How do I block bookings for a certain period?

Sometimes a venue is unavailable without having a booking on it: maintenance, repainting, or an event of the management’s own. Blackout periods are the right place for that.

Steps

1. From Venues open Blackout periods for the venue — Figure 1.
2. Set the date from and date to, and write the reason clearly.
3. Save. From that moment the days show as unavailable on the public site calendar and any booking attempt is refused.
4. To lift it, delete the period from the table.
5. Check the venue calendar — Figure 2 — to confirm the days really are closed.

When to use which

• Blackout period — the venue exists but is committed on dates known in advance.
• Deactivating the venue — the hall is out of service with no fixed end date.
• A booking in the management’s name — when you want the event to appear in the bookings calendar rather than just a closure.

Notes

• A blackout blocks booking both on the website and inside the system, so you do not need to remind staff.
• Write the reason as a useful sentence such as “repainting and lighting refresh” rather than the single word “maintenance”.
• Delete the period as soon as the work is done; a forgotten blackout is lost nights nobody notices.
• Schedule maintenance in the low season; closing the hall during wedding season costs you twice.