How do availability rules work?

Availability rules decide which times your booking site offers. They attach to each asset, so the dock can run longer hours than the guide, and the guide can take winters off.

Weekly hours and seasons

The basic rule is "open these hours on these weekdays" — for example, 9:00–19:00 Monday through Saturday. A weekly rule can also carry an effective date range, which is how seasons work: one set of summer hours, another for the shoulder season, none in the off-season.

Blackout dates

A blackout closes whole days regardless of weekly hours — holidays, maintenance, the week the whole crew is at a wedding. Blackouts always win over open hours.

Buffers: turnaround time

Buffers add protected minutes before or after every booking on an asset — rinse-and-stage time after a kayak comes back, cleanup between salon clients. Two things worth knowing:

• The service itself must fit inside open hours; buffers may spill past closing. A 60-minute rental at 17:00 with a 30-minute after-buffer is fine against an 18:00 close — the customer leaves at 18:00, the turnaround runs after.
• Buffers are part of the hold. Nobody can book into another booking's turnaround time, and the times shown to customers already account for it.

Lead times

Two gates keep bookings operable:

• Minimum lead time (in minutes): stops the booking that arrives five minutes before it starts.
• Maximum lead (in days): stops bookings a year out if your schedule isn't real that far ahead.

Slot granularity

Granularity is the grid times are offered on: a salon might offer every 15 minutes, an outfitter every hour. Finer granularity means more choices and a busier-looking picker; coarser keeps the day tidy.

What customers actually see

A time is offered only when the full window fits inside open hours, the day isn't blacked out, lead-time gates pass, and every asset the offering needs is genuinely free — buffers included. Times display in the business's local timezone. The picker never shows a time that would be refused at confirmation; the worst case in a race for the last slot is an immediate, honest "that time was just taken."