Enable event bookings and configure capacity

Understand event booking availability

Drecha Events & Bookings Free can accept Going or Not Going responses for a published activity. A Going reservation can contain one or several places. The plugin stores capacity separately for each event and updates it inside a database transaction so simultaneous requests cannot claim the same final place.

Bookings are available when all of these conditions are true:

• The activity is published.
• Accept bookings for this event is enabled.
• Its start date and time have not passed in the WordPress timezone.
• Limited capacity still has at least one place remaining, or capacity is unlimited.

Enable bookings

1. Open Events & Bookings > Events & Calendar > All Events.
2. Select the event, class, or session that should accept reservations.
3. Find the Bookings and RSVP panel.
4. Enable Accept bookings for this event.
5. Choose limited or unlimited capacity.
6. Choose the status assigned to new Going reservations.
7. Select Publish or Update.
8. Open the public event page and confirm that Reserve your place appears below the event content.

Choose limited or unlimited capacity

For a limited event:

1. Leave Unlimited capacity disabled.
2. Enter Maximum attendees as a whole number of at least 1.
3. Save the event.
4. Compare the reserved and remaining totals with the physical or staffing limit.

For an event without a numeric limit, enable Unlimited capacity. Maximum attendees remains stored but is ignored while unlimited capacity is active. The public form then reports that bookings are open with unlimited places.

Pending, Confirmed, Checked in, and No-show reservations hold their number of places. A Cancelled booking and a Not Going RSVP do not hold capacity.

Choose the initial booking status

New booking status has two options:

• Confirmed accepts a valid public Going reservation immediately and tells the customer it is confirmed.
• Pending reserves the requested places but tells the customer the reservation is pending review. A booking manager can later change it to Confirmed or Cancelled.

Use Pending when staff must review a request before final confirmation. Use Confirmed when the customer can reserve immediately while capacity remains.

Understand the public availability states

The public event page reports one of these states:

• Bookings are open with the remaining place count.
• Bookings are open with unlimited places.
• Fully booked when limited capacity reaches zero.
• Bookings are closed when booking is disabled or the event start has passed.

The public availability endpoint and the form use the same stored inventory. A browser may display a place as available just before another visitor reserves it, so the server checks capacity again while saving. The later request receives a clear not-enough-places error rather than overbooking the event.

Change capacity safely

1. Review the currently reserved count in the Bookings and RSVP panel.
2. Change Maximum attendees.
3. Select Update.
4. Open Events & Bookings > Bookings and verify the Booked places metric.

The event editor will not reduce limited capacity below the number of places already reserved. Cancel or correct reservations first when the intended limit must become lower.

Public bookings allow up to 50 places in one request by default, subject to remaining event capacity. Developers can change that ceiling with the supplied WordPress filter, but there is no ordinary administration setting for it.

Free and Pro differences

All settings in this guide are included in Free without an account, license, booking limit, or external booking service. Pro uses the same event, booking, attendee, status, and capacity records.

With active Pro access, a full event can optionally expose a waitlist with a timed offer. Pro can also apply eligible class-pass credits or membership allowances during the shared booking transaction. Disabling Pro does not disable ordinary Free reservations or remove existing bookings.

Troubleshoot booking availability

The reservation form does not appear

Confirm that the event is Published, Accept bookings for this event is enabled, and the public page is the event's individual page. The core form is appended to a singular event page, not automatically to every calendar card.

The event says bookings are closed

Check the event start date, time, and WordPress timezone. Free closes public event reservations once the configured start is in the past.

Capacity cannot be reduced to the requested number

The requested limit is below the number of places that still hold capacity. Review Pending, Confirmed, Checked in, and No-show records before cancelling or correcting the appropriate booking.

The event is fully booked but no waitlist appears

Ordinary capacity limits are Free. Waitlists require active Pro access and must be enabled separately for that event.