability such as every weekday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

If a seller wants to set exceptional availability outside of their default schedule, they can set an “Availability exception.” Availability exceptions allow providers to add specific dates and times when they are or are not available, overriding their default calendar. In addition to setting available hours, providers can specify the number of seats per time slot, allowing multiple bookings within the same hour if desired."

Similar to hourly availability, the provider can set their calendar availability on an hourly basis. What is different, however, is that the Fixed unit allows providers to define a set booking length for their listings. This means that the customer cannot choose the length of the booking, as it’s fixed and predetermined by the provider. Unlike day, night, or hourly booking units, where the cost is based on how long the customer decides to book, a fixed booking length’s price is determined by the session length set by the provider. Providers can also choose the start time for bookings. The available options are: every hour, every half hour, or every quarter hour.

The Fixed booking unit is particularly useful for marketplaces featuring listings with a set duration, such as events, courses, workshops, or classes.

Customers can make daily bookings based on the seller's availability. By viewing the availability calendar in the booking panel, customers can select their desired available dates from a calendar view and proceed with the booking process.

The booking panel provides a visual interface for customers to view and select availability. Available dates are highlighted, and unavailable times are greyed out or otherwise marked as unavailable. Customers can select from the available days and add select these for the booking.

Pricing for daily bookings is set by the seller and is visible to customers on the listing page. The total price will depend on the number of days booked.

The date format used in the booking calendar for how days and dates are displayed is set by your locale. Learn more about locale settings.

Customers can make nightly bookings based on the seller's availability. By viewing the availability calendar in the booking panel, customers can select their desired available dates from a calendar view and proceed with the booking process.

The booking panel provides a visual interface for customers to view and select availability. Available dates are highlighted, and unavailable times are greyed out or otherwise marked as unavailable. Customers can select from the available nights and add select these for the booking.

Pricing for nightly bookings is set by the seller and is shown on the listing page. If a booking starts today and ends tomorrow, the customer is charged for one night. Therefore, the total booking price depends on the number of nights booked, minus one.

Customer's view when selecting the date and number of seats for nightly booking

For hourly bookings, customers can select the hours they want to book from the seller's availability in the booking panel. This allows for flexibility, especially for services that do not require a full day or night.

Just like for daily and nightly bookings, the booking panel provides a visual representation of available hours for customers to select from. The date can be picked from a calendar-style pop up, whereas the time can be picked from a dropdown menu. Hourly pricing is determined by the seller and is visible on the listing page. The total booking price will depend on the number of hours booked byt the customer

Customers can make fixed bookings based on a predetermined session length set by the provider. Similar to hourly availability, providers set their calendar availability on an hourly basis, but the booking length itself is fixed and cannot be chosen by the customer.
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By viewing the availability calendar in the booking panel, customers can see what are the starting times available for booking. Unlike day, night, or hourly bookings, where the customer decides how long to book (and thus determines the end time), the fixed booking comes with a set duration, meaning the cost is determined by the session length defined by the provider.