Court booking and court fees

Introduction

This article describes how courts are managed and paid for in ManageMyMatch. There is a high degree of flexibility in this regard allowing, for example, controlled collaboration with other clubs and fee structures that can be tailored towards individuals.

The club benefits by being able to provide customised, motivational fee structures for different needs and different kinds of members with a view to increasing court usage.

Courts can be booked (or reserved) in a number of ways:

1. The club can reserve them for maintenance or other purposes (e.g. an exhibition match)
2. Organisers of regular events and programmes can reserve them for planned, scheduled use
3. Designated court bookers of regular events and programmes
4. Team captains can reserve them for team matches
5. Members can reserve them for individual matches

1. Club reservations

These can be made by any club official and are never charged for. Unlike all other booking scenarios, a club official can displace existing bookings. Any date in the future can be booked. See this article for details.

2. Event organisers

An event always has at least one organiser. Any organiser may pre-book courts for an event so long as the dates fall between the start and end dates of the event. The organiser is also subject to any restricted booking slots set up for the club and the event (in Manage Clubs -> Events). If no restricted booking slots have been defined then any courts may be booked. An organiser never gets charged for these bookings. The organiser cannot displace a booking that already exists.

3 Designated event bookers

A club may designate any number of specific members to be able to pre-book courts in the name of a specific event on its own courts. A designated booker will only be able to book courts between the start and end dates of the event and on the restricted booking slots set up for the event and club. If no restricted booking slots have been defined then no courts will be available for booking. Designated bookers will be charged in accordance with the fee associated with the restricted booking slots. This charge will be applied the day before the booking becomes due. A designated booker cannot displace a booking that already exists.

4 Team captains

For team events, teams and their captains can be set up by the club. A team captain will only be able to book courts between the start and end dates of the event and on the restricted booking slots set up for the event and club. If no restricted booking slots have been defined then no courts will be available for booking. Team captains will be charged in accordance with the fee associated with the restricted booking slots. This charge will be applied the day before the booking becomes due. A team captain cannot displace a booking that already exists.

5. Members

There is a range of ways in which members book a court. Often this is done pro-actively by the member in their Booking centre. But sometimes a booking will be made for them either by another member or by the system itself as it matches invitations set up by members. Naturally, members cannot book courts that have already been reserved.

There are three criteria that the system uses to check whether a member has access to a particular court:

• Subscription. A subscription defines the courts that are permitted and the price to be paid for every booking
• Event. By participating in an event, this may provide augmented access to courts because courts can be permitted (and priced) on an event basis.
• Product. A member may in possession of a product that provides discounted court pricing.

Without a subscription (or one that permissions courts), a member can only have access to courts for the purposes of participating in a specific event (assuming that event has its own court permissions) or has a product specifically permitting court usage.

The club may set up late cancellation rules such that a cancelled court will be charged if it is not re-booked. The rules set when the cancellation was made (# hours prior to booking date) and for how long the booking had been in place.

On the club Kiosk screen, members may book a court that is either in progress or up to 10 minutes before the court slot starts. In this scenario only, a member can also terminate the booking before the slot end time in order to achieve a pro-rata payment for just the number of minutes used.

Member court fees

Court fees are custom to a member and depend on either their subscription or the event for which the court was booked. For matches, the fee is shared between all match participants who have an account with the club. But because each player's circumstances might dictate a different price for the court, this sharing is achieved by simply dividing each players fee by the total number of players. For example, if one player is being charged £5 and the other is getting the court for free then the first will be charged £2.50 and the second will still get a free court.

A member gets charged for a court immediately after it completes. If the member does not have enough funds at that time, the fee is put on a queue and the member is advised to top up their balance. When the balance is topped up the fee will automatically be re-applied.

There is one exception to this timing: When a friendly match is set up between players they must all accept the game before each player gets charged for the court. This is to prevent members freely setting up other members to matches and having them pay without their explicit acknowledgement.

It maybe the case that court access and pricing could be permitted in multiple ways. For example, the member might have a subscription which entitles them to a peak-time court at £5 but also be booking the court under an event that provides the court for free. In these scenarios the member is always charged the lowest fee that can be applied to the booking. The exception to this is when the member has booked the court for no apparent purpose - i.e. not against an event. In which case the highest fee is charged.

Member booking responsibility

The advised means of attracting players to play a match at a certain time is through court-less invitations. However, if a member books a court specifically without an agreed match then they become responsible for that booking. They have to track it, fill it or cancel it. If a match is not agreed for the booking  by the time the booking comes due then the member will pay the full price of the court.

However, once the booking is taken up by another member with an agreed match then the booking is hence forth jointly owned. Either member can cancel the booking. If it's a late cancellation then both members may be subject to late-cancellation fees. The original booker has no more rights to the booking than their opponents.