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Configure Sessions for recurring group classes

Sessions can be used to run recurring group classes with ease.

Jakob Larsson Stern avatar
Written by Jakob Larsson Stern
Updated today

This guide will help you set up and run ongoing group offerings, such as weekly or patterned classes. You will create a Session service, define one or more recurring schedules, and manage attendees from the Calendar.

Before you start, here are a few things that might be helpful to keep in mind:

  • Decide the cadence, for example every Monday and Wednesday at 6:00 pm for 12 weeks

  • Determine capacity per occurrence and the resources required

  • Decide whether overlapping bookings should be allowed for guests

Let's get started!

Setting it up

Step 1: Create a Session service for the class

  1. Under Service type, choose Session

  2. Name the service, for example “Beginner Yoga — Group Class”

  3. Select an existing category or create a new one so guests can find it easily

  4. Set the duration of the service

Step 2: Create the Session with a recurring schedule

  1. Under the section called “Sessions”, click + Add session to add a new one

  2. In the modal that opens, first select the start date for when the schedule should go into effect, followed by setting the time of day for when the session should start

  3. Access recurrence settings by checking “This is a recurring session”, including options to:

    1. Configure how often you want the session to repeat

    2. Select the days on which it should occur

    3. Set an end date for the schedule — or leave it open

  4. Leave “Respect opening hours” unchecked if you want these sessions to be available even outside of regularly scheduled business hours

  5. Set capacity per occurrence

  6. Assign resources like instructors and rooms so calendars are blocked

  7. Remember that you can create one or more recurring schedules for your services where each schedule has its own recurrence rules, available spots and resources

  8. Click Save to create the session and then click Save again to create the service

The session service will appear in your list of services, distinguished by a small calendar icon.

Additional configuration options

Decide whether to allow, disallow, or warn on overlapping session selections and configure this in Service options. Choose what happens if guests try to book multiple sessions that overlap in time:

  • Allow: Guests can book conflicting sessions

  • Disallow: Guests can only book one at a time

  • Warn: Guests see a warning but can still proceed

If you want to allow party size bookings in sessions, make sure the following settings are turned on:

For any additional configurations — including lead time, cutoff rules, and much more — see Location settings > Bookings.

Customize and test the registration flow

You can customize the registration flow for recurring group sessions as you usually would for standard services. See our articles on the Customer journey.

To test the registration flow to make sure it works as intended, just follow these steps:

  1. Access the link from the sidebar

  2. Open your booking link for the class service and select a class either by service or by schedule

    1. Services: Shows a list of all available services (e.g. Beginner Yoga and Advanced Yoga) and allows you so pick a service and then choose an available session

    2. Schedule: Displays all dates with scheduled sessions, across all services, allowing you to pick multiple sessions

  3. Complete the registration flow and verify confirmation details

  4. The status page will include all sessions that the customer has signed up for

Additional information on the registration flow

Guests can select multiple recurring sessions from the Sessions tab. Guests can not mix standard services and session services in the same booking. For setups where service categories are displayed on different steps this means that selecting a session service will hide any standard services on subsequent steps and vice versa.

A separate visit will be created for each session your guests book.

Managing your recurring sessions as a staff member

We recommend using the Calendar when managing recurring classes and their participants. Here’s how to add new customers or perform actions on current ones:

  1. In Calendar, find the session you’re looking for and click it to open the roster of current customers

  2. To add a new participant, click Add customer and enter the attendee’s details (Session‑specific details are recorded automatically)

  3. To manage attendees, you can:

    1. Serve: Move the customer to the Serving state (recommended if you want to record the serve time)

    2. Complete: Move the customer straight to the Completed state

    3. Alert: Send the “Booking alert” message

    4. Arrived: Add the “Arrived” tag to the customer

    5. Message: Send a custom message or a saved reply

    6. No-show: Mark the customer as a no-show

    7. Delete: Delete the visit from the event (including all analytics)

  4. To perform actions on multiple attendees, select several or all and use Actions

Additional information on managing recurring sessions as a staff member

You can see available sessions for any service by selecting the service in the Add booking panel and then clicking the Sessions menu.

Please also note that each booking made in the Staff experience can only include one session service. So if a customer is looking to sign up for more than one session, you will need to create one visit for each.

Canceling or updating a session occurrence

To cancel a single occurrence:

  1. Locate the session in the Calendar and click on it

  2. In the sidebar that opens, click on the menu and then Cancel session

  3. When canceling a session, you’ll see a confirmation window that lets you send a cancellation message to the attendees. The message will be sent via SMS, or via email if there is no phone number available.

  4. Click Cancel session to confirm

Note: Canceling a session only cancels that specific session occurrence. If there are other (or recurring) sessions connected to that same session service, those will remain.

To make any other changes to your session service or schedules, go back to Location settings > Services and select the service you want to edit. If you make updates to your session schedules, please be mindful of the following:

If you change start time or update an attached resource to an unavailable one, all current bookings will be cancelled and attendees will be notified. All other changes will not impact bookings for the current session.

Reporting

Track per‑occurrence metrics such as bookings, check‑ins, no‑shows, and resource utilization from Analytics. Compare days, times, and instructors to refine schedules and staffing.

Troubleshooting

  • I created a recurrence but nothing shows on the Calendar

    • Confirm the start date is in the future, the schedule is saved, and resources are assigned

  • Guests are mixing standard and session services in one booking

    • Not supported. Ensure the flow separates categories and service types

  • Overlapping bookings are slipping through

    • Review overlap settings and resource conflicts

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