INTRODUCTION
Feature Summary: The Reservation Fee Responsibility setting works in combination with your pricing rules and interacts directly with Custom Court Costs, which can override standard court pricing when specific conditions are met. CourtReserve follows a clear cost hierarchy to determine the correct price, always checking Custom Court Costs first before applying the default court fee tied to the Reservation Responsibility setting.
Use Cases:
Ensuring fair and accurate fee distribution: Clubs can assign responsibility to a single member, divide charges evenly, or price courts based on each player’s membership type.
Supporting flexible payment arrangements: The “Allow Player to Pay Full Fee or Split Fee Equally” option is ideal when clubs want players to choose how costs are shared at the time of booking.
Applying peak-hour or specialized pricing: Custom Court Costs allow clubs to charge different rates for premium times, weekends, guest play, or specific membership levels.
Overriding standard prices automatically: For clubs with complex pricing—such as varying rates for juniors, adults, non-members, or prime-time slots—Custom Court Costs ensure the correct price is applied without manual adjustments.
OVERVIEW
When creating a new Reservation Type — for example, Singles - Tennis or Doubles - Pickleball — you’ll notice a field called Reservation Responsibility. This setting determines who is responsible for the reservation fee and how court costs are applied.
There are four Reservation Responsibility options to choose from in CourtReserve. They are configured under Settings > Reservation Settings > Reservation Type.
Reservation Owner
Each Player Equally
Each Player Based on Membership
Allow Player to Pay Full Fee or Split Fee Equally
However, it’s important to understand how this setting interacts with any Custom Court Costs you’ve configured, as those can override the standard court pricing under certain conditions.
There’s a hierarchy of cost rules that determines which court rate applies when a booking is made.
How the Cost Hierarchy Works
CourtReserve first checks if any Custom Court Costs have been configured for the booking conditions under Booking Settings > Costs > Custom Court Costs.
If a Custom Court Cost is valid for the member, time period (for example, during peak hours or weekends), and all other conditions set in a Custom Court Cost, that rate will override the regular court cost.
If no Custom Court Cost applies, the system will default to the regular price defined in your booking settings and based on the Reservation Responsibility setting.
Real-Life Example
Many clubs select a Reservation Responsibility of Each Player Based on Membership, which applies court costs according to the dollar amount configured for each membership type in your system. We'll step through an example here.
Note: The cost hierarchy applies to all Reservation Responsibility options, but it is shown here for example purposes using Each Player Based on Membership as it is a common scenario for clubs.
Let’s say: A Reservation Type of Singles - Tennis is set up with a Reservation Responsibility of Each Player Based on Membership:
Under Booking Settings > Costs, a "Basic" member’s standard tennis court rate is set to $30 per hour.
Under Booking Settings > Custom Costs, a Custom Court Cost of $40 per hour is set up that applies to this membership type during certain time slots — for example, on weekends between 9am - 4pm.
What happens:
When a member books a court under conditions covered by the custom cost, the system will automatically apply the $40/hour rate.
If that same member books outside of those custom conditions (for example, a Friday afternoon with no special pricing), the system will apply their regular $30/hour rate.
In simple terms for this example: If the Reservation Responsibility is set to Each Player Based on Membership, any applicable Custom Court Cost will override the regular membership court cost.
In Summary
Reservation Responsibility tied to Reservation Type determines who pays for the reservation and if their membership affects pricing.
Custom Court Costs always take priority over the regular court rate when the conditions match.
If no custom cost is set or valid for that time, the standard court rate applies automatically.
This structure gives admins flexible control over pricing for different memberships, times, or reservation types — ensuring that each booking is billed accurately and fairly.
VIDEO TRAINING
Watch this video tutorial to learn about all the available options for Reservation Fee Responsibility.