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The booking flow: what your members see
A guided walk through the four steps a parent takes from "book classes" to checkout.
This article walks the member journey so you know exactly what your families experience, and can answer "where do I click?" questions without guessing. It all happens on your booking page.
Your site may use different words. Tempo lets you rename class, student and teacher under Settings → Branding & vocabulary; these docs use the defaults.
Members must be logged in to book; a booking always belongs to a named student. The flow is mobile-first, and every step works even with JavaScript switched off.
Step 1: who is this for?
A parent chooses which child they're booking for; a parent with three children picks one and can book for the others in the same visit. Adult members with their own login skip straight past this, booking for themselves. And a parent who also attends classes sees Myself in the same chooser; booking as Myself reads like any adult booking, "your place is booked", not "Amelia's".
If a required profile detail is missing (date of birth, emergency contact and so on), the page tells the member what to fill in before booking, on My Account → Student profile. You can relax this under Tempo → Settings → Booking & checkout ("Incomplete student profiles can book"), and staff bookings are never blocked by it.
Step 2: choose a class
Classes are shown for the selected student, as cards with the class image, colour, times and availability, in a list or week view. Only classes that are open for online booking and still have future sessions this term appear.
If you've opened any extra sessions to online booking, they appear in their own Extra sessions section beneath the class views, listed by date, so one-off workshops never muddle the weekly grid.
Step 3: choose an option
Single sessions, half-term or full-term package, whichever you've allowed for that class, each with its price. Packages that can't be delivered (a full date inside them, or too few sessions left) simply aren't offered; full dates are named so members understand. The pricing rules behind this step are in Package rates.
Choosing single sessions doesn't mean one at a time: the date picker lists every remaining date in the term, and a parent ticks as many as they want and books them in one go. Dates that are full or already booked for that student are marked. The whole selection is booked together, priced at the single rate times the number of dates, and each date remains individually cancellable later (Member cancellations). If one chosen date fills up while they're deciding, the booking is refused with that date named, rather than quietly booking fewer dates than the parent thought they'd picked.
Step 4: review, then checkout
The review step lists exactly what's being booked: student, class, the included dates, the total. Add to checkout is the moment that matters: Tempo reserves every included place there and then, and the member has a set time (default 30 minutes) to pay while their places are safe. That reservation system is the subject of Checkout, reservation holds and the countdown.
A parent can loop back and add more bookings, for the same child or another, and pay for everything in one order.
Answering the common member questions
- *"It says the class isn't shown / can't be booked"*: the class is closed to online booking, has no future sessions, or the student's profile is incomplete. Staff can always book it from the admin side (Manual bookings).
- *"It says the package isn't available"*: a date inside it is full, or too few sessions remain; single sessions may still be offered.
- *"I got distracted and my places disappeared"*: their hold expired; places went back on sale. They can simply book again if spaces remain.
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