[Beta] Can I set a capacity limit for services?

With our capacity limits beta, you'll be able to set a maximum number of pets or families you can accommodate at once for each service. Once every staff member has reached the set capacity for the given timeframe, that timeframe will be disabled when pet parents are requesting that service through PetPocketbook! 💥

Setting up capacity limits

When adding or editing services, switch the toggle on for “set capacity limit.”. In the fields that then appear below the toggle, choose whether you’d like to set capacity based on the number of families or the number of pets (we have families set as the default), and enter the number that you’d like to limit bookings to for each time that you offer (or time window if you have that set up). Tap Save when you're done, and the capacity will be enforced by PetPocketbook immediately!

⚠️ This toggle will only be visible for companies that allow clients to request online. Setting a capacity limit will not prevent you from adding appointments to your schedule; it will only disable times that are fully booked when pet parents request appointments online.

Example:

Jack and Jill operate Demo Dog Walking together and have set up three 2-hour windows in PetPocketbook for their morning, midday, and afternoon walks. In the screenshot below, you can see we set a limit of 2 pets at once for the 30-minute Standard Group Walk service.

Both Jack and Jill already have 2 pets booked for Standard Group Walks in their 8am - 10am morning window for tomorrow. So as a pet parent, when I go to request a Standard Group Walk for tomorrow,  you can see in the screenshot below that the 8am - 10am window is disabled, but there’s still availability for me to book a midday or afternoon walk instead.

What are the limitations?

The capacity limit feature is in beta and applies to a very limited set of use cases. That means you’re likely to still receive requests when a particular time is booked to capacity, but this should still help to filter out and limit some requests. We will of course be working to build on this foundation to make this logic more comprehensive over time so that online booking more accurately reflects your availability in the future.

Below, you’ll find a few examples of when you may still receive requests after you’ve already reached capacity:

• If you offer discounted rates to clients who book multiple times a week and have created a separate service for each discount. Say, you have one service for a 1-Hour Adventure Hike for $60 and another 1-Hour Adventure Hike (Multi-day discount rate) for $50. Although they are the same service in real life, our system accounts for the capacity of each separately.
• If you offer drop-in visits of various lengths and have a different service for each duration. Say, you have a 60-minute drop-in service and a 30-minute drop-in service and can only accommodate one family at a time. Our system would not recognize that you are already at capacity at noon because you have a 30-minute drop-in confirmed with one family, when another family is requesting noon for a 60-minute drop-in.
• If you offer only one time window a day. Our system does not yet recognize when a date is unavailable altogether because all time windows available are at capacity.

Have questions? Drop us a line at support@petpocketbook.com or click on the red buoy icon in PetPocketbook to request help!