Merchant Guide

Scheduling System: Full Tutorial

Set it up once in 10 minutes, and your weekly availability generates itself from then on, with no more juggling WhatsApp messages.

Before You Start

1️⃣

2️⃣

Claim your venue

Search for your venue in the dashboard and submit a claim request. Our team reviews it and hands the listing back to you.

3️⃣

Know your weekly opening hours

Have your regular weekly opening hours handy (e.g. Mon–Fri 14:00–23:00); it makes setup much faster.

10-Minute Quick Start

Want to get going right away? Follow these 5 steps to start accepting bookings. Full details are below.

1Set up "Categories": how many rooms, how many people each
2⚡ Bulk-generate your weekly availability templates
3"Apply to the next 8 weeks" to generate your slots
4Set up your deposit payment method
5Reply from the inbox: verify deposit → confirm → WhatsApp

Step-by-Step Guide

Every step has a matching screenshot, so just follow along.

Sign in to the merchant dashboard

Every scheduling setting and booking is managed from this dashboard, so keep your sign-in details handy, you'll use them daily.

•Sign in to the merchant dashboard with your registered email and password
•You land on the "Overview" tab, showing how many venues you've claimed and how many bookings are pending
•Five tabs at the top: Overview / My Venues / Bookings / Claim a Venue / Account Settings

Merchant sign-in page — Sign in with your registered email and password

Merchant dashboard overview — The overview page you land on: venues and bookings at a glance

💡Forgot your password? There's a "Forgot password" link on the sign-in page to reset it by email.

Open your venue's management page

Categories, availability, and deposit settings are all managed per venue, so you need to open the right venue first.

•Click "My Venues" to see all the venues you've claimed
•Click into one, and the management page header has several buttons, including "Manage Availability"
•No venue yet? Go to "Claim a Venue" and search for yours to submit a claim

My Venues list — Claimed venues appear here; click into one to manage it

Venue management page header with Manage Availability button — The "Manage Availability" button on the venue management page; click it to open scheduling

💡One merchant account can claim and manage more than one venue, and they all show up under "My Venues".

Set up "Categories": how many rooms do you have?

A "Category" is a room type. It tells the system what kinds of spaces you rent out, how many can be booked at once for the same slot, and how many people fit in each. Venues with a single space can skip this step entirely.

•On the availability page, open the "Categories & Weekly Templates" tab and click "Add Category"
•Give it a name (e.g. "Large Room", "Small Room"), set "Quantity" (how many of this room type can be booked at the same time slot) and "Capacity" (max people per room)
•Optionally set a "default price per slot", which auto-fills whenever you generate availability later
•⚠️ "Quantity" and "Capacity" mean different things: 3 rooms that each seat 10 people → Quantity = 3, Capacity = 10

Category setup page — Setting up a category: quantity, capacity, default price per slot

💡If you only have a single space (e.g. one party room), you can skip categories entirely and go straight to setting up availability.

⚡ Bulk-generate your weekly availability templates

A "weekly template" tells the system which days of the week and which hours you're open for bookings. Set it up once and the system automatically lays out future availability for you.

•On the "Categories & Weekly Templates" tab, choose "⚡ Bulk Generate (Recommended)"
•Pick your opening days (you can select more than one weekday) + your opening hours range (e.g. 10:00–22:00)
•Choose a slot duration (30 min / 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 3 hours, or "one continuous slot") + a gap between slots (none / 15 / 30 / 60 min)
•Fill in the price and click "Generate Slots", and the system automatically slices that time range into a series of weekly template slots

Bulk-generate weekly template form — Pick weekdays, time range, slot duration and price all at once

💡Want different pricing for weekdays vs. weekends? Just run this form twice: once for weekdays, once for weekends.

Review → Apply to the next 8 weeks

Your generated templates need to be "applied" before they become real, bookable slots. This step lays your weekly pattern out across the next 8 weeks in one go.

•Below the same tab you'll see the list of templates you just generated (which weekday, what time, how many), and you can edit or delete individual entries
•Once everything looks right, click "Apply to the next 8 weeks", and the system instantly generates the actual availability
•Just claimed your venue? The system pre-prepares a set of "suggested templates" for you: a single "Activate & Apply" button in the banner at the top does the same thing, generating the next 8 weeks
•From then on, the system auto-extends on a "rolling window" basis, always keeping 8+ weeks bookable; days you've closed off (private buyouts / renovations) are never automatically "re-opened"

Weekly templates list — Review each weekly template (shown as "all in use"), then click "Apply to the next 8 weeks" to generate the real slots

💡If you later edit your weekly templates (e.g. add a new slot), just come back to this section and click "Apply to the next 8 weeks" again to re-sync. Already-booked slots are never touched.

View your availability: month and day view

The "📅 Availability" tab is the page you'll open most often. At a glance you can see which days have space, which are full, and which have pending requests.

•Month view: each day cell shows "total slots / booked / pending / available"; click a day to jump to its details
•Day view: see every time slot's status for that day, plus the list of bookings placed in each one
•Click "+ Add Booking" next to a slot in day view to record a phone/WhatsApp booking directly against that slot

Availability month view — Month view: available, booked and pending counts for every day, at a glance

Availability day view — Day view showing the booking list for each time slot that day

💡Days with pending requests are flagged specially, so check in regularly and nothing sits unattended.

Exceptions: adding a one-off slot

For a festive special session or a one-time slot, you don't need to touch your weekly templates; just add a single one-off slot.

•On the "⚡ Tools" tab, use the "Add a One-off Slot" form
•Pick the date, time, quantity, capacity and price (or pick a category to auto-fill the defaults)
•Click "Add", and this slot only appears on that one day and doesn't affect your weekly templates

Add one-off slot form — Add a special one-off slot for a single day, without touching your weekly templates

💡If a new slot overlaps an existing one, the system asks you to confirm before adding it, to avoid double-counting the same space.

Exceptions: bulk-closing a date range

For renovations, Lunar New Year, or a private buyout, it's fastest to close a whole date range at once instead of deleting day by day.

•On the "⚡ Tools" tab, use "Bulk Close / Open" and enter a start and end date
•Click "Close", and unbooked slots in that range are removed; already-booked slots are left untouched, and you'll be told which ones need follow-up
•To reopen that range later, use the same form and choose "Open", and the system re-fills it based on your weekly templates

Bulk close/open form — Close or open a date range in one go; already-booked slots are automatically preserved

💡Before closing a range, check whether it already has confirmed bookings so you can plan around them.

Set up deposits, hold time, and minimum notice

These settings are key to preventing no-shows. ⚠️ Playspot never handles any money; guests pay you directly, and you confirm the booking after verifying it.

•Set "Deposit Type" to "None" / "Fixed Amount" / "Percentage of minimum spend"
•Fill in your FPS / bank transfer / PayMe payment details, and guests see these instructions as soon as they submit a request
•"Booking Request Validity" (hold time): the guest's slot is held the instant they submit a request; if you haven't confirmed by this deadline it releases automatically. Choose 3 / 6 / 12 / 24 / 48 / 72 / 168 hours
•"Minimum Notice": blocks last-minute bookings; choose 0 / 2 / 4 / 8 / 24 / 48 hours; e.g. set 8 hours and guests can't book a slot starting within the next 8 hours

Deposit settings form — Choose a deposit type, fill in payment details, set hold time and minimum notice

💡Once a guest uploads payment proof, just click "Verify Deposit" in the inbox, with no need to check your banking app and follow up manually.

Grab your public booking link and put it in your Instagram bio

Every venue has its own public link, and guests can click it to view availability and book directly, without needing to ask you first.

•The "📅 Availability" tab has a "Share Booking Link" section at the top
•Click "Copy Link" and paste it into your Instagram bio, WhatsApp status, or Facebook page
•When a guest clicks the link, they land straight on your venue page's booking section

Public availability share link — Copy this link into your social profiles so guests can book directly

💡The link stays valid indefinitely, so there is no need to re-copy it, and updating your availability doesn't change it.

What the booking flow looks like for guests

Understanding what guests see makes it much easier to understand why requests show up the way they do in your inbox, and to reply confidently.

•Guests open your venue page or your share link, see an availability preview, click "See all availability" to reach the booking page, and pick a date first (showing which days still have space)
•They then pick a time slot (showing how many spots remain), fill in contact name, phone, party size and notes, and submit the request
•If you require a deposit, guests are taken to a confirmation page after submitting, and that's where they see the payment instructions (FPS / bank / PayMe) and upload their proof of payment
•The instant a guest submits, their slot is held for them (pending status) while they wait for your confirmation

Guest booking flow: pick a date — Step one for guests: pick a date with space on the booking page

Deposit payment instructions after submitting — The confirmation page after submitting: deposit payment instructions + upload proof

💡Guests only see "how many spots remain", never your internal notes or other guests' details, so feel free to jot down internal notes freely.

Inbox: verify deposit → confirm → reply on WhatsApp

Guest requests show up instantly under the "Pending" tab of Bookings. This is your everyday core workflow.

•The inbox has four statuses: Pending / Confirmed / Declined / Expired, plus Cancelled
•If payment proof was uploaded, click "View Proof" to check the amount, then click "Verify Deposit" if it checks out
•Click "Confirm Booking" to lock the slot in for good (you'll be told how many other pending requests are competing for the same slot); click "Decline" to release the spot automatically
•Each request in the inbox list has a "WhatsApp" button; one tap opens a chat with the guest to reply directly, no need to look up their number (click into a request to see full details and confirm / decline / edit)
•Got a booking by phone or WhatsApp outside of Playspot? Open that slot and click "+ Add Booking" to record it manually, and it shows up on the same calendar as platform bookings, with no risk of double-booking

Booking inbox pending list — The "Pending" tab in the inbox: work through guest requests one by one

Booking detail page — Open a booking to see full guest details, then verify deposit, confirm, decline or edit

Manually record a phone booking — Phone/WhatsApp bookings can be recorded manually and managed alongside platform bookings

💡"Expired" means the guest didn't pay in time, or you didn't confirm in time, so the slot has already been released automatically. If the guest still wants the slot, ask them to submit again, or add it yourself as a manual booking.

Quick Glossary

A few new terms you'll come across the first time, explained here in one place.

Category	A room type: the different kinds of space at your venue (e.g. large room / small room), each with its own quantity, capacity and price.
Weekly Template	Tells the system which weekdays and hours you're open. Set it up once and the system lays out future availability for you every week.
Slot	An actual bookable time window (with a date, time, and quantity).
Pending	A guest has submitted a booking request that you haven't confirmed or declined yet; the slot is already held for them at this stage.
Confirmed	A booking you've confirmed, so the slot is officially locked in for that guest.
Expired	The guest didn't pay within the hold window, or you didn't confirm in time, so the system automatically released the slot.
Hold Time	How long a slot is held for a guest after they submit a request, while you confirm or they complete payment.
Minimum Notice	Guests can only book slots starting at least this many hours from now, to avoid last-minute requests.
Holidays as Sunday	Once enabled, public holidays are automatically treated as Sundays for scheduling purposes, using the official government holiday list.

FAQ

Could the same slot get double-booked?＋

No. Available spots = total quantity − confirmed − pending. The instant a guest submits a request, their spot is held, and the available count updates immediately for everyone else, so two guests can never both believe they've booked the same spot.

Could someone else "grab" a slot while a request is still pending?＋

No. "Pending" itself already holds the spot (a soft hold). It only releases automatically if you decline it, or if the hold window passes (guest didn't pay / you didn't act in time). No other guest can ever "grab" a spot that's already pending.

How are public holidays handled?＋

You can enable "Treat holidays as Sunday" and the system will use the official GovHK public holiday list to automatically schedule holidays as if they were Sundays, with no need to update this manually every year.

What if a guest wants to reschedule or cancel?＋

Guests can cancel their own upcoming bookings under "My Bookings", which releases the slot automatically. To reschedule, ask them to cancel the original booking and submit a new time slot, or you can chat with them on WhatsApp from the inbox and adjust it manually.

How do I add my own phone bookings?＋

Open that time slot and click "+ Add Booking", then fill in the guest's name, phone number, and party size. It appears on the same calendar as platform bookings, with no conflict.

Can I skip requiring a deposit?＋

Yes. Set the deposit type to "None" and guests can still submit booking requests with no deposit required; your confirmation is all that's needed.

How do I pause taking bookings?＋

To pause a specific date range, use "Bulk Close" to remove availability for that range. To pause indefinitely, stop generating new weekly templates, or deactivate all your existing templates.

Will my data be locked away when the free period ends?＋

Nothing is ever deleted. If you haven't upgraded once your free offer period ends, scheduling features switch to "read-only": you can still see all your existing slots, bookings and settings, but can't add or edit anything until you upgrade, which restores full editing instantly.

Still have questions?

Get in touch and we'll walk you through your first setup, step by step.