Definition
Experience booking
What is an experience booking?
An experience booking is a reservation for a scheduled, capacity-limited activity — a class, tour, or session — where the customer chooses an available time slot and pays in advance.
Unlike a fixed-date ticket, an experience offers multiple time slots, each with its own capacity. The customer self-selects a slot that suits them and pays on the spot, which removes the back-and-forth of arranging a time by phone or DM and guarantees the business is paid before the session runs.
Capacity is the heart of the model. Good booking software holds a place at checkout so two customers can't take the last seat at once, preventing oversell on a class or tour that has a hard limit on numbers.
On Zillo, experiences support custom intake questions collected at booking — dietary requirements, skill level, group size — so you have what you need before the customer arrives. They also support multi-use “punch-card” passes, where a customer prepays for a block of sessions and books one slot at a time against it.
Experience bookings sit between tickets (a single fixed occasion) and memberships (ongoing recurring access): they are scheduled, paid, one-off reservations. Cooking classes, walking tours, tastings, surf lessons, and studio time all fit this shape.
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