Who can do this: everyone on your team. Where: the two buttons at the top of the sidebar.
Two buttons, two different things#
| Button | What it is |
|---|---|
| "New booking" | Your public booking page, exactly as a customer sees it. Same hours, same rules, same prices. |
| "Custom reservation" | The same page with your schedule rules lifted — you can book any time of day, including hours you're closed. |
Both open in a new tab.
"New booking" — the phone booking#
Use this for a normal reservation taken over the phone, and for previewing your own funnel.
Everything works exactly as it does for a customer: the same available times, the same gear, the same prices, the same limits. Nothing is unlocked.
At checkout you get one extra option customers don't: "Pay on Site", which reserves the booking without charging a card. The customer pays at your counter when they arrive. See Taking payment.
"Custom reservation" — booking outside your hours#
Tooltip: "Book any time of day, including hours the field is closed — staff only".
This is how you book a private party at 10am on a day you open at 1pm.
The old workaround was to add special hours for that window — but special hours are public, so that advertises 10am to every customer looking at your booking page. A custom reservation is invisible to the public and never opens your field to online bookings.
While you're in custom reservation mode a banner sits at the top of the funnel so you can't forget which mode you're in.
What gets lifted#
Every schedule rule:
- Your operating hours — the whole day becomes bookable, including days with no hours set at all
- Activity day restrictions ("Activity Availability")
- Walk-on day restrictions ("Walk-On Availability") — including activities where walk-ons are switched off entirely, so the walk-on option reappears
- A party package's "Allowed Days of Week"
- A party package's minimum and maximum advance booking days
What doesn't get lifted#
- Activities you've switched off entirely. That's not a scheduling rule — you don't do that activity.
- Gear availability. There's nothing to rent at 3am either. If the gear is already committed to another booking, it's still unavailable.
- Everything that isn't a date rule — player minimums and maximums, session length, the package's allowed gear and play areas, and discount code rules all still apply.
A custom reservation is exempt from the schedule, not from being a coherent booking.
How to make one#
- Click "Custom reservation" in the sidebar. It opens in a new tab.
- Book normally. You'll see times your customers can't.
- Complete checkout — "Pay on Site" is usually what you want here.
Spotting them later#
Custom reservations carry an amber "Custom" pill in the Type column of the bookings list, with a tooltip naming who made it. PBHQ also records which staff member created any booking made from the dashboard.
They stay editable. You can reschedule a custom reservation to another out-of-hours slot later — the edit screen's calendar knows it's a custom reservation and doesn't grey out closed days.
When to use which#
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| Customer calls to book a normal Saturday slot | "New booking" |
| Corporate group wants Tuesday 9am; you open at noon | "Custom reservation" |
| You want to see what your booking page looks like | "New booking" |
| Regular customer wants a party inside your 7-day advance window | "Custom reservation" |
| You want to open Sunday mornings to everyone this month | Neither — use Special hours, which is public |
| One field is closed for maintenance | Special hours |