Choosing the correct booking window for First Usage memberships ensures customers can only book classes that fall within their membership’s active period. Setting this up properly helps avoid unexpected cancellations and creates a smoother booking experience.
How First Usage memberships work
First Usage memberships do not activate at the time of purchase. Instead, they begin when the customer either checks into their first class or receives a penalty cancellation.
Until that first usage occurs, the membership has no start date or expiration date.
Once activated, the membership duration begins, and the expiration date is set based on the defined length.
How the booking window impacts reservations
The booking window determines how far into the future a customer can reserve classes.
Customers can book any class within the assigned booking window, even before their membership becomes active. This creates a potential issue:
If the booking window is longer than the membership duration, customers may reserve classes that fall outside their eventual expiration date.
When this happens, those reservations will be automatically grace-cancelled after the membership expires.
Customers are not warned that these future reservations will be cancelled. The Reservation Cancellation transactional email does not send.
Example Scenario
A customer purchases a 1-week First Usage membership with a 14-day rolling booking window:
They book classes 10–14 days in advance
They attend their first class, activating the membership
The membership now expires 1 week from that first visit
Any bookings beyond that expiration date are automatically cancelled when it expires, and the customer is not notified.
This can lead to confusion and a poor customer experience.
Best Practice
To prevent cancellations and confusion, align your booking window with the membership duration.
Recommended approach:
Set the booking window equal to the membership length
This ensures that:
All reservations fall within the valid usage period
Customers do not lose bookings unexpectedly
Your booking experience remains predictable and transparent