# Membership benefits and booking rules (/en/businesses/shop/memberships/benefits-and-booking-rules)
Membership benefits are available while the member is active and not paused. Most benefits apply automatically: the member does not need to select the membership during checkout.
Build benefits around a clear customer promise. A smaller set of understandable benefits is usually easier to sell and support than several overlapping price and booking rules.
## Reservation discount [#reservation-discount]
Apply either a percentage discount or a fixed amount to eligible reservations. Every restriction is optional, including:
* sports and resources;
* weekdays and times of day;
* date ranges;
* reservation durations and types;
* minimum payer count;
* assumed payer count for split payments.
### Off-peak example [#off-peak-example]
```text
Discount: 25%
Days: Monday-Friday
Time: 08:00-14:00
Sports: selected racket sports
```
This rewards members and directs demand toward quieter hours without reducing peak prices.
### Split-share example [#split-share-example]
Assume a four-player reservation costs €40 and the configured assumed payer count is 4. The member's assumed share is €10. A 20% membership discount reduces that share by €2; it does not reduce the entire reservation by 20%.
The minimum payer count defines how many other payers are required in addition to the booker. A value of 3 therefore requires the booker and three other payers.
## Reservation custom pricing [#reservation-custom-pricing]
Custom pricing gives members their own reservation rates instead of calculating a discount from the normal rate. Add the custom-pricing benefit, then configure its court-pricing rules from the membership's benefits view.
Use custom pricing when the promise is a known rate such as “members pay €15 for 60 minutes.” Use a reservation discount when the member price should move with the venue's normal price.
Only one custom-pricing benefit can be configured for a membership in the portal. When applicable, custom pricing replaces normal reservation pricing rather than stacking with it.
## Service discount [#service-discount]
Give members a discount on [service bookings](/businesses/service-bookings), such as personal training or lessons. Choose a percentage, an amount off, or a fixed price the member pays. Every restriction is optional:
* services;
* duration ranges;
* weekdays and time slots;
* date ranges.
### Member price example [#member-price-example]
```text
Name: Gold member price
Discount: 20%
Services: Personal training, Tennis lesson
Days: Monday-Friday
Time: 06:00-16:00
```
The member sees the member price when they pick a time, and it applies when they pay. If several service discounts match, the biggest one applies. A promo code the customer enters replaces the membership discount.
The discount is spread over the booking's price lines in proportion to their price, so each VAT rate stays correct. It applies to a booking made before the membership too, when the booking is paid while the membership is active.
## Credits and session cards [#credits-and-session-cards]
A membership can grant:
* a positive number of credits; or
* a selected session-card product.
For recurring memberships, choose whether the grant happens only when the membership starts or repeats after each successful renewal.
Example:
```text
Membership renews every month
Recurring benefit: 50 credits
```
The first grant is issued when the member is created. Later grants are issued after successful renewals. A skipped renewal does not issue the recurring benefit, and a grant missed during a pause is not added afterward.
Previously issued credits and session cards remain separate products. A membership pause does not automatically disable balances or cards already granted.
See [Credits](/businesses/shop/credit-products) and [Session cards](/businesses/shop/session-cards) for their own validity and usage rules.
## Booking window benefits [#booking-window-benefits]
### Early reservation [#early-reservation]
Let members reserve a configured number of days earlier than the normal venue window. If several active memberships provide early booking, the largest applicable early-booking allowance wins.
### Reservation window restriction [#reservation-window-restriction]
Set a membership-specific reservation window. This rule takes precedence over early-reservation benefits, including early booking from another membership.
Use a restriction when the membership should have a specific planning horizon. Do not combine it with an early-reservation benefit expecting the two values to be added.
## Reservation restrictions [#reservation-restrictions]
A membership carries a list of reservation restrictions. Each one has its own scope,
its own limits, and its own answer to what happens when a member reaches it.
### Scope [#scope]
A restriction can cover every reservation, or only part of the week: weekdays, times
of day, sports, or individual resources. Anything you leave open matches everything.
A reservation that only touches the scope is inside it. With evening hours of
16:00–21:00, a 15:30–17:00 reservation counts as an evening reservation, so fifteen
minutes of inconvenience cannot buy a member an extra evening slot.
### Limits [#limits]
Each restriction can set any of:
* **Maximum upcoming reservations** — how many the member can have waiting ahead of
them. A reservation stops counting once its time has passed.
* **Maximum reservations per period** — how many they can make per day, week, month,
or billing period. Reservations that have already been played still count, so the
allowance does not refill during the period.
* **Maximum booked time per period** — the same, measured in hours instead of
reservations.
* **Maximum overlapping reservations** — how many of the member's reservations may
run at the same moment. Setting it to one stops them booking several resources for
one group.
Cancelling a reservation frees its allowance again. A reservation listed for sale
keeps using it, so selling one does not free capacity for a new booking. A membership
whose benefits are paused stops restricting anything while the pause lasts.
### Block, or charge the standard price [#block-or-charge-the-standard-price]
Every restriction chooses one of two things to do when a member reaches it.
* **Block the reservation** refuses it. This is what the earlier membership booking
limits did, and existing memberships were migrated to it.
* **Charge the standard price** lets the member book anyway and charges the venue's
normal price for that reservation, keeping the membership's price for everything
inside the limit. The calendar, the price preview and checkout all show the same
price, so the member sees it before booking rather than on the receipt.
Choose standard price when the limit exists to stop a membership being used as
unlimited cheap capacity, and blocking when the limit exists to protect the schedule
itself.
The membership's **Benefits & restrictions** tab lists each restriction with its limit
under the name and the choice as a badge: **Blocks booking** in red, or **Standard
price after this**. A member's own details show the same badge next to how much of
the limit they have used.
### How restrictions combine [#how-restrictions-combine]
A member holding several memberships gets the most generous treatment any one of them
gives a booking: if one membership's allowance is spent and another still has room,
the reservation is included. A restriction set to **block** is the exception — it
applies whatever else the member holds, so a second membership cannot make them
immune to it.
A membership with no restrictions restricts nothing, which is why a member holding
one unrestricted membership is unrestricted.
Where two memberships block on the **same limit**, the more generous of them decides:
one allowing 5 upcoming reservations and one allowing 2 gives the member 5. Only the
same limit counts. A membership that limits something else — overlapping
reservations, or reservations per week — says nothing about how many the member may
have waiting ahead of them, so it cannot lift the other membership's limit on that.
Neither can a membership that sets no restriction at all.
### The venue's own limit [#the-venues-own-limit]
The venue's **maximum simultaneous future reservations per user** in reservation
settings applies to everyone. A membership restriction that blocks and limits
upcoming reservations replaces that number for its members, so a venue allowing 3
with a membership allowing 5 gives non-members 3 and those members 5. A restriction
set to standard price does not replace it: a limit that refuses nothing cannot stand
in for a hard one, so the venue's number keeps applying underneath.
Outside a restriction's scope the venue's number applies too, so an evenings-only
restriction of 5 does not uncap the mornings.
### Reservations made by staff [#reservations-made-by-staff]
A reservation staff make for a member is never refused by a membership restriction,
and neither is a recurring reservation the venue runs for them. Both still use the
member's allowance and are priced accordingly. The member's remaining allowance is
shown in the member's details in the members list, so an employee can see what is
left before booking.
### Prime-time example [#prime-time-example]
```text
Restriction: Prime time
Applies to: Mon–Fri 16:00–21:00, tennis and padel
Limits: 6 reservations per billing period, 2 upcoming reservations
Exceeding: charge standard price
```
Members book prime time freely until the sixth reservation of their billing period,
after which prime time is still bookable at the venue's normal price. Mornings and
weekends are untouched, because they fall outside the restriction's scope.
If a time is sold only to members — a member-only pricing rule with no public
price underneath it — a member whose allowance is spent cannot book that time
at all, because there is no standard price to charge. Give member-only windows
a public price as well if you want them bookable past the allowance.
## Event restrictions [#event-restrictions]
A membership also carries a list of event restrictions. They cap event
registrations the way reservation restrictions cap bookings. Configure them under
**Event restrictions** in the membership's benefits step, and under the same
heading on an external membership's benefits.
### Scope [#scope-1]
**Which events this applies to** narrows a restriction by event type, sport, event
category, weekday and time of day. Select nothing and it covers every event.
A restriction only counts what it names: an event with no sport is outside a
sport-scoped restriction, and an event with no categories is outside a
category-scoped one.
Tournaments and scheduled classes are covered unless the restriction's event types
leave them out. A course class is paid for through its course, so no event
restriction applies to it.
An event that only touches the restriction's hours is inside it. With evening
hours of 18:00–21:00, a class starting at 17:45 counts as an evening class.
A membership shared across the company picks its event categories from the whole
company. Each category still matches only its own venue's events.
### Limits [#limits-1]
Each restriction sets at least one of:
* **Maximum upcoming registrations** — how many events the member can register for
in advance.
* **Maximum registrations per period** — how many they can register for per day,
week, month or billing period. **Billing period** is available on a membership
billed on a recurring period.
* **Maximum overlapping events** — how many of their registered events may run at
the same moment. One stops them registering for two events that overlap.
Overlap uses each event's start and end times. A multi-day event, such as a
season sign-up that runs to 31 December, overlaps every event the restriction
covers until it ends.
An event counts against the period it starts in, so registering for something
after the member's next billing date uses next period's allowance. Events that
have already been played still count for the rest of their period, so the
allowance does not refill partway through.
Leaving an event frees its allowance immediately, and a registration listed for
resale keeps using it until it sells. A membership whose benefits are paused
restricts nothing.
### Block, or charge the standard price [#block-or-charge-the-standard-price-1]
**When a member reaches the limit** chooses one of two things.
* **Block the registration** refuses it. Joining the waiting list is refused as
well, so nobody queues for a place they could not take.
* **Charge the standard price** lets the member register anyway and charges the
event's own price for that registration, keeping the membership's price for
everything inside the limit. The event list, the event page and checkout show
the same price.
The allowance decides the price at every event payment, not only when the member
registers. A member holding more registrations than their allowance keeps the
member price on the earliest of them and pays the standard price for the rest. A
registration is never refused at payment time: the allowance decides its price,
never its admission. A session card the member holds is unaffected either way.
Where a membership no longer covers an event, the event details name the
membership, how much of the allowance is used, and when the member price returns.
The member can still register.
### How restrictions combine [#how-restrictions-combine-1]
Where a member holds two memberships that cap the same thing, the more generous
one applies. A membership that caps something else, or nothing at all, cannot lift
another membership's restriction.
A member who is already registered is never blocked by a restriction tightened
afterwards. Registrations a venue makes for a member, and promotions from an
event's waiting list, use the member's allowance but are never refused.
The member's remaining allowance per restriction is shown under **Event
restrictions** in the manage member drawer. Members see each restriction and what
they have spent of it in the app and on the web.
## Discounts on other products [#discounts-on-other-products]
Membership holders can receive discounts on products such as events, tournaments, courses, session cards, or Pro Shop items when that product is configured to recognize the membership.
This is configured on the product being purchased, not as a grant inside the membership. Keep the product's own guide and sales terms authoritative for what is discounted.
## When several prices are available [#when-several-prices-are-available]
Reservation prices and membership billing prices are separate systems.
* Reservation custom pricing determines the member's eligible booking rate.
* Reservation discounts compete with other eligible booking discounts; checkout applies one discount rather than stacking several.
* Trial, introductory, and Goodwill pricing affect the membership's own purchase or renewal charges.
* Applicable purchase discounts affect the initial membership checkout, not reservations or later renewals.
When diagnosing a price, first identify which transaction is being priced: the membership purchase, a recurring renewal, or a reservation.
## Pauses, expiry, and access [#pauses-expiry-and-access]
Membership-derived benefits are unavailable while the member is paused or outside their active validity. A pause also removes membership-based physical access while active.
An unpaid renewal that restricts reservations can also remove membership-based physical access. Do not assume it removes previously issued credits or every unrelated entitlement; inspect the member, payment, and relevant product separately.
## Benefit value limits [#benefit-value-limits]
A benefit is saved only when its values are in range:
* a credits amount must be greater than 0;
* days in advance must be at least 1;
* a reservation window must be 0 days or more;
* a percentage discount must be between 0 and 100;
* a benefit name is required.
A value outside the range is reported on the field itself.
## Benefit design checklist [#benefit-design-checklist]
* Test at least one eligible and one ineligible reservation time.
* Test split-payment assumptions when payer counts affect the benefit.
* Check how booking-window rules interact with other memberships.
* Decide whether credits or session cards should repeat on renewal.
* Confirm each reservation and event restriction's scope, limits, and
block-or-price choice against realistic customer behavior.
* Keep customer-facing descriptions specific enough to explain material restrictions.
For benefits shared by partner venues, continue to [Membership reach and external memberships](/businesses/shop/memberships/membership-reach-and-external-memberships). For doors and gates, see [Membership access integrations](/businesses/shop/memberships/access-integrations).