Step 1: Booking Details
Booking Details is the first step of the public booking page. This is where a guest picks the date, the type of booking, the time, and the number of guests before ActiveBooker calculates a price. It works without any account or login — anyone with the booking link can use it.
Quick start
- Open the activity's booking page and wait for it to finish loading
- Choose a Date
- Choose a Booking Type
- Choose a Time Slot from the options available for that date
- Enter the Number of Adults / Number of Children, if guest counts apply
- Check the Order Summary panel, then click Continue
Note: The Add-ons, Your Info, and Payment tabs stay dimmed and unavailable until Booking Details is completed.
What you can do
Booking Details helps a guest:
- Pick when they want to visit — choose any date within the location's allowed booking window
- Choose what they're booking — see only the booking types that are actually available to guests for this activity
- Find a real, bookable time — the time slot list only shows options that are genuinely available, so a guest never picks a time that turns out to be full
- Tell the business how many people are coming — enter adults and children where guest counts apply
- See the price update live — the order summary recalculates automatically as choices change
How it works
Overview
When the page first opens, a loading state appears while the activity's configuration is fetched. Once ready, the page banner shows the activity's title and date label (or generic defaults if the activity hasn't customized them). The step header shows Details as active; Your Info and Payment are always listed, while Add-ons only appears once a booking type that actually offers add-ons has been chosen. Only the Details tab is clickable at this point.
The Booking Details card initially shows Date, Booking Type, and Time Slot only — Number of Adults and Number of Children appear once a booking type that uses guest counts has been selected. The Order Summary panel is visible the whole time, showing Total Bill and Amount Due Now as a placeholder until enough is chosen to calculate a price.
If the initial configuration fails to load, an error notice appears with a Try Again button.
Key concepts
Date
The day the guest wants to book. The earliest selectable day is today — past dates can't be picked. The latest selectable day depends on the location's configured booking window: unlimited (no upper bound) or capped to a set number of days/weeks/months from today.
Booking type
The specific package or pricing option for the activity (for example, an hourly session, a party package, or a rental). Only booking types that are active, marked public to guests, and have a price configured for this activity are ever listed — internal-only, inactive, or unpriced types never appear. They're shown in the order the activity has configured.
Time slot
A specific bookable time window for the chosen date and booking type. The list only shows slots that are genuinely available — see Time Slot Availability Rules below.
Guest counts
Number of Adults and Number of Children — shown only for booking types priced per person. Field labels can be customized per activity (for example, "Number of Racers").
Order Summary
The running Total Bill and Amount Due Now, visible throughout every step. See Booking Summary & Pricing for the full breakdown, deposit, and promo code details.
Completing this step
1. Choose a date
Open the Date field to pick a day from the calendar. Only today and future dates within the location's booking window can be selected. Leaving Date empty and continuing shows "Please select a date."
Changing the date after a time slot was already picked clears that time slot — it must be reselected, since availability is date-specific.
2. Choose a booking type
Select from the list of eligible booking types. Choosing one loads that type's time slots, guest-count fields, and any add-ons behind a brief loading state. If the booking type has an informational prompt configured (for example, safety instructions or a waiver notice), a dialog opens automatically as soon as it's selected — dismissing it does not block the guest from continuing.
Switching to a different booking type resets everything tied to the previous one: the selected time slot, adult/child counts, any add-ons chosen, and any gratuity already selected.
Leaving Booking Type unselected and continuing shows "Please select a booking type."
3. Choose a time slot
The Time Slot field stays disabled until both a Date and a Booking Type are chosen. Once both are set, it lists the available windows as formatted time ranges (e.g., "9:00 AM – 10:30 AM").
Time slot availability rules
A time slot only appears when all of the following are true:
- It's marked active for this activity and booking type
- It runs on the same day of the week as the selected date
- There's still enough remaining capacity (lanes/units) for at least the minimum group size — a fully booked slot is hidden, while a slot with some capacity left still shows
- For Party/Rental types, there are enough free units left for the whole group
- It doesn't fall inside the activity's configured buffer time around an existing booking — a slot positioned exactly at the buffer boundary (not inside it) still shows
- It isn't covered by an active block rule for that date, day of week, or time range
- For same-day bookings, the slot doesn't fall before the activity's advance-booking cutoff, if one is configured (see note below)
Available slots are always listed in order by start time. If a date/booking type combination has nothing running that day, the dropdown is replaced with: "No time slots available for the selected date. Please select a different date." This warning never shows before a date has been chosen. Leaving Time Slot unselected and continuing shows "Please select a time slot."
Note on same-day cutoffs: Some activities require bookings to be made a minimum amount of time in advance. If a same-day slot falls before that cutoff, it simply won't appear in the list — so a guest booking through this page will never see a same-day slot that's too soon to honor. The cutoff only ever affects today's slots; future dates are never restricted by it.
4. Enter the number of guests
Number of Adults and Number of Children stay hidden until a booking type is chosen, and are hidden entirely for Party and Rental booking types, since those are priced as a flat package rather than per guest.
Number of Children specifically stays hidden — even when Adults is shown — when the booking type is priced per-lane/unit rather than per person, or when the location doesn't allow child bookings for this activity.
When shown, Number of Adults defaults to 1 and Number of Children defaults to 0, each adjustable with +/- controls down to a minimum of 0.
Leaving both Adults and Children at 0 and continuing shows "Please enter the number of guests." A party of only children (0 adults, 1+ children) is accepted — at least one guest of either type satisfies the requirement.
Some activities enforce a minimum party size greater than 1. If the combined adult + children count is below that minimum, a message appears telling the guest they must select at least the required number of people for this activity. This message clears as soon as the minimum is reached, and doesn't appear at the same time as the "enter the number of guests" message.
5. Review the price
The Total Bill and Amount Due Now figures in the Order Summary recalculate automatically, after a brief pause, whenever the booking type, date, time slot, or guest count changes. Both show a loading placeholder while a new price is being worked out, and both show "—" until Booking Type, Date, and Time Slot are all chosen.
Total Bill is the full price of the booking; Amount Due Now is only the deposit collected at booking time — the two can legitimately differ when a partial deposit is configured for the activity. If a promo code was already applied earlier in the session, it stays applied here and the discounted totals update correctly as these fields change. See Booking Summary & Pricing for the full pricing and deposit logic.
Continuing to the next step
Continue stays disabled until every required field on this step is valid. Clicking it with invalid fields keeps the guest on this step and shows every applicable error at once (date, booking type, time slot, guest count, as relevant). Fixing one field only clears that field's error — other invalid fields keep showing theirs. Once everything is corrected, Continue re-enables automatically.
Once the fields pass validation, clicking Continue triggers a live availability check for the exact date, time slot, and party size, shown behind a "Checking availability…" state (Continue is disabled while this runs):
- If the slot is still available, the guest advances to Add-ons (if the booking type offers any) or straight to Your Info
- If the slot is no longer available — for example, it filled up or the party size now exceeds remaining capacity since the page loaded — an error notice explains why, and the guest stays on this step with everything they entered intact
Returning to this step
From any later step, clicking the completed Details tab in the step header returns the guest here with every previously entered value (date, booking type, time slot, adults, children) preserved. Completed steps show a checkmark; the current step is highlighted; steps ahead of current progress stay dimmed and can't be skipped to directly.
Common scenarios
Booking for a large group
Enter the total number of adults and children — the system works out how many lanes or units are needed behind the scenes. If the group is too large for the remaining capacity on a given slot, that slot simply won't be offered; choose a different time or date with more room.
The time slot list looks different after switching booking types
This is expected — each booking type has its own set of time slots, since availability, duration, and pricing all depend on the type selected. Switching types also clears any previously chosen time slot, guest counts, add-ons, and gratuity.
A previously available slot disappears at Continue
Availability can change between when the page loads and when the guest clicks Continue, especially during busy periods. If this happens, an error explains that the slot is no longer available and the guest can pick a different time without losing anything else they entered.
Troubleshooting
Issue: The page won't finish loading
Why this happens: The activity's configuration failed to load, often due to a network issue.
How to fix it: Click Try Again on the error notice. If it keeps failing, try refreshing the page or checking the connection.
Issue: No time slots ever appear for a chosen date
Why this happens: Nothing is scheduled to run on that day of the week for the selected booking type, the date is outside the booking window, or a block rule covers that date.
How to fix it: Try a different date, or a different booking type — availability is specific to each combination.
Issue: Continue stays disabled even though fields look filled in
Why this happens: One of the fields still has an invalid or missing value — check for red error text under each field.
How to fix it: Correct every flagged field. Continue re-enables automatically once all fields are valid; no need to click it again to "retry."
Frequently asked questions
Can I book for today?
Yes, as long as there are still time slots today that meet the activity's advance-booking cutoff (if one is configured) and haven't already filled up.
Why don't I see a Number of Children field?
Some booking types (Party, Rental, or per-lane pricing) don't use a children count at all, and some locations don't allow child bookings for certain activities. In those cases, the field simply isn't shown.
Can I change my mind after choosing a booking type?
Yes. Switching to a different booking type reloads the available time slots and resets guest counts, add-ons, and gratuity for the new type, since those are tied to the specific booking type chosen.
Why did my time slot get cleared?
Changing the date after a time slot was chosen always clears it, since slot availability depends on the specific date selected.