Manage Online Booking lets an outfitter control how guests can book online. This is where instant booking rules, booking cutoff timing, availability logic, and off-season ranges are managed.
How it works
Manage Online Booking has four tabs:
System default — Configure shared settings that apply across all experiences.
Manage by experience — View and adjust availability settings, additional slots, instant booking cutoff time, and off-season range for each experience individually, without navigating to each experience separately.
Exceptions — Add date and time specific overrides for one-off closures or changes that fall outside the regular seasonal setup.
Display settings — Control how pricing and contact details appear on the online booking pages.
What can be controlled in Manage Online Booking
1. Availability settings
This controls how Brindlechute counts available spots for online booking. Availability is built from one or more limit rules. Each rule has a dropdown with five options:
Locations — Availability is based on how much capacity is left at the locations selected in that rule.
Guides — Availability is based on guide availability. Use the rule's Advanced settings to choose All guides or Eligible guides.
Slots — Availability is based on a fixed number of bookable slots instead of guides or locations. This is useful for outfitters who do not tie online booking capacity to either.
Request to book — All online bookings come in as requests regardless of availability. Use this when every booking should be reviewed and confirmed manually.
Fully blocked — Online booking is turned off entirely. Use this when an experience should not be bookable online.
Click Add limit rule to stack another rule below the first. Stacked rules are joined by AND, so a booking has to satisfy every rule to be offered as an instant booking. A setup of Locations AND Guides means a booking needs both room at a location and an available guide.
Reminder: Only one Guides rule can be added. The Guides and Locations options are available to full outfitter organizations only.
For a full walkthrough of the Locations option, including how location capacity is calculated: Click here to view
2. Additional slots
Additional slots let an outfitter add more booking capacity on top of a rule's own count. For example, a Guides rule set to Eligible guides with 2 eligible guides and 2 additional slots added can allow more total availability than guide count alone. This is useful when extra capacity may be available beyond the currently counted guides.
Additional slots are available on Guides and Slots rules. They are not offered on Locations rules, because location capacity is shared across bookings and extra slots would stack without a real ceiling.
3. Allow instant online booking
This controls how close to the trip start time a guest can still instant book. If a booking's start time falls within the cutoff window, it will switch from Instant Book to Request to Book automatically. This is helpful when more control over last-minute bookings is needed.
4. Set off-season range
Off-season ranges define online availability by date range. Dates not covered by an off-season range remain available for instant booking. Each range can be set to Fully Blocked or Request to Book. A Yearly Preview at the bottom of the section shows how ranges map across the calendar.
Steps to update Manage Online Booking settings
Go to Trip Calendar and click Online Availability Settings in the top right corner.
Click Manage online booking.
Under the System default tab, set the availability limit rules, instant booking cutoff, and off-season ranges as needed. To adjust settings for a specific experience, use the Manage by experience tab instead.
To stack an additional availability condition, click Add limit rule and configure the second rule.
To add date-specific overrides, go to the Exceptions tab and add the relevant date range and availability type.
Click Save.
When to use each availability option
Use Locations when the real constraint is ground rather than staffing — permits, beats, blinds, or any location with a capacity limit.
Use Guides when availability should follow the guide roster. Leave the rule on All guides to count the full roster, or switch to Eligible guides so only guides approved for that experience count.
Use Slots when booking capacity should be controlled by a fixed number, even if guide assignments are handled separately.
Use Request to Book when every online booking should come in as a request for manual review.
Use Fully Blocked when online booking should be turned off entirely.
Use Additional slots when more capacity should be offered beyond a Guides or Slots rule's default count.
Stack rules with Add limit rule when a booking should have to clear more than one condition before it is offered instantly.
Why this matters
These settings directly affect whether a guest sees Instant Book or Request to Book during online booking. They also help keep booking availability aligned with how the outfitter actually runs trips. Using the right setup can make online booking more accurate, reduce manual follow-up, and give better control over when bookings should be accepted automatically.