💡 Create and save categories before creating rental products or portals.
A Category holds the booking rules that apply to all products assigned to it. As an example, a category can be 1:1 Lessons, Bday parties, Field Rentals and more. You will create different categories when you want to have different rules or parameters (e.g., 30-min batting cage sessions vs. 3-hour bday party rooms, approval required or automatic booking, lessons with a 14-day advance window.)
When to create a new category
Create a new category when products need different rules:
Different durations or increments — e.g. 30-minute batting cages vs 2-hour party packages
Different approval policy — instant pay-now vs staff request & approval
Different advance booking window, minimum notice, or max hour limits — e.g. field rentals bookable with 1 hr notice, parties require 24 hrs
Separate customer experiences that should not share rules — e.g. soccer fields capped at 2 hrs/day, tennis courts at 6 hrs/day
Different primary booking resource — Instructor-first booking (space auto-assigned) vs Space-first booking
When to reuse a category
Booking rules are shared and only product details differ (resources, price, gating, forms, media, deposits)
Products should appear together under the same portal category filter
You want an all-in-one booking experience where all activities share the same rules
Note: Lessons must always be in a distinct category from Rentals.
Category settings (Back Office)
Rentals → Categories → edit / new category
General details
Category name — Customer-facing; products in this category appear together on the portal when the category is added to a portal.
Primary booking type — Space (customer picks a space/resource) or Instructor (customer picks staff; space is assigned automatically).
NOTE: Booking Type cannot be changed after the category is created.
Category description — Text shown to customers where the category is surfaced online.
Online booking approval
Auto-book — All customers can book and pay online without staff approval.
Request & approval — Bookings are sent to staff for review before they are accepted; checkout uses request language instead of pay-now.
Note: Approval is set at the category level and applies to all products in this category. If a product has a deposit configured and is attached to an "Approval Required" category, the deposit will not be collected during the booking request process.
Online booking windows & constraints
Advance booking window — How far into the future customers can see bookable slots online (days or hours). Use VIP access (below) for membership-specific earlier windows.
Minimum booking notice — How close to slot start time a customer may book (gives staff time to prepare). Must be less than the advance booking window.
Max sequential hours — Longest sequential booking allowed in one reservation.
Max hours total (per day) — Cap on total hours one customer can book across all services in this category per calendar day.
Duration
Default online slot — Length pre-selected when a customer opens the booking flow.
Increment duration — Step size customers can add or remove (must align with default/min/max).
Min booking duration — Shortest allowed booking.
Max booking duration — Longest allowed booking (must be ≥ min).
Back Office settings
Online options:
Slot start time
Slot start — Choose when booking slots start. Slots can begin at the first available time or snap to a specific minute mark (:00, :15, :30, :45), while still respecting booking rules such as product schedules, minimum notice, and duration increments.
Preferred Start Time: To let customers filter by a preferred start time on the portal, enable Preferred start time in portal settings (portal-level setting, not on the category).
VIP Access
Optionally give members early access to bookable slots for products in this category.
For each VIP window: select memberships, then set an advance booking window and minimum booking notice for those members (notice must be less than advance).
Note: the same membership cannot appear in more than one VIP window on the category.
Example: Enable tiered early-access for membership tiers:
Non-members can book 7 days in advance
Silver members can book 14 days in advance
Gold members can book 21 days in advance
Back Office: Category table
Back Office: Category profile
Related articles