INTRODUCTION
Feature Summary: The Reservation Lottery feature allows players/members an equal opportunity to make a reservation by collecting requests within a defined short time window. Once the window closes, the system randomizes the order in which requests are processed, ensuring fairness and reducing booking pressure.
Use Cases:
Peak Demand Management: Prevents the “fastest click wins” scenario during high-demand periods.
Fair Court Allocation: Ensures equitable access to courts for players.
Court Scheduling: Useful for assigning courts fairly when many players request similar times.
Bot Prevention: Acts as a safeguard against automated booking tools. While bots can still enter the lottery, they have the same randomized chance as any other participant, reducing their overall impact.
Reservation Lottery is in Closed Beta
We’re excited to announce our new Reservation Lottery feature, currently available to a limited group of customers in Closed Beta. The feature is fully functional, but we are continuing to refine it based on real-world usage and feedback from participating clubs.
If you’re interested in early access, please reach out to our Customer Success Team to get started.
PREREQUISITES
This feature is available to all CourtReserve clients, including those on legacy pricing plans.
SET UP
1. Go to BOOKING SETTINGS > Reservation Lottery, then check Enable Reservation Lottery.
2. Lottery Window Duration: Set the length of time the system will collect reservation requests before randomizing their order. The duration can be set between 15 and 60 seconds.
3. Set the daily time the lottery window opens. By default, this matches the "Time to Open Next Available Reservation Day" for the first membership listed in BOOKING SETTINGS > General, but you can change it to any time of day. For example, if set to 9:00am, the system will begin collecting reservation requests to enter into the randomized lottery at exactly that time each day.
How it Works
When the Reservation Lottery is active:
When the lottery window starts, players submit reservation requests as usual during a short lottery window (e.g., 30 seconds). See below for more details.
Reservation requests are held and not immediately confirmed.
Once the window closes, the system randomizes the reservation requests.
Based on the randomized request list, reservations are processed
Successful requests are confirmed and any associated fees are created.
Important: Players will see a message during the lottery that asks them to keep the window open until results are finalized.
Things to Note
The Reservation Lottery operates club-wide, meaning all members are included when booking a reservation at the designated lottery start time.
No Early Entry: Members can only join once the lottery window opens.
Single Daily Processing: The lottery runs once per day at the time you set.
Court Allocation & Payment: A court is not officially booked until the allocation process is complete. At that point, any applicable fees are generated, and—if upfront payment is required—it can then be collected.
Courts: All bookable courts in the member portal will have the reservation lottery applied.
FAQ - Reservation Lottery
1. What happens if two people submit a reservation at the exact same time?
All reservation requests submitted during the lottery window are randomized after the window closes, regardless of the order they were received. This means there is no advantage to clicking faster—every participant has an equal chance of securing a court.
2. Can a member submit more than one reservation request during the lottery?
No. Each member can only submit one reservation request per lottery window.
3. What if a member closes their window before results are finalized?
They may miss the result notification or confirmation message. The reservation (if successful) will still appear in their schedule, but they won’t see real-time feedback and may miss an up-front payment requirement.
4. Can I change the lottery time or duration after enabling it?
Yes. Admins can update the Start Time and Duration at any time in the BOOKING SETTINGS > Reservation Lottery section.
5. Does the Reservation Lottery apply to all courts and reservation types?
Yes, it applies club-wide for now. All courts and eligible reservation types follow the same lottery process.
6. Will members be notified if their reservation is declined?
Not at this time. Members who don’t receive a court will return to their reservation window after the lottery allocation has completed and see the normal reservation errors if a court is not available. They can then try for a different time or court, but any additional requests will be processed as normal outside of a lottery.
7. Can members cancel or edit a reservation request during the lottery window?
No. Once a request is submitted, it’s unavailable for changes during that lottery window and cannot be edited or withdrawn until after results are finalized.
USER PERSPECTIVE
From the member’s perspective, the booking process does not change when a Reservation Lottery is enabled.
For example, if the lottery is set to start at 7:00am and a player submits a reservation within the lottery window, their request will be entered into the randomization process. They will see a message indicating that their request is in the lottery window and should keep that window open.
If they do get the court/reservation: The booking will appear in their My Bookings section as normal.
If they do not get the court/reservation: They will be returned to the usual booking screen and see a standard error message, allowing them to select a different court.
There is no separate interface or special process for entering the lottery—it runs automatically during the time window set by your organization, and courts are booked through the standard system. When enabled, the lottery runs only once per day, and outside of that short window, reservations are handled as usual.
VIDEO TRAINING
Click here for a walkthrough of Reservation Lottery.