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How to Set Up Hidden Dedicated Services for Membership Bookings

Overview

When managing clients on recurring monthly memberships, pet businesses often need to offer distinct cancellation terms, booking flexibilities, or zero-cost booking slots without altering standard service pricing for non-members. Collar allows business owners to create dedicated, hidden services (such as Daycare – Member Access) tailored specifically for membership holders.

Creating a dedicated member service is an operational best practice that avoids manually overriding standard service prices to £0. It ensures member bookings automatically inherit custom cancellation rules, separate rescheduling windows, and dedicated deposit settings while keeping standard client pricing and public booking rules intact.

Before You Begin

Before setting up dedicated member services, ensure you have:

  • Configured your active recurring memberships under Operations → Memberships.
  • Created a client tag (e.g., Member or VIP Client) under Operations → Tags if you plan to use tag-based visibility to grant exclusive access.

Step-by-Step: Creating and Hiding a Dedicated Member Service

  1. From the main left-hand navigation sidebar, click Operations and select Services.
  2. Click the (+) Add Service button in the upper-right corner.
  3. Enter a descriptive name for the service (e.g., Daycare (Members Only) or Member Boarding Slot).
  4. Navigate to the Pricing tab:
    • Set the base price to £0.00 (if bookings are fully included in the monthly membership fee) or enter your discounted member rate.
    • Ensure Deposit is set to “No” so members are not prompted for upfront deposits when booking.
  5. Navigate to the Availability tab:
    • Configure specific cancellation notice windows for members (e.g., 12-hour cancellation notice for members versus 48 hours for standard clients).
  6. Navigate to the Details tab:
    • Set the service status to HIDDEN so it does not appear to general public clients browsing your online portal.
    • Alternatively, Navigate to the Rules tab and configure Client Tag Visibility rules to set visibility to show for clients with the Member tag and hide for non-tagged clients.
  7. Click Save Service to create the member-dedicated service.

Step-by-Step: Linking Member Services to Member Booking Schedules

  1. From the navigation sidebar, select Calendar or Bookings.
  2. Locate the target client profile and click New Booking.
  3. Select the dedicated member service (e.g., Daycare (Members Only)) from the service selection dropdown.
  4. Set up the recurring schedule (e.g., weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) to match the member’s allocated days.
  5. Align the booking series start date with the member’s active Membership Billing Start Date.
  6. Confirm the booking. The recurring schedule will be established with £0 booking charges and member-specific cancellation policies applied automatically.

Service Configuration Preview

Figure 1: Configuring dedicated pricing, cancellation rules, and hidden visibility for member services in Collar.

Best Practices & Operational Notes

Keep the following guidelines in mind when managing member services on Collar:

  • Avoid Manual Zero-Price Overrides on Standard Services: Manually changing a standard daycare booking to £0 forces the booking to retain standard cancellation penalties and distorts revenue metrics for standard services.
  • Handling Extra Member Days: If a member requests an extra service day beyond their monthly membership allowance, book that additional day using the standard paid service rather than the member service.
  • Self-Service App Cancellations: Because member services use dedicated cancellation policies, members cancelling bookings via the Collar mobile app will be governed by their specific member cancellation window automatically.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

  • Issue: Non-member clients can see the member service on the client portal.
    Solution: Open Operations → Services → [Member Service] and verify that status is set to HIDDEN or that tag visibility rules restrict access to clients carrying the Member tag.
  • Issue: Members are prompted to pay a deposit during booking request.
    Solution: Edit the service under Operations → Services → Pricing and ensure the Deposit Requirement toggle is turned off.
  • Issue: Member cancellation attempts trigger standard cancellation fees.
    Solution: Ensure the client’s recurring booking series was created under the dedicated member service rather than the standard public service.

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