INTRODUCTION
Feature Summary: CourtReserve’s Public Bookings feature provides a simple, intuitive booking flow for public users. The flow supports reservations and registrations, and clubs can choose to display one or both.
With Public Bookings enabled, clubs can share a dedicated URL that lets public users instantly view availability and reserve courts or register for events — without needing a CourtReserve account.
This feature is designed to increase club visibility, attract new players, and reduce barriers to booking, making it easier than ever for the public to engage with CourtReserve clubs.
Why Public Booking Matters for Your Club
Reduces friction for players with a clean, intuitive public booking flow
Drives revenue and booking volume by opening access to non-members
Acts as a growth funnel, turning guests into potential paying members
Increases discoverability, putting your club in front of new players
Protects revenue with mandatory upfront payments
Builds trust and security through SMS verification
Reduces staff workload by minimizing manual booking and coordination
Public Booking enables clubs to grow participation while delivering a clean, secure, and efficient booking experience.
PREREQUISITES
This feature is unavailable to trial accounts and organizations without an active payment processor. It is available only to eligible clubs located in the United States and Canada on the Legacy, Grow, Scale, and Enterprise plans, and can be enabled through the admin panel.
OVERVIEW
This guide walks through how to enable or disable the feature, how the public booking link works, requirements for using Public Bookings, and an explanation of the settings on the admin configuration page.
VISUAL EXAMPLES
Below is an example from one club showing how the Public Booking feature appears to players when first accessing reservations, based on that club’s configuration. The booking flow is clean, intuitive, and can be completed quickly without requiring a login.
Below is an example of a club’s event list displayed through the public booking flow.
After completing a booking, the example below illustrates the start of the confirmation page shown to the player.
SETUP
To set up Public Bookings, navigate to SETTINGS > PORTAL SETTINGS > click Public Bookings.
Note: If you do not see the Public Bookings icon, your club may not meet the current requirements. Please contact the CourtReserve Customer Success team here if you have questions.
Enabling or Disabling Public Bookings
At the top of the Public Bookings page, you’ll see the main toggle: Enabled / Disabled. This acts as the on/off switch for the feature.
When Disabled (Default): The Public Bookings feature is turned off.
When Enabled:
The club’s dedicated Public Bookings URL becomes active.
Public users can view configured availability and complete their booking.
Text alerts (SMS) will automatically be turned on for the organization if not already enabled.
Public Booking URL
Use the copy button to add the public booking link to your clipboard and place it anywhere you want to provide easy access to your club’s booking options—such as your website, social media posts, or promotional materials.
The link opens the Public Booking flow based on your configuration, as illustrated in the Visual Examples section above.
About Text Alerts for Public Bookings
When Public Bookings is enabled, text alerts (SMS) are required and will automatically be turned on for your organization if they aren't already. These alerts are used to send important communications to players including reservation and registration confirmation and updates or changes to bookings.
Because these notifications are essential to the public booking experience, text alerts cannot be disabled while Public Bookings is active.
Your organization will be billed for SMS usage at the standard rate: $5 per 500 text messages, based on actual usage. To learn more about text alerts in CourtReserve, including detailed pricing and character limit information, read the article here.
Example reservation confirmation text:
Phone Verification Texts
After entering their personal information, the player receives a 6-digit verification code via text message to confirm their booking. This step adds an extra layer of security by validating the user during the reservation or registration process and helps ensure bookings are legitimate. Clubs are not charged for verification code text messages.
Note: Player didn't receive text? In rare cases, players may receive the text verification code in their text spam folder, depending on their device or carrier settings. See here to learn more about troubleshooting missing text messages.
Public Booking Settings
This section controls exactly what public users are allowed to book.
Allow Public Bookings for Reservations: When checked, users can book reservations, such as booking courts or other facility resources. Review the details of public booking reservations in the section below.
Allow Public Bookings for Registrations: When enabled, users can book registrations—most commonly for events. Please note that team registration events cannot be booked through public booking. Additional details about public booking events are outlined in the section below.
Clubs may enable public bookings for:
Reservations only
Registrations only
Both
If a category is disabled, the public flow automatically hides that option. For example, if reservations are disabled, public users will be taken directly to the events page with no option to view court availability.
Below is a visual example of the side menu, where players can choose Reserve to book courts and reservations, or Explore Activities to book events.
Note: If a club does not have reservations or events enabled for Public Bookings and a player accesses the public booking link, the player will see the following message:
Membership Rules Used for Public Booking
Instead of creating separate pricing, booking rules, or schedulers, clubs link Public Bookings to an existing membership type.
Membership Rules for Public Reservations: Select a membership whose pricing, booking rules, and applicable limits will apply to public court reservations. This selection also determines which custom schedulers are displayed—only schedulers linked to the selected membership type will appear if multiple schedulers exist. In addition, the selected membership controls the applicable cancellation rules, such as whether cancellations are allowed and any associated time restrictions.
Membership Rules for Public Registrations: Choose a membership whose event pricing and registration policies will be applied to public event sign-ups.
Additional Notes
Important: If a club wants separate pricing or rules specifically for public users, they should create a membership that is not visible to members and select it here in the setup.
For event registrations, the system also supports the ability to choose the “Public Embed Codes & Widgets” membership type.
Restrictions that rely on identifying unique members (e.g., “max X bookings per week”) do not apply to public users since they do not have accounts where certain restrictions can be tracked.
Log In and Payment
Allow Log In From Public Bookings: Public users do not need a CourtReserve account, but some clubs may want to allow existing members to log in from the public flow. When enabled, a “Log In” button appears. When disabled, the login option is removed from the public view. Example shown of displaying the Login option to players is shown here:
Require Upfront Payment on Public Bookings: This setting is always displayed as checked and cannot be disabled.
Public users must complete checkout and submit payment within 15 minutes for a reservation to be finalized. Any unpaid reservations or registrations are automatically canceled.
Custom Confirmation Page Content
Admins can add custom items to the Additional Information section at the bottom of the player confirmation page, where they appear below the receipt to share important details. The receipt is included by default and cannot be removed.
Click Create Item to add custom information. Each added custom item contains the following fields:
Heading: A short title for the content block (for example, Cancellation Policy or Booking Instructions).
Content: The main message displayed to players after booking. Common uses include cancellation policies, refund rules, arrival instructions, or additional notes.
Managing Custom Content
Multiple custom items can be added to the confirmation page.
Items can be sorted to control the display sequence.
Content can be updated at any time to reflect current policies or procedures.
This setup allows clubs to maintain a consistent receipt experience while clearly communicating important policies at the point of booking.
Click Sort Items and drag items to change the order in which the custom information is displayed.
Player Perspective: In this example, the club added custom content for the Player Code of Conduct, Day of Instructions, and Parking instructions which appear under the Receipt.
Public Booking Reservations — Key Highlights
The linked membership type determines which custom schedulers appear in the Experience section of the public booking reservation flow (for example, Tennis Courts or Pickleball Courts). If zero or one custom scheduler is linked to the membership, the Experience section will not display as there is no choice for the player to make.
The selected Reservation Type controls subsequent steps in the booking flow, such as Number of Players and whether linked custom fields appear.
Number of Players can also affect pricing, depending on how fee responsibility is configured for the reservation type. Learn more about fee responsibility here.
Once the player has validated their phone number, their place is held during the 15-minute window allowed to complete their reservation and payment.
Players who used public booking to make their reservation are labeled with a (P) in the admin panel.
When editing a public booking in the admin panel, some fields may be disabled if the information cannot be modified after the reservation is created.
Custom fields are displayed in the Additional information section during the booking process (see example below).
View the player perspective walkthrough of public booking reservations here.
Public Booking Events — Key Highlights
Team events are not supported and will not display on the public registration event list.
Once the player has validated their phone number, their place is held during the 15-minute window allowed to complete their registration and payment.
Public registrants are clearly labeled in the admin panel event roster(s) with a (P).
Admins can view a public player’s first and last name (required), phone number (required), email address (if provided), and custom field responses by selecting the “i” icon in the scheduler.
Admins can email and text public event registrants directly from CourtReserve by using the Notify button within the event.
Events can be hidden from public booking while remaining available to logged-in members by enabling Hide Event from Public Registration in the General Information event setup under the Additional Setup tab.
Admins can manage public registrations in the admin panel the same way as member event bookings.
Custom fields are displayed in the Additional information section during the booking process (see example below).
Event Restrictions During Public Booking
If an event has registration restrictions, players must meet those requirements to complete registration. During the public booking flow, required restrictions—such as age, gender, date of birth, or rating—are displayed as part of the registration process.
Note: Member group restrictions are not supported in public bookings. If an event includes member group restrictions, the event will not be displayed in the public booking event list.
Event Restrictions and DUPR Example
If an event, for example, is female-only and requires a DUPR rating between 3.0 and 4.0, the player must provide information that confirms they meet those criteria before they can proceed.
If the club has DUPR ID integration enabled and the event includes DUPR-based restrictions, players will be required to validate their DUPR ID as part of registration.
During this step, players can either sign in to their existing DUPR account using their DUPR ID and password, or create a DUPR account if they do not already have one.
Once the DUPR ID is validated, the player’s rating—along with their first and last name pulled from their DUPR account—is used to confirm eligibility for the event, along with any other required event restriction information.
If all restrictions are met, the player can continue with registration and complete payment.
View the player perspective walkthrough of public booking events here.
Cancellation Information on the Confirmation Page
The Cancellation Information section displayed on the public booking confirmation page is controlled by the club’s cancellation settings.
Cancelling Reservations
The reservation cancellation option shown on the confirmation page is determined by the settings in Booking Settings > General, based on the membership type selected during Public Bookings setup.
Allow Members to Cancel Reservations
Prevent Members from Cancelling a Reservation within X Hours
Based on these settings, the confirmation page will display one of the following states:
Cancellation Not Allowed:
A message indicates that the reservation cannot be canceled, and the Cancel Reservation option appears disabled.
Cancellation Allowed (No Time Restriction):
An active Cancel Reservation option is displayed.
Cancellation Allowed (Within a Time Frame):
A message displays the cancellation window (for example, Players can cancel up to 24 hours in advance).
If the player is within the allowed window, the Cancel Reservation option is active.
If the player is outside the allowed window, a Cancellation Closed option appears disabled.
Player Perspective: Below is an example showing where the player sees cancellation information at the bottom of the confirmation page for a booking they can cancel.
Cancelling Events
Event cancellation (withdrawal) behavior is controlled by the following settings when creating or editing an event under the event's General Info tab:
Allow Members to Withdraw from Event
Prevent Member from Withdrawing from event within
Based on these settings, the confirmation page will display one of the following states:
Withdrawal Not Allowed:
Displays message: Registration cannot be withdrawn.
Withdrawal Allowed (No Time Restriction):
An active Withdraw Registration option is displayed.
Withdrawal Allowed (Within a Time Frame):
A message displays the cancellation window (for example, Players can withdraw up to 24 hours in advance).
If the player is within the allowed window, the Withdraw Registration option is active.
If the player is outside the allowed window, a Withdrawal Closed option appears disabled.
Player Perspective: Below is an example showing where the player sees cancellation information at the bottom of the confirmation page for an event that can no longer be cancelled due to time restrictions.
