Resort activity managers: booking kids' club sessions

Let guests book kids' club sessions online from their phone, with one service per age group and a number of places per session matched to your staff ratios. Open morning and afternoon sessions for the dates of the season, say in each description what the children will do, what to bring and the drop-off and pick-up rules. Parents plan their day before they arrive at the club, your animators know how many children to expect in each group, and sessions never take more children than you can supervise.

Four-year-olds and eleven-year-olds need different activities, rooms and ratios. On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own capacity.

Durations, places and prices are examples: set your own. If the club is included in the stay, leave the price empty; a price of zero shows as €0.00 on your page.

Set each session's places from the number of animators on duty and the ratio you follow for that age group, according to the rules that apply to you. When a session is full, it leaves your page, so parents choose another session rather than turning up to a full room. If an extra animator joins for a busy week, raise the places for those sessions.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that reaches you in the new booking email and appears in the parent's calendar file. Each online booking takes one place, so a parent with two children books twice, once per child. Ask in the description for:

Say in the description where children are dropped off and collected, the latest drop-off time, who can collect a child, and what happens if a parent is late. Keep a printed list of the session from your bookings list at the club desk, and tick children in and out.

Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so a season of daily morning and afternoon sessions takes a few minutes to set up. Set the end date to the last day of the season, and leave out the club's day off. For special weeks, such as a themed pirate week, create a separate service for those dates only.

Put the booking link in the welcome email before arrival, on a QR code at reception and in the guest information folder. Guests who arrive with the week's activities already booked settle in faster.

If you offer a full day with lunch, create a full-day service with its own places, since a slot can cover morning to afternoon within one day, and say in the description whether lunch is included or packed by parents. Keep it separate from half-day sessions, so a full-day child doesn’t need two separate bookings.

Outdoor games need an indoor plan. Say in the description that activities may move indoors in bad weather, and keep the session rather than cancelling where you can. A club that runs whatever the weather keeps families' plans for the day intact.

Parents can't move bookings online: they ask at reception or the club, and you move the child to another session from your bookings list. If a session is cancelled for weather or staffing, cancel the bookings and tell each family yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Your bookings sync with Google, iPhone or Mac calendars. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.