CodeCanyon Bookly Group Booking - WordPress Plugin

Guide to Setting Up CodeCanyon Bookly Group Booking for Group Appointments in WordPress

CodeCanyon Bookly Group Booking is not meant for the standard "one client - one slot" workflow. It is built for cases where the same time slot needs to accommodate multiple people. In this guide, we will walk through how to prepare Bookly Pro, where service and staff capacity are configured, how to display the Number of persons field in the form, how to check slot availability, and what to do if group bookings do not behave as expected.

This article is written as a practical how-to that follows the product's short description: no rehashing the sales page, no promises of universal compatibility, and no license-purchase instructions. The main goal is to help a site owner, studio administrator, fitness club, training center, or agency quickly understand how group booking works and safely test it with a sample service.

Below, you will find pre-installation prep, detailed setup instructions, a practical group-class scenario, result verification, troubleshooting for common issues, comparisons with similar solutions, and an FAQ. If a specific detail depends on your version of Bookly Pro or your add-on stack, the wording is intentionally cautious: exact values and available options are best confirmed in the admin panel and the developer's documentation.

What Problem the Group Add-on Solves in the Bookly System

A standard booking in Bookly reserves a slot for one client or one appointment. That is enough for a personal consultation, haircut, private lesson, or medical appointment. In a group scenario, though, the logic changes: one time slot should stay available until its capacity is filled. That is exactly where CodeCanyon Bookly Group Booking adds its key layer - slot capacity.

According to the official documentation, the add-on allows multiple clients to book the same service at the same time. On the first step of the form, the client can specify how many people they are booking for, and in the admin calendar, that booking appears as a single appointment with participant details. That matters: the administrator sees one class slot, but the system still tracks how many seats inside that slot have already been taken.

Where This Logic Is Especially Useful

Group booking works well for services where one specialist or resource serves multiple participants at once. For example, a trainer runs a class for six people, an instructor leads a workshop, a massage studio books a couples session, a studio hosts a photography lesson, or a coworking space rents out a room with limited participant capacity.

• Fitness, yoga, dance, and group training where avoiding overcrowding matters.
• Courses, consultations, and workshops where one slot can accommodate a group of students.
• Spa, wellness, and couples services where the client books the service for multiple people at once.
• Tours, tastings, photo studios, and event services with a fixed number of available spots.
• Internal resource bookings where capacity matters more than the number of separate appointments.

If the business is not selling "a place in a group" but several different services in sequence, this add-on may not be the primary solution. In the Bookly ecosystem, Chain Appointments handle sequential services, Multiply Appointments handle several identical appointments in a row, Recurring Appointments handle repeat visits, and Cart may be needed for a set of independent services in one session. Group Booking is specifically about capacity-based booking - booking multiple people into the same slot.

What Changes for the Client and the Administrator

For the client, the key change is the ability to choose the number of participants. For the administrator, the calendar needs to be read differently: it is no longer enough to see whether a slot is occupied, because they also need to know how many places are already taken relative to the maximum. Depending on the settings, the form can show occupancy either as booked seats versus total capacity or as the number of remaining spots.

Key takeaway: the add-on does not create a separate "group" service by itself. It extends existing services and staff members with capacity settings, then changes how the form and calendar behave.

Who CodeCanyon Bookly Group Booking Is a Good Fit For, and When Another Approach Makes More Sense

Before installing it, it is worth being honest about what exactly you want to sell through the booking form. Mistakes at this stage lead to difficult setups, especially when a site owner tries to use the group add-on for tasks that are better handled by another Bookly module or a separate plugin.

Strong Use Cases for Group Booking

This product is a solid choice if Bookly Pro is already running on your site, your services and staff are already set up in the admin panel, and your main problem is how to correctly accept multiple people into one time slot. In that case, the add-on extends the system you already use instead of forcing you to move the schedule into another plugin.

• You need to set minimum and maximum capacity for individual services.
• You need to override capacity at the staff level because one trainer accepts fewer or more participants than another.
• You need to show the Number of persons field in the form so the client can choose how many spots to book.
• You need to see a group booking in the calendar as one slot with a participant count.
• You need to manage slot occupancy without manually creating a separate booking for each person.

When the Add-on May Be Unnecessary

If you do not have Bookly Pro, the add-on will not solve the problem on its own. Official sources clearly state that Bookly add-ons require Bookly PRO to be installed and active. If your site is still using the free version of Bookly, first confirm whether the base features are enough and whether you really need the paid add-on ecosystem.

Group Booking may also be a poor fit if you are selling event tickets with multiple seat types, a complex schedule, multiple dates, and a public event calendar. In those cases, event booking, ticketing, or a dedicated events calendar may be a better fit. For a straightforward class, session, or service with limited capacity, this add-on is usually much closer to the actual use case.

A Solution for Agencies and Client Sites

For an agency, one of the advantages of Bookly Group Booking is that the client stays inside the familiar Bookly admin environment: services, staff, calendar, form, and notifications all live in one system. The tradeoff is that the architecture becomes add-on-based: if the client later needs a waiting list, flexible duration, service chains, a customer cabinet, or extra fields, other modules may also be required. That is not a drawback by itself, but it needs to be accounted for in the estimate and in the documentation you hand off to the client.

What to Check Before Installing and Enabling Group Booking

Preparation should not turn into a full technical audit, but a few checks will save time. Group booking depends not only on the add-on itself, but also on how services, staff, forms, schedules, and other add-ons are configured.

Basic Requirements

• WordPress is installed on the site, and Bookly is already running.
• Bookly Pro is installed and activated, since the add-ons are not meant to work independently without Pro.
• At least one service category and one service linked to a staff member already exist.
• The staff member has an actual working schedule with available intervals for the selected service.
• The Bookly form has been added to a test page using a block, editor button, or shortcode.
• Site caching and script optimization are not breaking the booking form on the test page.

Check the Service Before Enabling Capacity

Before configuring capacity, make sure a standard booking for this service can be completed from start to finish. If the base slot does not appear in the form, Group Booking will not fix that. You need to check service visibility, staff assignment, category setup, schedule, days off, and booking time restrictions.

Bookly's official FAQ about missing services in the dropdown highlights several common causes: the service is not public, it is not assigned to a staff member, the category does not contain the service, or the modern form is filtering what gets shown. These checks are especially important for group booking because the issue may look like "the add-on is not working" when the form simply cannot see the service itself.

Theme and Cache Compatibility

Bookly renders an interactive form, so aggressive JavaScript optimization, file merging, and page caching on dynamic form pages can interfere with the user flow. You do not need to disable caching across the whole site in advance. During testing, it is enough to check the form page in an incognito window, after clearing the cache, and without conflicting optimizations applied to Bookly scripts.

Practical check: first create a test service with no clients, book one person, cancel that booking, and only then enable capacity. That lets you separate base-form issues from group-booking issues.

Installing the Add-on and Running the First Check in WordPress

This installation section is intentionally broad: the point of this guide is to explain setup and real-world use of a product you already have, not license purchases, code entry, or activation workarounds. In WordPress, the add-on is installed as a separate plugin and should then work alongside Bookly Pro.

Enablement Order

1. Make sure Bookly and Bookly Pro are active in the Plugins section.
2. Install the add-on ZIP through the standard WordPress screen: Plugins - Add New - Upload Plugin.
3. Activate the plugin and return to the Bookly menu.
4. Open Bookly - Services and check whether the capacity setting now appears in the service card.
5. Open the test page with the form and make sure the base form loads without errors.

If Bookly add-ons stop working after an update, the official changelog recommends making sure all parts of the setup are on current versions, including Bookly Pro and the add-ons. That is a good general rule for this ecosystem: do not update only one component on a live site without a backup and a test pass.

How to Tell an Installation Problem from a Configuration Problem

If you do not see capacity settings in the service card, first check whether the add-on is activated and whether WordPress recognizes it. If the settings are present but the form does not show the people-count field, the issue is no longer installation-related: you need to look at the form publishing settings and whether the Number of persons field is visible.

If the field is present but the slot gets blocked after the first booking, check the One booking per time slot setting and the maximum capacity. If capacity is configured on the service but a specific staff member still accepts a different number of people, check for a capacity override in that staff member's profile.

Configuring Service Capacity: Minimum, Maximum, and Slot Locking

Capacity setup is the core section of Bookly Group Booking. In the documentation, the process starts in the Services section: you open each service and configure its capacity in the advanced settings. That value determines how many clients a specific service can accommodate within a single time interval.

Minimum and Maximum Capacity

Maximum capacity sets the upper limit. If a class has six seats, the form should not accept seven participants for the same slot. Minimum capacity is useful when a service only makes sense for a group: for example, a workshop that runs only with at least two people, or a couples service that should not be sold to a single participant.

For a typical site, it is best to start with a simple model: minimum set to one person, and maximum set to the service's real physical capacity. After testing, you can raise the minimum if your business process truly requires a minimum group size. Avoid setting a high minimum from the start just to increase revenue: the client may not understand why a solo booking is impossible, and the administrator will likely end up fielding more questions.

What One booking per time slot Actually Does

The documentation describes an option that limits booking within the allowed capacity to a single booking event. Here is the logic in practice: if a service has a capacity of two to six people and one booking for two people already exists, the slot can still be blocked for new bookings even though seats technically remain. That is not right for every workflow.

Enable this option if one client should be booking the entire group at once, such as a family photo session, a private team consultation, or a private workshop. Do not enable it for an open class where unrelated people should be able to fill the remaining seats over time until the maximum is reached.

Verification After Saving

After changing capacity, open the form in a private window and go through the client flow. It is important to verify not just that the field exists, but how slots behave after the first booking. Create a test booking for two people, then try to book one more client into the same interval. If the slot should remain available, it should show the remaining capacity. If the slot should close after the first group, it should disappear or become unavailable.

Quick recap: service-level capacity defines the default rule. But if a staff member has their own individual capacity, that can change how a specific slot behaves.

Individual Staff Capacity and Its Priority Over the Service Setting

One of the add-on's important features is the ability to define capacity not only for the service, but also for an individual staff member. This is useful when the same service is delivered by different specialists under different conditions. For example, one trainer may take six people, another four, and a third only works with pairs.

Where to Find the Setting

According to the documentation, you need to open the Staff Members section, go into the staff profile, and switch to the Services tab. There, you can configure individual capacity values for the services that staff member provides. One thing to remember: staff capacity overrides service capacity. The service setting remains the default for new staff members, but a specific staff profile can behave differently.

How to Avoid an Unexpected Limit

The most common logic error is when the administrator changes capacity on the service, but forgets that an individual staff value had already been set earlier. As a result, the form behaves "incorrectly": the service is supposed to allow six people, but for one particular trainer the slot closes at four. That is not a bug; it is the priority of the individual override.

To avoid confusion, add one simple rule to the site's internal documentation: if capacity depends on the staff member, document it in the staff profile and do not rely on the service setting alone. If capacity is supposed to be identical for everyone, verify that there are no old overrides in Staff Members - Services.

Example: Three Trainers, One Service

Suppose the service is called "Group Yoga." In the service card, the maximum is set to eight people. But trainer Anna teaches in a small room and accepts no more than five, trainer Michael teaches in a large studio and accepts eight, and trainer Maya only runs partner sessions and accepts two. In that case, the service capacity acts as a template, while the actual limits live at the staff level.

Testing should be done for each staff member individually: select the service, choose the specific provider, make a test booking for an allowed number of participants, and then try to exceed the limit. If the form uses the ANY staff-selection option, also verify the auto-assignment rules, because Bookly may choose an available specialist according to service and schedule settings.

The Number of persons Field in the Form and How Slot Occupancy Is Displayed

Even if capacity is configured correctly, the client still needs to understand that they can book multiple people. In Bookly, that is handled through the Number of persons field. The form-publishing documentation notes that if this field is hidden, all bookings will automatically be created for one person.

Where to Enable the Participant Count Field

When adding the Bookly form to a page, you can choose which fields to show or hide. For group booking, the Number of persons field must be available to the client if you want them to choose the group size themselves. If the field is hidden, the scenario where a client books three spots at once will not work on the public-facing site, even if capacity is greater than one.

This matters not only for the classic step-by-step form. The Group Booking changelog also mentions ongoing support for modern forms and show/hide controls for the participant-count field. So if you are working with modern booking forms, make sure you check the settings for the exact form type displayed on the page.

Should You Show Occupancy Information?

In Appearance - Time, you can enable display of group booking information. The display format itself is configured in Settings - Group Booking. Official documentation gives examples such as [Booked/Max Capacity] and [Available left].

For open classes, showing remaining spots is usually more helpful. It reduces questions like "Is there still room?" and helps the client choose a slot. For closed services where one client books the whole group, occupancy details may be unnecessary: the slot is either available or already closed.

How to Review the Interface from the Client's Perspective

1. Open the form page in a private window.
2. Select a service with capacity greater than one.
3. Confirm that the Number of persons field is visible and supports the expected range.
4. Select a slot, complete a test booking, then return to the form as a different client.
5. Check whether the occupancy indicator changed and whether the remaining spots are still available.

If the field is present but the surrounding text is unclear, do not rush to edit code. First check the Appearance settings: Bookly lets you customize form texts and use codes in templates. For interface and notification translation, WPML integration is also mentioned, so on a multilingual site it is better to work through the built-in tools than by editing plugin files.

Practical Scenario: A Group Class with Remaining Seats Filled Over Time

Now let us put the setup into a real-world scenario. Imagine a studio offering a class called "Beginner Yoga" with six spots. Clients can book individually, in pairs, or in small groups as long as there is still free capacity in the slot. The administrator wants to see one class slot in the calendar rather than six separate identical appointments.

Goal

Set up a form where the client selects the service, specifies the number of participants, books a spot in a specific time interval, and the next client sees the reduced number of remaining seats. Once all six spots are taken, the slot should stop accepting bookings.

Preparation

• Bookly Pro and the Group Booking add-on are activated.
• A category called "Group Classes" has been created.
• A service called "Beginner Yoga" has been created and assigned to a staff member.
• The staff member has a schedule with a test slot available.
• The Bookly form is published on a private or test page.

Configuration Steps

1. Open Bookly - Services and open the service card.
2. On the Advanced tab, set minimum capacity to 1 and maximum capacity to 6.
3. Do not enable One booking per time slot if different clients need to fill the remaining seats.
4. Open Staff Members, then the trainer profile, and then the Services tab.
5. Make sure there is no individual limit below six if the class should accept all six participants.
6. Open the page with the form and confirm that the Number of persons field is not hidden.
7. In Appearance - Time, enable group booking information if you want to show the remaining seats.
8. In Settings - Group Booking, choose the occupancy format that will make sense to your audience.

Expected Result

The first client books two spots. In the Bookly calendar, one appointment appears and tracks the selected number of participants. The next client can choose the same slot if their request fits within the remaining capacity. Once all six spots are filled, the slot stops accepting new bookings or becomes unavailable according to the form logic.

An Easy Detail to Miss

If the first client booked two people and the second client can no longer see the slot, check not only the maximum capacity but also the One booking per time slot option. It may be closing the slot after the first booking within the allowed capacity. For an open class, that is usually undesirable. For a private group service, it may be exactly what you want.

How to Verify the Result in the Calendar, Appointment Details, and Notifications

After configuration, it is not enough to say "the form loads." For group booking, you need to verify the full cycle: participant count selection, occupancy changes, calendar entry, detail editing, participant cancellation, and notifications if they are used on the site.

Checking the Bookly Calendar

Official documentation explains that group bookings appear in the Bookly Calendar as one appointment with details for all booked clients. If one client books multiple people, the details show the name of the client who made the booking and the number of selected participants. That is different from a setup where each person creates a separate appointment.

Check the calendar after several tests: one client booking for one person, one client booking for multiple people, and two different clients booking the same slot. That will show you exactly how the admin panel represents your scenario and how easy it is for staff to read the schedule.

Editing the Number of Participants

The documentation states that you can remove a client through the trash icon next to the name, which cancels that specific client's booking and frees a seat inside the group appointment. It also says the number of persons can be changed by clicking the client name and selecting a different value. This is useful for manual adjustments after a phone call or client message.

After any manual change, always return to the public form and check how the number of available seats has changed. If a seat was freed up, the open slot should once again accept bookings within the allowed capacity.

Notifications and Form Text

The add-on changelog mentions the {number_of_persons} code for ICS description. That does not mean every notification template in every setup automatically uses that code in the exact way you need. Check the available codes in the Bookly template editor and use only the ones that are actually available in your admin panel.

A safe approach is to start with a simple confirmation message without complex conditions, create a multi-person test booking, check the client email and the calendar attachment, and only then add more detailed wording. If a code does not render, do not send an email with a raw technical placeholder - go back to the list of supported codes.

Working Alongside Waiting List, Custom Duration, and Other Bookly Modules

Bookly Group Booking is often installed not on a blank site, but inside an existing Bookly ecosystem. That makes it important to understand how the add-on behaves alongside waiting list modules, flexible duration, cart workflows, and recurring bookings. There is no room for guessed compatibility here: rely on official descriptions and test your own configuration.

Waiting List and Remaining Capacity

The documentation separately describes the relationship between Group Booking and Waiting List. If the setting that adds clients to the waiting list regardless of the capacity value is enabled, the behavior depends on the chosen mode. With that option turned on, if the slot already has someone on the waiting list, additional clients for the same slot may also be sent to the waiting list even when the service still has enough capacity to accept a booking. With the option turned off, open seats remain available for booking as long as the client's request fits into the remaining capacity.

For open group classes, it is usually more logical to keep free seats bookable while they still exist. For scarce services where the administrator wants manual control over the queue, the waiting list may be more useful. Either way, test the exact scenario where "there are free seats, but someone is already waiting," because that is where confusion often starts.

Custom Duration and Matching Durations Within One Slot

The integration with Custom Duration comes with a specific restriction: if a service with custom duration has capacity greater than one, later bookings in that same slot are limited to clients who choose the same service duration as the first booking. If the duration does not match, the client is offered the next available slot instead.

That makes sense: if the first booking has already established the actual length of the session, you cannot reliably combine participants with different durations in the same time interval. For the business, that means flexible duration and group capacity require a clear explanation for users. Do not hide the reason if a client stops seeing the slot after selecting a different duration.

Cart, Chain, Multiply, and Recurring Are Not the Same Thing

Bookly's FAQ distinguishes several add-ons for multi-service scenarios: Cart helps book different services for multiple visits, Chain Appointments handles several different services in sequence on the same day, Multiply Appointments handles multiple identical back-to-back appointments with one staff member, and Recurring Appointments handles repeat series. Group Booking does not replace any of those scenarios. It is specifically about how many people can fit into one appointment.

When designing the site, it helps to write down a simple decision table: "multiple people in one slot" - Group Booking; "multiple services in sequence" - Chain; "multiple identical back-to-back appointments" - Multiply; "a repeating series" - Recurring; "multiple different bookings in one purchase" - Cart. That way, the client or administrator will not expect one add-on to do the job of another.

Use Cases: How to Adapt Group Slots for Different Services

The same capacity setting can behave very differently depending on the business. If you simply set a maximum headcount and leave the form without explanation, the administrator will quickly run into questions: why did one client book five people at once, why did the slot disappear after the first group, why does the trainer see a different participant count, or why does flexible duration prevent a client from joining an existing slot. That is why it is useful to define the real usage scenarios in advance.

Open Group Class

This is the most direct fit for Bookly Group Booking. The service has a real capacity, and different clients can book into the same slot until all seats are filled. For this kind of class, it is usually important to keep One booking per time slot turned off, display the Number of persons field, and enable a clear occupancy format. If one client books two out of six spots, the next visitor should see the remaining seats and still be able to join.

On the admin side, this setup is convenient because the trainer sees one appointment tied to the class rather than a scatter of identical appointments at the same time. But operationally, the team still needs a rule for reading the details: who the primary client is, how many people came under one booking, whether staff may manually reduce the number of persons after a phone call, and how cancellation of one participant is handled.

What to Check for an Open Class

• Two different clients can book the same slot as long as the total number of persons does not exceed the maximum.
• The form does not offer a participant count above the remaining capacity.
• The Bookly calendar shows the group as one appointment with clear details.
• After a cancellation or a reduction in participant count, the seat becomes available again.

Private Group Booking

In a private group booking, one client reserves the entire slot for their team, family, or private party. Here, capacity is not used to let unrelated clients fill the same slot; it is used to limit the size of one private group. For example, a photo studio may run a private workshop for up to eight people, or an instructor may host a private team training session.

In this scenario, One booking per time slot can be useful: after the first booking, the slot closes to other clients even if the group did not use the full maximum. That helps prevent an unrelated client from accidentally joining a private group. But the user-facing text should clearly explain that the slot is reserved in full for one group.

What to Check for a Private Booking

• The client can choose an allowed group size in the Number of persons field.
• After the first successful booking, the same slot is no longer available to other clients.
• The administrator understands that any unused portion of the capacity is not meant to be filled by others.
• The service page text does not suggest that the slot is open for general seat-by-seat booking.

Couples Service

A couples service may look simple, but this is exactly where matching minimum and maximum matters. If the service should only be bookable for two people, set both minimum capacity and maximum capacity to two. That way, the form should not allow a solo booking, and the administrator will not need to manually correct every appointment.

If the service is sometimes sold to one client and sometimes to two, it is better not to mix those scenarios in one service. Create separate services with clear names and different capacity settings. That will make reporting, notification text, and staff workflows much easier.

A Service with Different Rooms or Different Specialists

If capacity depends on the room or the specialist, do not try to solve everything with one shared service capacity. Use individual values in the staff profile. For example, one instructor may work in a small room with four seats, while another uses a large studio with ten. If both provide the same service, the base service capacity can act as a template while the real limits are defined at the staff level.

In this type of configuration, it is important to test not just the service, but each staff member. The client may choose a specific provider or use the ANY option. In the second case, Bookly will assign an available provider according to service and schedule rules, so the final result depends on several settings at once.

Final Test Run Before Publishing on the Live Site

When the settings appear to be correct, do not roll them out across all group services right away. Run a small acceptance test first. This is not busywork. It is how you confirm that Bookly, the add-on, the form, the theme, caching, notifications, and the admin workflow all work together as one system.

Test Matrix

Create one test service and one test slot. Then run through several booking variations. Do not use real client data. A few test email addresses and clear sample names are enough so you can easily delete the records afterward.

Administrator Documentation

After testing, document the rules in a short internal instruction. For a small business, one paragraph is often enough: which services are group-based, what their capacity is, who is responsible for changing the participant count, when to use a closed group setup, how to check open seats, and what to do when a client calls. This reduces the risk that another administrator will accidentally turn on One booking per time slot for an open class or change capacity only on the service while forgetting about the staff override.

When It Makes More Sense to Roll the Setup Back

A rollback is not only for technical failures. Sometimes testing shows that the model itself is not convenient for the business: the administrator wants to manually approve every group, clients frequently change the number of participants, scheduling depends on the room rather than the staff member, or the group needs multiple ticket types. In those cases, do not force Group Booking into a workflow that does not fit. Stick with regular booking, or consider Waiting List, event booking, or a separate approval process.

Acceptance criterion: staff should understand the calendar without a developer, the client should understand the form without needing to call, and the administrator should be able to change the participant count and verify that a freed-up seat is available again.

Usability, SEO, Performance, and Security for the Group Booking Form

Group booking affects more than the admin panel. It also affects the conversion rate on the service page. If the client does not understand how many spots are left, where to choose the number of people, or why a slot disappeared, they are more likely to message the administrator or leave. That is why, after the technical setup is done, it is worth making a few practical improvements.

A Clear Service Page

On the page where the form appears, briefly explain the group rules before the form itself: how many spots the class has, whether multiple people can be booked at once, what happens when the group is full, and how participation can be canceled. You do not need a long FAQ above the form. Three to five short lines and a link to the terms, if you have them, are enough.

Performance and Cache

The booking form needs to remain dynamic. If the site uses page caching, JavaScript minification, or deferred script loading, check the form page after every optimization change. Do not assume that if the homepage loads quickly, the form is fine too. Booking is an interactive process, and problems often show up only during service selection, time selection, or client-detail steps.

A Safe CSS Tweak to Explain the Field

If you need to visually highlight an explanation next to the form, use CSS at the theme or page-block level instead of editing Bookly files. Below is an example for a page wrapper where the administrator added a regular HTML block before the form with the class group-booking-note. We intentionally avoid touching Bookly classes so the result does not depend on the plugin's internal markup.

.group-booking-note {
  margin: 0 0 18px;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  border-left: 4px solid #2f7cff;
  background: #f4f8ff;
  color: #1d2733;
  font-size: 15px;
  line-height: 1.55;
}

.group-booking-note strong {
  font-weight: 700;
}

Add this CSS through a child theme, the theme's Additional CSS setting, or a reliable snippets plugin for styles. The check is simple: open the form page, make sure the note block looks clean on mobile, and confirm it does not overlap the form itself. Rolling it back is just as simple - remove the CSS and the explanatory HTML block.

Safe boundary: do not edit WordPress core, Bookly files, or add-on files. If you need to change form logic, look for documented settings or contact the developer instead of dropping in unverified PHP hooks from random sources.

Why Group Booking May Not Work as Expected, and How to Diagnose It

Troubleshooting is best handled from simple to complex: first check service visibility and staff assignment, then capacity, then the form, then interactions with other add-ons and caching. Below are the symptoms that most often show up specifically in group-booking scenarios.

The Number of persons Field Is Missing from the Form

Symptom: the client sees a standard booking form and cannot choose the number of participants, even though the service capacity is greater than one.

Possible cause: the field is hidden in the form publishing settings, or the selected form type does not display it. Bookly documentation notes that if the field is hidden, all appointments will be booked for one person.

What to check: the settings used when adding the booking form to the page, modern form options, Gutenberg blocks, selected form fields, and whether the changes were saved.

How to fix it: enable the Number of persons field, save the form, clear the page cache, and test again in a private window. If the form is embedded on multiple pages, repeat the check on each page.

The Slot Closes After the First Booking Even Though Seats Are Still Available

Symptom: the first client booked two out of six spots, but the next client cannot see the same time interval.

Possible cause: One booking per time slot is enabled, the staff member's individual capacity is lower than expected, or Waiting List is configured so that new clients are sent to the queue.

What to check: the service card, the staff profile, the waiting list setting, and the actual number of persons in the first booking.

How to fix it: for an open class, disable the one-booking-per-slot restriction, align service and staff capacity, and then create two test bookings under different clients.

The Service Does Not Appear in the Form

Symptom: the administrator configured Group Booking, but the client cannot select the service at all.

Possible cause: the service is not public, not assigned to a staff member, the category is empty, the modern form shows only selected categories, or the staff members do not have any available schedule.

What to check: Services - visibility, provider assignment, categories, Staff Members - Services, schedule, and form filters.

How to fix it: make the service public, assign at least one staff member, check the category, and create one test slot that is actually available. Only after that should you go back to capacity.

Remaining Seats Are Displayed in a Confusing Way

Symptom: the client sees a technical occupancy format or cannot tell how many seats are left.

Possible cause: an ineffective format was selected in Settings - Group Booking, or group booking information is not enabled in Appearance - Time.

What to check: the [Booked/Max Capacity] or [Available left] format, form text, and how it looks on mobile.

How to fix it: choose the format your audience will understand and add a short explanation next to the form. For open classes, "spots left" is usually easier to understand.

After an Update, the Add-ons Behave Unreliably

Symptom: after updating Bookly, the form behavior changes, the field disappears, or slots are counted oddly.

Possible cause: only part of the ecosystem was updated, or the site is running a mix of Bookly, Bookly Pro, and add-on versions. In the changelog, the developer specifically reminds users to update all parts of the configuration together.

What to check: whether a backup exists, the versions of Bookly, Bookly Pro, and the add-ons, site cache, and conflicts with the theme or script optimizer.

How to fix it: update the full stack together on a staging copy, clear the cache, and test both the form and calendar. If the issue repeats, roll back to the backup and contact official support with clear reproduction steps.

Custom Duration Shows a Different Slot Instead of the Selected One

Symptom: the client selects a flexible-duration service but cannot join an existing group slot.

Possible cause: the first booking in that slot was made with a different duration. The documentation states that later clients can only book the same slot if the selected duration matches.

What to check: the duration of the first booking, the available duration values, and the explanatory text on the service page.

How to fix it: for group services with flexible duration, limit the available duration choices or clearly explain to clients that they can only join a slot with the same duration.

When CodeCanyon Bookly Group Booking Is the Right Choice

CodeCanyon Bookly Group Booking is worth using if you already work with Bookly Pro and want to add clear capacity logic for classes, lessons, couples services, workshops, or any other service where one time slot needs to accommodate multiple participants. The most important settings are service capacity, individual staff capacity, the Number of persons field, slot occupancy display, and verification after the first test booking.

Do not install the add-on "just in case." First define the real scenario: an open group with remaining seats filled over time, a private group booking, a couples service, or a service with flexible duration. Then configure minimum and maximum capacity, check the form from the client's point of view, and make sure the Bookly calendar presents the booking in a way that works for the administrator.

If, after reading this guide, you now understand which services should be group-based, which staff members need separate limits, and what occupancy format makes sense for the client, you can move on to testing on a site copy and download the ZIP archive from the download block. After installation, do not apply the setup to every service at once: start with one test service, walk through the full booking flow, and only then scale the model further.