Managing bookings

Once classes are live, students start booking. The bookings dashboard at /mentor/bookings is where you spend most of your daily ops time.

Booking statuses

Every booking has a status. The lifecycle:

Stripe card payments skip PENDING and go straight to CONFIRMED (the payment is captured at booking time).

Manual payment methods (bank, PayPal, etc) stay PENDING until you confirm receipt of payment.

The bookings list

The list at /mentor/bookings shows:

• All your bookings, default sorted by next class date.
• Filters: status (pending / confirmed / completed / no-show / cancelled), date range, payment method, class.
• Search by student name, email, or booking ID.

Click into any booking for the full detail page: who, when, what, paid status, payment method, attendees if it is a group booking, the cancellation policy, and the action buttons.

Daily workflow

Morning check

Open /mentor/bookings once each morning. Filter to "today" and skim:

• Make sure today's classes are still attended (check capacities).
• Mark yesterday's classes as completed / no-show (you can also do this at the end of each class).
• Action any pending bookings (mark paid for ones where you received payment).

After each class

At the end of each class:

1. Open the day's session on your phone or laptop.
2. For each booking, click "Mark completed" or "Mark no-show" depending on whether the student attended.
3. If anyone paid cash on the day, click "Mark paid" first (then mark completed).

Most mentors do this in ~2 minutes during the cool-down.

Weekly cleanup

Once a week (Friday for many mentors):

• Filter to "this week, pending payment". Chase any students who have not paid via manual methods.
• Look at next week's bookings and double-check capacity is reasonable.
• Respond to inquiries.

Marking paid (manual methods)

For bookings paid by bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, etc:

1. Confirm the money landed in your account (check your bank, PayPal, etc).
2. Open the booking on MoveMentors.
3. Click "Mark paid".
4. The booking moves from PENDING to CONFIRMED.
5. The student receives a "your booking is confirmed" email.

Do not mark paid until you have actually received the payment. The system trusts you; do not break the trust by marking paid speculatively.

For cash payments on the day, mark paid after the class (or as soon as you have the cash).

Confirming and completing

You do not need to "confirm" Stripe-paid bookings; they are confirmed automatically. You DO need to confirm manual-paid bookings (the mark-paid action implicitly confirms).

You DO need to "complete" all bookings at the end of class. The system can auto-complete bookings 24 hours after the class start time if you forget, but the auto-completion treats unmarked bookings as completed, which gives no-shows a free pass.

Best practice: mark completion at the end of each class.

No-shows

A no-show is a student who paid but did not attend. The default treatment:

• The booking is marked NO_SHOW.
• The student keeps their payment (no automatic refund).
• The student gets an email saying "we marked you as not attending; if this is wrong, message the mentor".

Some mentors are generous with no-shows (offer credit toward a future class); some are strict (no refund, no credit). Your call.

Communicating with students

The booking detail page has a "Message" action. This sends a one-way email to the student via the platform. They can reply directly (their reply goes to your platform inbox).

Use it for:

• Confirming a payment was received.
• Asking a question about a booking.
• Notifying about a venue change.
• Sending pre-class instructions.

Do not use it for:

• Marketing future classes (this is what your profile bio and Instagram are for).
• Romantic / personal communication (against community guidelines).

Group booking management

When a student books multiple seats:

• One booking record covers the whole group.
• Party size and additional attendees' names are visible on the booking detail.
• One payment for the whole group.
• One "Mark paid" / "Mark completed" action covers all seats.

You cannot mark one seat completed and another no-show within the same booking. If 4 seats were booked and 3 attended, mark the whole booking as completed (it is fine to be generous on the fourth).

Refunding via the dashboard

If you want to refund a booking:

1. Open the booking.
2. Click "Cancel and refund".
3. Pick "Full refund" or "Partial refund" (specify amount).
4. Add an optional note explaining.

For Stripe payments: refund processes immediately. For manual methods: you handle the refund off-platform. Click "Mark refunded" once you have actually sent the money back.

Edge cases

Student paid via Stripe but you marked the booking as no-show. They are asking why they paid. They paid because they booked. No-show means they did not show; the payment stands. You can choose to refund them as a goodwill gesture; the system does not force it.

Two students booked the same seat (race condition). The platform prevents this via row-locking at the database level. Capacity overflow is mathematically impossible. If you see something that looks like it, screenshot and email support immediately.

Student insists they paid cash but you do not remember. Awkward. We default to trusting the host on these. If the student has a receipt or screenshot, they should send it. If not, mediate with the student and grant the booking if you cannot prove otherwise.

Common questions

Can I auto-confirm all manual payments? No. Manual payment confirmation is a deliberate human-in-the-loop step to prevent fraud. The friction is the feature.

Can I bulk-complete a whole session's bookings? Yes, on the session view. Click "Complete all" on the session card and every booking on that session moves to COMPLETED. Marking individual no-shows still requires per-booking action.

The booking shows the wrong attendance count. Check the party size on the booking; the listed count is "1 (the booker)" plus the additional attendees. A 4-seat group booking shows party size 4 on your end.

Can I export bookings to a spreadsheet? Yes, the bookings list has an "Export CSV" button. Useful for accounting or reporting.

Next steps

• Clients (CRM) covers the longer-term relationship with regular students.
• Financials and expenses covers the money side.