Show available spaces (guests/slots) available

General
1

Hi

this is also a request from a previous user that apparently did not make it to feature request (Show number of places/slots available).

I think it is very necessary for websites that enable the Allow multiple bookings per time period option (only available if Allow multiple places per booking is marked) to display available slots left. This applies to websites with and without time enabled categories.

As a specific example, if lets say a vendor is offering every day a guided city tour for up to 10 people, users should be able to see how many spots are left.

For example , one user books 8 spots at once for one specific day, lets say 1st of October. Only 2 spots will be left. Another user now wants to book 4 spots on the 1st of October. The date selector will let him pick the 1st of October, and the “guests” field will still allow to set 4. Once this user tries to go past the next page after clicking on “Book now”, the system will send an error telling him to choose other dates. That leaves the user wondering why he can’t book on that day, while the real reason is that he can book, but only 2 spaces, not 4.

In my opinion, there are several options that could be applied to avoid this issue:

  1. Least optimal: the system does not let the second user in my example to choose more than 2 spots, but it does not show any errors or indications of spaces left. This option is the simplest, but the system should anyways work like this by default. The system currently works with a fixed limit per reservation (10 in this case). This means that the system does not adapt the maximum spaces available per booking after a user books an amount less than the maximum available, like the 8 spots the first user booked in my example. Now the second user comes, and the system again applies 10 as the maximum, while the real maximum for that day now is 2.
  2. Good solution: the system shows you exactly that on the 1st of October there are only 2 spaces left, on top of not letting you book more than 2 spots if only 2 spots remain.
  3. Best solution: vendors can decide how specific the system can be, for marketing purposes. Some vendors might not want to let the system show that every day all spots are available. Users might think that he provides a bad service. The vendor could choose a sort of limit X number above which the system displays only “more than X spots available”, and/or “less than Y spots available”. It is what some airlines do after choosing a date and you see “only 2 seats available” or “more than 7 seats available” and those sort of indications.

This feature would complement another approved request that is very much needed, which is to mark a day unavailable when all time slots are full.

Thank you

2

I forgot to add:

Where to indicate the available spots can be difficult because it depends on if a listing offers various slots per day or not. In that case, the calendar (date selector) can’t show spaces available for a day, because there will be different spaces available per each slot on that day.

In my opinion, the system should only show available spots on the date picker (whether option 2 or 3 is implemented) if there is only one slot per day, or on NON time enabled listings. This could become complicated I guess.

The simplest would be to only indicate on the date picker whether a day is available or not, which is already planned to be added I think. And once the user select an available date or dates, that a message appears under the “guests” field, like I mentioned in options 2 or 3, in the form of “2 spaces left” (exact form), or “more than X spaces left”, or “less than Y spaces left”.

5

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion, we’ll consider adding this feature.

6

Does this mean the feature request is approved, or only considered?

7

Hi,

This feature is already on the roadmap and will be added in future updates.

8

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