Birthday parties and gym rentals, booked and paid online

A lot of studios and gyms rent out their space when classes aren't running. Saturday birthday parties. A cheer team that needs a floor for two hours on Thursday night. A dance team that wants a room to clean choreography before competition.

It's good money, and it uses space that would otherwise sit empty. It's also a scheduling job that usually lives outside your studio software: a separate booking app, a calendar someone has to keep in sync, and payments that never touch the family's account.

A gym that was looking at Presently asked whether we could handle their parties and team rentals. They were booking them in a separate scheduling app with payment due up front. So we built it, and it's now part of Presently for any studio that turns it on.

What a rental needs to get right

• Only offer times that are actually free. A party can't land on top of Tumbling 2, a private lesson, or another party in the same room.
• Price the extras. Extra kids, an extra half hour, the party room for cake. These change the total, and some of them change how long the room is taken.
• Get paid when they book. Most studios want payment in full to hold the date.
• Collect the details you need. The birthday child's name and age, how many athletes are coming, your gym rules and cancellation policy.
• Work for the front desk too. Plenty of bookings still come in by phone or in person.

How it works in Presently

You set up what can be booked

Each rental type, like "Birthday Party" or "Private Team Rental," has its own lengths and prices (one hour, ninety minutes, two hours), the rooms it uses, and the hours each week it can be booked. You also set how often start times are offered, buffer time between bookings for setup and cleanup, how much notice you need, and how far ahead people can book.

Add-ons are the extras. One can be a checkbox ("Party room, $100") or a quantity ("Additional child, $20 each, up to 20"). An add-on can add time to the booking, like an extra thirty minutes, or reserve another room, like the party room. You can also add questions to ask ("Birthday child's name") and terms the booker has to agree to before paying.

Families and teams book on your booking page

The booking page shows your rental types. The booker picks a length and any add-ons, then a date, and sees only the start times when every room they need is free for the whole booking, including the extra time and your buffer. Classes, private lessons, schedule blocks, and other rentals all count. Then they answer your questions, agree to your terms, and pay the full amount by card.

While they're paying, the time is held for them for twenty minutes, so two people can't grab the same Saturday slot at once.

Everything lands where it belongs

Once the payment goes through, the booking is confirmed. The booker gets an account (or the one with their email is used), the rental and each add-on post to their ledger with the payment against them, and the rooms are blocked on your schedule, so nobody books a class or private into that time. The booker gets a confirmation with a receipt and your terms, and your staff get an email with the details.

The front desk can book too

When someone calls, staff use New booking: the same rental types, add-ons, and open times, plus same-day bookings and any start time when the rooms are free. The booking goes on the family's account, and staff can take payment right away with a saved card, cash, or check, or leave it on the account to pay later.

What we decided not to do (yet)

Bookers can't reschedule or cancel online themselves. Cancellation policies vary a lot, and most studios we talk to want a person involved. Staff can cancel a booking, which frees the rooms, and handle any refund or credit from the account.

Rentals is off unless a studio turns it on, so studios that don't rent their space never see it.

If you're comparing rental booking tools

1. Does it know your class schedule? A standalone booking app doesn't, so you end up blocking class times by hand.
2. Can add-ons change the length or the rooms? "Extra 30 minutes" should make the booking longer, not just cost more.
3. Does the payment land on an account you can see? Or does it live in another system you reconcile at the end of the month?
4. Can staff book over the phone with the same rules?

If parties and team rentals are part of how your space pays for itself, they should live in the same place as everything else.