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Use case

Your most valuable customers are the ones your software ignores

League organisers, corporate clients and schools hold your best inventory: the same peak slots, every week, for a whole season. They're also the customers most booking systems serve worst — because they don't want a checkout. They want an account, an invoice at month end, and the ability to move their own fixture without phoning you.

What they actually need

  • An account, not a card. Corporate finance teams pay invoices, not checkouts.
  • Their own login, scoped to their block, so fixture changes don't come through your desk.
  • A season-long recurring hold, with single dates releasable.
  • Released dates back on sale automatically, so their change becomes your slot.
Why it's usually broken

Three reasons this relationship runs on WhatsApp

Most venues handle their largest accounts entirely outside their booking system. It works until it doesn't.

01

They can't pay the way the system wants

A card at checkout, per booking, is impossible for most corporate customers. So the booking gets entered manually by staff, the invoice is assembled by hand at month end, and the whole account exists in a spreadsheet next to the real system.

02

Every change goes through a person

An organiser moving one fixture means a phone call, someone finding the booking, and a confirmation. Multiply by a season and it's a part-time job — and it happens at the times your desk is busiest.

03

Nobody knows what the block earns

When blocks live outside the system, they're invisible in your reporting. You can't compare what a season-long peak block earns against what the same hours would earn publicly, which is exactly the comparison you need before renewing it.

How it works

Setting up an account customer

Once, at the start of a season. Then it runs itself.

Step 1Create the account

An organisation record with its own rate, credit terms and billing contact — separate from individual customers.

Step 2Hold the block

A recurring slot for the season, with individual dates releasable without dropping the series.

Step 3Give them a login

Scoped to their own block. They move their fixtures; your desk doesn't hear about it.

Step 4Invoice monthly

Bookings accrue against the account and are invoiced at period end, on terms your customer's finance team accepts.

The check worth doing

Is the block actually good business?

Block bookings feel like guaranteed revenue, which makes them easy to under-price and never revisit.

01

Compare it against the public rate for the same hours

A season-long Tuesday 19:00 block is occupying your most valuable inventory. If the account rate was set three years ago and never revisited, it may now be well below what the same slot earns from public bookings. Revenue by hour and channel makes that comparison directly rather than by argument.

02

Value the certainty honestly

A block is worth a genuine discount — it's guaranteed, it's paid, and it costs nothing to sell. The question isn't whether to discount but by how much, and that's answerable only if you know what the hours would otherwise earn. Most venues find some blocks are excellent and one or two are quietly subsidised.

FAQ

Block booking questions

Can an organiser manage their own fixtures?

Yes. A block booking can be held on an account, and the organiser given a login that lets them move or release sessions within their own block without touching anyone else's bookings. That removes the phone calls to your desk, which is usually the single biggest saving in this relationship.

How does invoicing work for an account customer?

Bookings accrue against the account and are invoiced at the end of the period rather than paid at checkout. That matters because most corporate customers cannot pay by card per booking — a purchase order and a monthly invoice is the only process their finance team will accept.

Can we hold a recurring slot for a whole season?

Yes. A recurring block holds the same slot each week for as long as you set it, and individual dates can be released without cancelling the series — which is what you need over holidays and for one-off fixture changes.

What stops a block booking blocking revenue we could sell better?

Nothing automatic, which is why it is worth checking. A season-long block at a peak hour is only good business if the rate reflects the hour it occupies. Revenue by hour and channel shows you what that block is actually earning against what the same slot earns from public bookings.

Do released block sessions go back on sale?

Yes, if you want them to. A session an organiser releases can return to public availability automatically, which turns their fixture change into a sellable slot rather than a hole in your calendar.

Keep reading

Related

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