Allow selecting start/end time for bookings instead of time slots

General HivePress
1

Hi HivePress team,

I’m currently using HivePress with the Bookings extension on my marketplace which connects clients with photographers, videographers, music studios and other creative professionals.

At the moment, bookings are made by selecting one or more time slots. However, I’m considering moving to a start time / end time booking model and wanted to understand whether this is possible within the current HivePress booking architecture, whether it’s something on your roadmap, or whether it would require custom development.

The ideal booking flow would be:

  • Client selects a date

  • Client selects a start time

  • Client selects an end time

  • The system checks the vendor’s availability

  • The system calculates the duration automatically

  • The system calculates the total price automatically

  • The booking is added to the vendor’s calendar and blocks that time period

For example:

Hourly service:

  • £30 per hour

  • Client selects 09:00–14:00

  • System calculates 5 hours = £150

Package service:

  • £300 package up to 4 hours

  • Client selects 13:00–17:00

  • System charges £300

I would also like vendors to be able to set:

  • Minimum booking duration

  • Maximum booking duration

  • Package duration (where applicable)

My questions are:

  1. Is this currently possible using HivePress and the Bookings extension?

  2. Is this something that is already on the roadmap?

  3. Would this require custom development?

  4. If custom development is required, is this something that the HivePress team or a recommended HivePress developer could assist with?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

3

Hi,

Unfortunately, this is not possible in the current HivePress version, but you can define the minimum possible time slot and allow selecting multiple time slots at once, as a workaround. This way, customers can select the time slots covering the needed time period.

Yes, we plan to add more UI options to the date/time picker and allow time input instead of selecting time slots. In the current version, this requires custom development – I recommend reaching out to one of our recommended freelancers, as currently we don’t offer customization services directly Customize your website | HivePress

Hope this helps

6

Thanks for getting back to me. In alternative, I have just noticed that there is an option “enable time slots” that when is turned off, clients will be able to see only daily prices, which is fine. Because I have a variety of vendors that charge daily prices and another that charges by hour, is there a way to enable/disable that option on a listing basis or when switched off it is a global action?

Thank you

7

Hi,

You can specify which categories should use time slots in the Time Categories field. Any categories selected there will use time-based bookings, while all other booking categories will continue to use daily pricing.