Offering multi-day and overnight appointments in Acuity Scheduling

You can offer multi-day workshops and similar events with Acuity. This guide explains two potential solutions for multi-day appointments, and how to handle appointments that go past midnight.

Note: Because Acuity is designed to support businesses that offer multiple appointments per day, it isn’t a good option for businesses that primarily focus on overnight or multi-day rentals.

Option 1 - Set up multi-day events with a group class series

Use this approach if you’re offering a retreat weekend or similar event. When you turn a group of classes into a series, clients must book all of the classes as a group to sign up. Create a class series for each date range you want clients to book.

To use this approach:

1. Create a group class, and set it up as a series. Use the class details, such as the name and description, to make it clear that this is for a multi-day event.
2. Offer the class for each date range you want clients to attend.

Tip: After the multi-day class series has begun, clients won’t be able to book this event online. To schedule a client into an in-progress multi-day event, book the appointment for them. 

Option 2 - Create shorter appointments with hidden durations

If it isn't practical to offer a class series for each potential range of days that a client might book, you can use appointments with hidden durations. These appointments won’t engage with many of Acuity's features, including overbooking protection and the ability to accurately sync with third-party calendars. And hiding durations will hide the duration of all appointment types, not just your multi-day appointments.

To use appointments with hidden durations:

1. Create an appointment type with a duration of an hour. Edit the appointment type name, description, or both to include the actual duration of the appointment.
2. In the Scheduling page options panel, check Hide duration to hide appointment durations.
3. (Optional) Edit your email notification templates to list the actual duration of the appointment.

Option 3 - Book appointments that go past midnight

To offer appointments that continue past midnight, like all-night jam sessions, you have two options:

• Book the appointments on a client’s behalf.
• List out appointment start times. For example, if you have two-hour appointments and list your availability as 8 PM - 12 AM, the last available appointment start time will be 10 PM. But if you list your availability as 8 PM, 9 PM, 10 PM, 11 PM, clients will be able to book the 11 PM spot.

Keep in mind:

• The appointment details and notifications will include the correct appointment end times.
• On your Acuity calendar, the appointment will be cut off at midnight. It won’t appear on the next day’s Acuity calendar. It also won’t block off time to prevent double-booking after midnight.