Multiple bookings via classes issue

[Axioma]

Hello everyone!

I wanted to ask for help on a matter and suggest a new feature/ feature update to the Classes recently added to Square Appointments.

Some backstory, I am a business offering academic classes to my community and one of my services is a flexible scheduling program that allows multiple clients to come in whenever they want for up to 2 hours during a set range of time during weekdays as long as they book a day beforehand.

However, when I try to set that up on Square Appointments, I run into one of two issues:

If I try to set this up through the regular services, it DOES allow clients to pick a time between the service hours in 15 minute intervals, but it DOES NOT allow multiple clients to book the same sign-in time.

If I try to set that up using the new classes feature, it DOES allow multiple clients to book but doesn't allow them to pick a time WITHIN the class' functioning hours.

I'm looking for help on whether I'm doing something wrong or using the Classes feature incorrectly/ inefficiently or to suggest that the Square Products Team creates a way for the classes to be booked in such a way that clients choose their own hour WITHIN the operating hours instead of having to book the "whole" class upfront. I know that I can create variations of the classes but creating variations in 15 minute intervals for a 5 hour daily class would be tome-consuming, inefficient, and would clutter my bookings site, making it confusing for clients to use.

Also,  side note for the classes, the repetition system could be enhanced a bit as it does not currently allow for setting weekday or weekend repetitions for the classes.

I would greatly appreciate any help from this awesome community or feedback from the Square Teams themselves! Thank you in advance 😁

[MudFire_Dex]

Oooof - we stopped using appointments for classes - and use another platform and we use our Square appointments for new members. Our issue is that groups of instructors lead classes - and also the multiple folks in the same time issue - when we start 4 people at once - we have 4 staff accounts (that are not real people) to allow bookings for 4 people at a time but I can see how that would be a cluttered approach for us to use for all of our classes. Unfortunately I have not figured out a way to make it work either 😞

[Axioma]

Yea, seems like this is a common problem for businesses like ours using Square Appointments. I hope they get an update/ addition soon! Another sort of work-around that has been useful for making the system work as it is now is that I've advised my clients to book as usual but if the time slot they want to come in for doesn't show as an option, for them to join the wait list instead and just input the hours they're going to come in. This way, they can at least be assured that we know when they'll be here and a spot on the wait list is treated as a guaranteed booking unless they hear from us otherwise. Hope this helps and hopefully this thread gets more businesses to comment that they share in this experience so that Square can help out sooner!