Offering longer sessions
Sometimes one service needs to cover a short shoot and a long one. Instead of building "One-hour portrait" and "Three-hour portrait" as separate services, let clients book several slots of the same service in a row, with your own price for each length.
Longer bookings work on direct booking services. Mini sessions have a fixed slot length by design, and inquiry services have no slots to add up.
Turning on longer bookings
- Open a direct booking service and go to Price & duration.
- Choose your base slot length under Duration: 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 minutes. A new service has no duration until you pick one, and it can't be saved without one.
- Turn on Allow longer bookings, "Let clients book multiple time slots."
- Set the Minimum length and Maximum length.
- Adjust the prices under Pricing by length, then choose Save.
A one-hour slot with a maximum of four lets clients book one, two, three or four hours.
Setting the limits
Maximum length is the most a client can book at once, from 2 slots up to 12.
Minimum length is the fewest, from 1 slot up to your maximum. Leave it at 1 for no minimum, or raise it when short bookings aren't worth your time. A minimum of 2 on a one-hour slot means the shortest booking is two hours. If you lower the maximum below the minimum, the minimum comes down with it.
Pricing each length
Pricing by length lists every length from 1 slot to your maximum.
- The first row is your Price per slot and can't be edited here.
- Each other row has a switch, a price and an Optional label.
The switch takes a length off the menu, so you can sell two, four and six hours without everything in between. Your minimum and maximum are always offered. Switching a length off keeps its price and label for later.
The price is the total for that many slots, not an extra on top. It starts as a straight multiple of your base price and follows it as you change it. Type your own price, or add a label to that row, and it stops following, so it stays exactly as you set it.
The label is a short note clients see beside the length, like "Half day" or "Full coverage", so nobody has to work out that four slots means half a day.
Set the four-slot price a little below four times your hourly rate and label it "Half day". Clients booking long sessions expect a better rate, and it nudges people towards the bigger booking.
What your client sees
A Duration field appears above the calendar on the first step. Each option shows the length, plus your label if you set one. Picking a longer option narrows the times to those where the whole block is free, so nobody can book three hours across a gap where you're busy. A date with nothing long enough says so.
Your booking page lists the service at its shortest bookable length, so a service with a two-slot minimum advertises two hours.
Longer sessions or separate services?
Use longer sessions when it's the same shoot at different lengths and your client sees it that way, like a portrait session by the hour.
Use separate services when the offers are different in substance. A two-hour family session and a full wedding day aren't the same thing at different lengths, even if the maths works.
Folding lengths into one service also helps if you're on Free or Plus, since it saves your published service spots for offers that really are different.
Frequently asked questions
What's the longest booking a client can make?
Twelve slots. With a two-hour base slot that's 24 hours of booking time, but most photographers set a much lower maximum.
Can I offer only certain lengths, like 2, 4 and 8 hours?
Yes. Set the maximum to cover your longest option, then switch off the lengths you don't want under Pricing by length.
Can I offer multi-day sessions?
Longer bookings are built from back-to-back slots in your available hours, so they suit sessions within a working day. For work that spans more than one day, like a destination wedding, an inquiry service is usually a better fit so you can agree the schedule with your client first.
Do add-ons still work with longer sessions?
Yes. Add-ons appear under the times as usual, and their total is added to the price of the length your client picked.