A pool is harder to sell than a court, for a reason that has nothing to do with swimming: several different classes run in it at the same time, at different sizes, and the lessons are bought in blocks rather than one at a time. Get lanes, class capacity and prepaid balances right and most of the weekly admin disappears. This page says exactly which of those we handle — and, further down, which we don't.
Four differences. Between them they explain why a plain court-hire calendar struggles here.
A small beginner class in lane one and a bigger improver class in lane two are two products running simultaneously in the same pool. Treating each lane as its own resource, with its own capacity and rate, is what stops them being modelled as one blurred "pool booking" that nobody can report on afterwards.
Nobody wants to pay for swimming lessons one week at a time, and you do not want to collect that way either. A prepaid pack bought once and drawn down as lessons are booked matches how the money actually arrives, and the balance is usable elsewhere at your venue rather than being stranded in a single course.
An adult books, a child swims. That means the details you need at the point of booking are not the account holder's — they are the swimmer's, and possibly a medical note as well. Custom forms collect that at checkout, and confirmations and reminders go to the adult who is actually going to drive there.
Unlike a court, a lesson place cannot be resold later — the class happens whether it is full or not. Utilisation reporting by hour and by resource shows which lanes and which times are quietly running half-full, which is the difference between adding a class and repricing the one you have.
In this order, because each step depends on the one above it.
Each lane as its own resource with its own capacity, rate card and booking window.
Each level as its own class with its own number of places, in the lane it occupies.
Sell the block as a package or class pack; the balance is drawn down as lessons are booked.
Collect swimmer details with custom forms; mark attendance against each session.
Three real gaps. If your school depends on them, we would rather you knew now.
One account cannot hold several swimmers under a single payer and a single invoice, and there is no automatic sibling rate. The workaround is one customer record for the paying adult plus custom forms naming the swimmer, with a promo code for any family discount.
We do not model an ability ladder that a swimmer climbs, carrying their billing to the next level with them. Levels are separate classes, so moving a child up means booking them into the next class rather than pressing a promote button, and progress itself is not recorded beyond attendance.
A full class does not hold a queue that offers a released place onward automatically, and there is no make-up-lesson flow that finds an equivalent class elsewhere in the week. Both are handled manually today.
Yes. Each lane is its own resource with its own capacity, rate and booking window, and each class carries its own number of places. So a beginner class with four places in one lane and a larger improver class in the next are separate things that do not collide, and a class stops selling once its places are gone.
Yes, as a package or class pack with a credit balance, on every plan including the free one. A customer pays once for a block of lessons and books against the balance as the weeks go by, and the same balance can be spent on other activities at your venue rather than being trapped in one programme.
No, not today. There is no account that holds several participants under one payer with a single invoice, and no sibling-rate rule that applies itself. The paying adult is the customer record, and custom forms capture which swimmer each booking is for and anything else you need at the point of booking. For a school whose whole model is one parent and three children, that is worth testing on the free plan before you commit.
Yes. Each session carries an attendance register, so the record exists against the lesson instead of on a clipboard. Team access is scoped with custom access and permissions so staff see only what they should.
Yes. Booking confirmations and reminders are transactional emails included on every plan, which matters more for lessons than for court hire because the person who booked is often not the person attending. If a checkout is abandoned midway, abandoned-booking recovery on Pro follows it up.
Free to start. No card needed, and bookings settle into your own payment account.