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Question

How do I hold a paid group on MY calendar without paying?

  • 15 March 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 75 views

I would like people to pay to register for various group event courses. With “poll” events, Calendly gives me the ability to hold multiple spaces open on my calendar so that no one schedules during that time. I’d like to do the same with paid events. Once someone pays, it will be held, but in the meantime I’m worried someone else will book for those slots. 

I can do this with free group events simply by registering myself as one of the attendees. But I can’t figure out how to do this with paid events without paying myself.

So for example: I create a paid class. Clients can pay to book that class anytime. But there might be 2-3 times I definitely want to hold it (whether or not anyone pays) so that I can do recordings. I want to lock those 2-3 times on my calendar but still allow people to book the event type whenver they’re willing to.

I hope what I’m trying to do makes sense and that you can help me do it

 

Thanks so much!

 

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5 replies

jillian
Rank
Userlevel 6

Hi @JJ34383,

Hmmmm! Have you considered cloning the event, removing the payment aspect of it, and keeping that event secret just for your use (or I suppose you could also use it for special exceptions too)? That way it blocks out your calendar, looks basically the same, but takes away the need to pay.

Let me know what you think! And what type of class are you teaching? We always love to hear about this type of stuff!

J

I saw that suggestion a lot when I searched for people who asked questions similar to mine
 

Please explain how other people would be able to book the paid event if I cloned it, made a free version, and then booked that on my calendar. If I did that, the cloned event would block off my calendar and no one would be able to schedule themselves for the paid group event at that time 

jillian
Rank
Userlevel 6

Hi @JJ34383!

Can you tell me a bit more about what you’re looking to do?

From your original post, it sounds like there are times that you want to block off entirely so that you’re able to do recordings. This means you’d be unavailable to teach a class during this time (unless you personally have a teaching clone we don’t know about). In your follow up post, it sounds like you actually want these times open but also somewhat blocked.

J

Hi @JJ34383!

Can you tell me a bit more about what you’re looking to do?

From your original post, it sounds like there are times that you want to block off entirely so that you’re able to do recordings. This means you’d be unavailable to teach a class during this time (unless you personally have a teaching clone we don’t know about). In your follow up post, it sounds like you actually want these times open but also somewhat blocked.

Hi Jillian,

Before I explain, let me share where I’ve seen this in Calendly: When you send out a poll of times for people to select the best times for the group to have a meeting, there is a great calendly feature that allows you to reserve all of those potential times on your calendar. I’d love the ability to do something similar with a paid class - pre-select times and have them reserved on my calender. No one can book another of my calendly event types during those times until the final meeting is determined. I have 61 event types.

I want a similar feature for other events - the ability to “firm” some up on my calendar for particular instances  of an event so that people can still register but no one can book. If I used a cloned event for this purpose, no one else could add themselves to it, because on the original event that time will not appear as free on my calendar.

Use Case #1 (my original question)

I’ve created a paid course that people can pay me to teach them in a group setting. I used calendly so they can select the best time. Once they create it, others can pay to select a better time or jump into the times that previously paid clients already set up (since it’s a small group class). I extract the recordings for my podcast. If people don’t book a paid class for awhile, sometimes I like to just record one anyway for a hot topic. I want that randomly selected time to still show as an available class someone can pay for, without ME having to pay for it, and others can still pay to jump into that class

Use Case #2 (something I do a LOT)

I’m a professional speaker. Another use case that this would save me a lot of work is when I speak at a conference and I might give the conference planners an afternoon of free coaching sessions they can offer to attendees. So, for example, I’m available from 1pm-5pm for 30-min consults. Calendly is fantastic in that it allows me to create 25min appointments that only display on the hour and half (thank you). What I can’t do is hold that entire block open for this event while shutting it out from the 60 other event types that people can schedule. I have played with the availability settings and haven’t found a way to do this. The work-around I’ve found is to create a series of group events (with just 2 people) and  register myself as one of the attendees. This way, I can block off my afternoon from un-related event types while only allowing one other person to attend.

 

That work-around is tedious but it works.  However, this doesn’t work for a paid evet, because in order to sign up as a attendee, I have to actually pay. 

 

Now that I think about it: a WAY EASIER FIX (that people have been requesting for years) would be to offer coupons. If I had a 100% off coupon, I could easily add myself as an attendee to paid events and block one off on my calendar without paying.

Kelsi
Userlevel 7

Hey there @JJ34383 - thanks for the thorough explanation of your use case(s)! 

Firstly - I agree, it would be fantastic if we could allow you to offer coupons! Trust me when I tell you this feedback is something we’ve passed along to the product team before, and we will do it again now that you have brought it up by including it in our monthly report for their team! I cannot make promises about if or when it’ll be implemented, though.  Likewise with the ability to use reserved times on an event type other than a Meeting Poll. 

Now, to your issue and a potential solution. 

You are right - the cloned event suggestion will not work in this case due to the fact that you would then be blocked off entirely for those times, but would still like X slots per time slot for the group event type to remain open while you take up one of those slots. 

The only viable workaround here would be tedious as well, but will do the trick. You would need to head into your group event type > temporarily make it secret so nobody but you can book it > temporarily remove the payment collection option > head to your booking page and book the time slot/s on the date/s you prefer > head back into the event type settings > turn payment collection back on > make the event public (not secret) again.  

I know this is less than pretty - but it’s the only way and it will work! I hope this is helpful, at least!

I will be sure to include all of your feedback, again, for our product team to look over! = ) Have a great Sunday! 

 

Kelsi - Calendly Community
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