Create / Edit an Event

Overview

Admins create Events from the Admin Dashboard by highlighting a time slot and court, then filling in the Event details and publishing. Events are the things Customers sign up for, and each Event has its own pricing, capacity, and visibility settings that are separate from the pricing used for Court Bookings. This article covers the Event types you can choose from, the steps to create an Event, and every setting available during creation or editing.

For Events that are already created, clicking on the Event to open it and reviewing the Settings tab will allow Club staff to edit the Event.

Event types

Choose the Event type in the Reservation Type section when creating an Event. Each type serves a different programming purpose.

• Open Play — Customers sign up, come into the Club, and play alongside other Customers who have also signed up. Anyone with an open spot can join.
• Clinic — Education-focused Event led by a Coach. Use this type for lessons, workshops, or skill-building sessions.
• League — Customers sign up and compete against each other over a period of time for a championship. Leagues run across multiple dates, but Customers sign up once.
• Tournament — Customers sign up and compete for a championship in a single day.
• Party — Party is another type of social play type Event.
• Custom Event type — Admins can create new Event types from the Company Settings page of the Dashboard. Before creating a custom type, consider its long-term use carefully.

Once a Customer signs up for a custom Event type, that type can never be deleted, because it becomes a direct accounting source. Only someone with the Owner role should create a new Event type, and only after the Club has decided how it will be used long-term.

• Private Event — A specific type of Event, normally reserved for birthday parties or corporate buyouts; this selection has a unique revenue category when performing revenue reconciliation.

Adding Tags to existing Events is often a better approach than a new type. Tags let Customers filter by activity type using the Quick Filter in the App without requiring a new Event type.

Create an Event

Admins create Events from the Admin Dashboard by highlighting a time slot and court, then filling in the Event details and publishing.

1. Highlight the time slot and court. In the Admin Dashboard, click and drag to highlight the specific time and court or table where the Event will take place.
2. Create the Event. Select Create an Event from the action menu that appears.
3. Choose the Event type. In the Reservation Type section, choose the type of Event you want to create.
4. Fill in the Event details. Complete the required fields:

   • Event Name
   • Event Price — set separate rates for Members and Non-members in the Admission Rate section
   • Event Picture (recommended size: 1200x630)
5. Publish the Event. Change the publishing status from Draft to Published.
6. Book. Click the Book button at the bottom to confirm.

Once published, Customers can sign up for the Event. In the Reservations tab of the App, they will see the specific court or table assigned to their Event.

Event pricing is separate from the Member vs. Non-member pricing used for Court Bookings. Every Event requires its own pricing.

Add / Delete Courts or Tables

An Admin can add courts to an Event and delete courts from an Event during Event creation by choosing from the available courts/tables at venue.

One an Event is created, to add a court means that Event is drawing heavy interest and the Club wants to increase the number of Customers who can attend. Delete a court when an Event draws less interest than expected and the Club wants to open that court for other bookings.

Add a court

1. Click on the Event.
2. Navigate to the Settings tab.
3. Scroll to the bottom section labeled TABLES ASSIGNMENT.
4. Click the + Table button.
5. Select the court name.
6. Confirm the court is added to the Event.

Delete a court

1. Click on the Event.
2. Navigate to the Settings tab.
3. Scroll to the bottom section labeled TABLES ASSIGNMENT.
4. Click the three vertical dots next to the court name.
5. Select Release table.
6. Confirm the court is deleted from the Event.

Other options on the court menu

The three vertical dots next to a court name also offer two more actions.

• Unlock table: The court is no longer locked. The PodPlay court assignment algorithm can move the Event to another court if the algorithm finds that valuable. See "Algorithmic Court Assignment" (the fourth subheader in "The PodPlay Advanced, Managing Time-Bound Inventory") and "Table Assignment Status icons".
• Move courts: The Event moves from one court to another court. This is the same feature as drag-and-drop.

From the same three-dot menu, Admins can also Unlock table (which allows the PodPlay algorithm to reassign the court if needed) or Move the court (the same as drag-and-drop). See Algorithmic Court Assignment and Table Assignment Status icons for more context.

To move an Event to a different court directly on the Dashboard, click and hold the Event block, drag it to an open slot on the target court, then release and confirm in the pop-up by clicking Move. To change the time or date of an Event, use the Reschedule feature instead.

Event Descriptions

Use the description field to communicate details Customers should know before arriving, such as rules, pricing differences between Members and Non-members, and what to bring. Descriptions support Markdown formatting, including headers, bold, italic, underline, quotes, and alerts.

Admission Rate

Membership perks are dynamic. Customers who sign up for your Memberships receive perks you choose before the Environment is set up, or as you increase the complexity of your Environment. The pricing of Booking a Court, participating in an Event, and joining a League or Tournament can all be set to different amounts for Members and Non-members.

For an Event, set the Member and Non-member prices in the Admission Rate section during creation. Every Event requires its own pricing, and Customers pay the chosen amount when they join.

For a Reservation, the Member and Non-member pricing is set by the Environment. If your Club wants to change the pricing for a Reservation, contact your PodPlay Customer Success Manager (CSM) for assistance.

Capacity and admission

Set the total number of Customers who can participate in the Capacity and Admission section. Enter the preferred number in Total Teams with Team Size set to 1. This means each team is one person, so Total Teams equals total participants.

If you enter a value greater than 0 in Max Guests per Person, Customers can pay for a Guest's spot during signup. A Customer who brings one Guest occupies two spots toward the total capacity. See our article on Guest Pass for Events for more detail.

Members-only Events

To restrict an Event to Members only, check the Members only box. Non-members will not see or be able to sign up for the Event.

You can set this during Event creation, or apply it to an already-published Event by opening the Event, going to the Settings tab, scrolling to Admission, checking Members only, and saving.

If your Club has multiple Membership types and you want to restrict signup to only specific Memberships rather than all Members, use Membership Restrictions:

1. Create an Event.
2. Click on Membership Restrictions.
3. Toggle Members only.
4. Select the specific Memberships allowed to sign up.
5. Complete the remaining Event details and publish.

The Event will be visible to all Members, but only Customers with the selected Membership types can sign up.

Spotlighting an Event

Adding the Featured tag to an Event makes it appear in the Programs/Community tab of the App. Use this to surface Events you want Customers to discover first.

Team Signup

The Team Size feature is visible when creating an Event. This aspect of an Event will be editable for every type of Event, excluding Open Plays. Meaning, it is editable for Clinics, Leagues, Tournaments, and Party Event types.

The Team Size is part of our Team Sign-ups feature. It is used when the Club wants to track which Customers are signing up with each other. The Team Size feature is available for Clinics, Leagues, Tournaments, and Party Events, not Open Plays. Use it when the Club wants to track which Customers are signing up together.

When enabled, a Customer can pay for a friend's spot during signup and send an invite after their signup is confirmed. If the friend has a Membership and the Event has a Member discount, they receive that discount automatically.

Auto-Cancel Events for Low Turnout

Auto-Cancel for Low Turnout cancels an Event automatically when it has fewer than a minimum number of attendees at a set time before the Event starts. This lets a Club avoid running Events that never reached enough signups without an Admin having to watch and cancel them by hand. The cancellation behaves the same as a manual cancellation with the "Low Turnout" reason, and every registered Customer receives a cancellation email.

Set Auto-Cancel on an individual Event

1. Open the Event Drawer for the Event and expand the Cancellations section.
2. Under Auto Cancel for Low Turnout, enter the Minimum Attendees required to keep the Event live.
3. Set Time Before Event To Cancel — how many hours before the start time the attendee count is checked. If the Event does not meet the Minimum Attendees by that time, it is canceled automatically.

Leave both fields blank to disable Auto-Cancel for that Event.

Set Club-wide defaults

Open Play Events can pre-fill Auto-Cancel values so an Admin does not have to set them on every Event.

1. Go to Company Settings → Booking → Community Events.
2. Enter a Default Open Play Minimum Attendees for Auto-Cancel (accepts 1–10).
3. Choose a Default Open Play Time Before Event To Auto-Cancel from the preset options.

Both fields are blank by default. Once set, new Open Play Events pre-fill these values in the Event Drawer's Auto Cancel for Low Turnout section, and you can still adjust or clear them on any individual Event.

What happens when an Event auto-cancels

• The Event is canceled with the "Low Turnout" reason, the same as a manual cancellation.
• All registered Customers receive a cancellation email.
• The cancellation record indicates the Event was auto-canceled, so Club staff can tell it apart from a manual cancellation when reviewing Event history.

Single Events vs. Event Series

A Single Event is held on one specific day and time. This is the default for most Events.

An Event Series spans multiple days. Customers sign up for the entire Series at once and are registered for all sessions. For example, an eight-week Clinic Series on Mondays at 5 pm requires one signup that covers all eight sessions. Any Event type can be created as a Series.

Generate a Signup Link

Inside a Reservation or an Event, the three vertical dots at the bottom left of the side panel open the link options. These links let an Admin invite specific Customers directly instead of waiting for them to find the Event in the App.

Which options appear depends on whether you are in a Reservation, a Draft Event, or a Published Event.

From a Reservation

A Reservation offers one option, Generate guest link (not as participant). Any Customer who receives that link can join the Reservation free of charge.

From a Draft Event

A Draft Event (Open Play, Clinic, Tournament, League) offers three options.

• Generate guest link (not as participant): Customers who receive this link can join the Event and will not count toward the total attendee quantity.
• Generate signup link: Customers who receive this link can join the Event normally.
• Preview draft: Lets the Admin view the Event from the public perspective before it is published.

From a Published Event

A Published Event (Open Play, Clinic, Tournament, League) offers three options.

• Generate guest link (not as participant): Customers who receive this link can join the Event and will not count toward the total attendee quantity.
• Generate signup link: Customers who receive this link can join the Event normally.
• Open in web app: Lets the Admin view the Event from the public perspective.

Selecting any of these opens a pop-up window. Copy the link from that window and send it to the Customer.

Comparing the three link types

Option	What the Customer gets	Counts toward participants	Charged admission
Generate guest link (not as participant)	Joins the Event as a Non-participant	No	No
Generate signup link	Opens the Event in their App	Yes	Yes
Open in web app	Same destination as the signup link, opened as a browser tab you copy and share	Yes	Yes

Open in web app produces the same link as Generate signup link, with an extra step.

Reschedule an Event

You can move any Event inside the Dashboard.

1. Find the Event you want to reschedule.
2. Click into the Event.
3. Click the three vertical dots at the bottom left of the side panel.
4. Select Reschedule.
5. Choose the new time or day for the Event.
6. Click Save.
7. Click yes on the confirmation notification.

PodPlay does not send confirmation emails to Customers who signed up for a rescheduled Event. To notify them, either cancel the Event and create a new one, or export the Customer list from the Event and send the update yourself.

Moving an Event too far into the future causes the holds on Customer cards to fail. See the article on Hold on Cards for the time limits.

Rainout and weather cancellations

When bad weather affects a Club, an Admin can cancel multiple Reservations and Events at once with the Weather Cancellation feature.

1. Click the dark rain cloud labeled Add a Rainout.
2. Select the location where the bad weather is incoming or happening.
3. Select the times when the bad weather starts and ends.
4. Review the canceled Reservations and Events.

Every Customer in a canceled Reservation or Event receives an email saying it was canceled because of bad weather.

Editing or canceling a Rainout

The top of the Overview page shows the active Rainout. From there you can extend it or cancel it. Canceling the Rainout lets Customers book during the time the Rainout currently blocks. It does not rebook the Events and Reservations that were already canceled.

Refunds during a Rainout

When you create the Rainout, if Reservations or Events fall inside the selected window, the feature lists them and asks whether to refund each one. That refund is 100% of the Customer's cost.

To give a partial refund instead, use the Refund feature. See the article Refunds.

Be very careful when using the Rainout feature because once a Rainout is committed, it cannot be undone.

FAQs

Can I set an Event to auto-publish in the future?

Scheduling and the FOMO feature both control when an Event becomes visible or available for signup, and can stagger access between Members and Non-members.

To publish an Event at a future date, or to make it visible to Members before Non-members:

1. Create the Event and fill in all details.
2. Click the Publishing status dropdown (currently labeled Draft).
3. Select Schedule.
4. Choose how many days before the Event it should publish for Members and for Non-members.
5. Verify the publish date shown below.
6. Check Publish and click Save.

This is useful for building out programming in advance.

If you plan to copy a Scheduled Event, do so before it has published for either group. Copying a partially published Event carries that published state to the copies.

Can I review a canceled Event?

Yes, to review any canceled Event:

1. Go to the Events page.
2. Filter for Canceled Events, the date range you want, and the type of Event.
3. Find and select the canceled Event.

What if I change the admission price after Customers sign-up?

The suggested practice of any Event creation is to set the price and leave the pricing alone when set. When an Event is created, if a Customer signs up for an Event, and then an Admin goes back to edit the Event price, the Customer will have committed to the first Event pricing.

Can I limit an Event to only one Membership type?

If your Club has multiple Memberships, like a Member-only Event, an Admin has the ability to create Events for only some, or one type of Membership. This is an exclusive Members only Event. The Event will be visible for all Members, though only selected Memberships will be able to sign up. To create this Event:

• Create an Event
• Click on Membership Restrictions
• Toggle the box Members only
• Select the Memberships that are allowed to signup for this Event
• Fill out the remaining sections of the Event
• Click Book and Publish