How to make your club private for online bookings

Some clubs want to limit who can book courts online, only allowing their own members or a select group of players to make private reservations. Playtomic doesn't have a native "private club" toggle yet, but you can achieve the same result with a simple workaround using Benefits. This article walks you through how to set it up, step by step, and what to keep in mind before you do.

Before you start: what this workaround does (and doesn't do)

This method restricts online private bookings to players who have a Benefit assigned to them. It does not make the club private inside the Playtomic app.

Here's what actually happens:

• ✅ Players with the Benefit will see real court availability and can book private reservations online, at the price and booking window you set for them.
• ❌ Players without the Benefit will still find your club and see it as a public club in the app, but they won't be able to book a private reservation.
• ✅ All players, with or without the Benefit, can still join tournaments, leagues, courses, and classes at your club.
• ❌ All players, with or without the Benefit, won’t be able to create or join Open Matches in your club.

⚠️Important: this workaround relies on the general "Book ahead limit" rule. Because Open Match availability follows that same rule, setting it to 0 days will disable Open Match creation for everyone at your club, members and non-members alike. There's currently no way to keep Open Match active while restricting private bookings this way, so think it through carefully before applying this configuration. It's also fully reversible, you can turn it on or off whenever you like.

Step-by-step setup

1. Set the general booking window to 0 days

1. In Playtomic Manager, go to Settings → Venue → Bookings.
2. Set the "Book ahead limit" rule to 0 days.

This stops any player without a Benefit from booking online, since they'll have no booking window available at all.

2. Create or choose a Benefit

1. Go to Rewards & Offers → Add new Benefit.
2. Create a new Benefit, or reuse one you already have.

This works with both types of Benefits: those assigned by the club and those sold as a membership. For a full walkthrough on creating Benefits, check out How to Manage Benefits in Rewards & Offers.

3. Give the Benefit its own booking window

In the Benefit's Rules tab, set its own "Book ahead limit", for example 7 or 14 days in advance. This is the window your approved members will actually book within, separate from the general 0-day rule you set in step 1.

4. Configure pricing for the Benefit

Still in the Rules tab, set up the Pricing rules for what members will pay when booking online.

💡 Our recommendation: choose Advanced pricing rather than Simple pricing. Advanced pricing gives you the flexibility to customize prices by day, time slot, and court, so make sure to set a price for every court, day, and time slot you want to open up for online booking.

5. Leave full-payment bookings unchecked

In the same Rules tab, do not check the box "Players can pay the full booking with their Benefit".

⚠️ Why this matters: if this box is left unchecked, only split payments are allowed, which means the member making the booking must add other member to fill the match. If you check this box instead, a member could pay for the entire court alone and then bring along anyone they like, including non-members you'd rather not have on your courts, since the booking would already be fully paid and no one else needs to be added.

6. Assign the Benefit to approved members only

1. Open the Benefit and go to the Members tab.
2. Click Add members and add only the players you want to have access.

The result

Your club stays visible and public-looking in the Playtomic app, but only players with the assigned Benefit will see real availability and be able to book online. Everyone else can still find your club, but won't be able to book a private reservation.

Below, you can see how club availability appears in the app for players with the Benefit compared with those without it.

A few things to keep in mind

• This is a workaround, not an official "private club" feature.
• The club will not appear as private in the Playtomic app.
• You'll need to manage Benefit manually to keep things exclusive.
• We generally recommend keeping clubs public for maximum visibility and bookings, but this setup is available if your club has a specific need for it.
• You can turn this configuration on or off at any time, so feel free to test it and adjust as needed.

💭Still have questions about setting this up? 

Our Customer Care team is happy to help, just reach out and we'll walk you through it😊.