Hi Team,

I hope you've enjoyed your holiday break.

Throughout this past year, I have been using Special Days to accommodate for my ever-changing work hours. For example, stargazing tours start earlier in winter, but later in summer.

Normally, I start as soon as night falls. But sometimes, I also push the start time back, in case no-one has booked so far. For example, pushing the start time back from 7pm to 8pm.

Over the past year, this has worked really well. But recently, since this month of May, there is a very annoying issue which has already led to two days of no sales.

Special Days which are not today (but in the future), can be edited and added, and they will show up as expected on the booking form calendar.

Editing or adding today as a Special Day, however, makes the service unavailable on the website. So, customers cannot book.

This is very odd, as I have worked successfully in this way over the past year, but this only very recently stopped working properly. I have checked the local time zone, buffer and cutoff times, service duration. I also have updated to the latest version of Amelia. But the problem persists.

For example: today I wanted to push back my start time from 7pm to 8pm. Editing the Special Day made today unavailable for booking. See screenshots.

It seems to me that there is a timing problem. Because even if I use Work Hours instead of Special Days, today does not become available for booking online, but future dates yes.

Please, investigate and advise (or troubleshoot / debug).

Thank you! &

Kind regards,

Sang

screenshots

Hi Marko,

I just had a look on the weather forecast and it looks like it will be quite cloudy for the next couple of days. This means that I can reproduce the issue, because it is not super critical if customers can't book for today.

Today 7 May 7pm is available for booking. All good.

Now, imagine I want to push the start time to 8pm. So, I edit my work hours under Special Days. The 7 May 8pm slot has become unavailable for booking by customers.

As you can clearly see, I can reproduce the issue here time and again. The four screenshots attached show how I edit the work hours and how today has become unavailable for booking. Loss of sales.

Please, investigate.

Thank you for your support. &

Warm regards,

Sang

Hi Marko,

Good news - I have done the troubleshooting myself and solved the issue. For May I discovered some Events that I experimented with several months ago, just to see if they would suit me better than the stargazing experiences defined as a Service. Cancelling those (trial / training) events, of course takes away the clash that I experienced with my Service. Apologies for raising a ticket, when in the end it was due to my own experiments!

So, I am all good for the few days remaining in my 2024-2025 season. However, I now would like to make the calendar for the 2025-2026 season. I haven't decided yet between (a) continuing to use a Service, or (b) go for Events. Could you please list the pros and cons of each option?

Features that I would need:

• start time (work hours) change seasonally - with the sunset / nightfall
• number of spots adjustable per session (sometimes I could accept +1 guest)
• different prices for adults and children
• coupon code for discounts

What I liked about the Events, is that with the list view of the calendar it is easier for customers to see and find the sessions starting after midnight. However, I read somewhere that Events won't be supported any more, or are out of date - is that true? Also, is there a way to test the next season, without going online yet?

Have a great day,

Sang

Hi Marko,

Thank you for the additional information.

I have had another look at Events, but it seems they don't allow for activities that start before midnight and finish after midnight. So, I continue using Services.

Perhaps I'll see if I can vote for some of the desired features on the wishlist which could make the booking experience more elegant and customer friendly.

Have a great day,

Sang