reservation system for children’s groups and activity clubs

Running a children’s group, childcare service, or various activity clubs for children comes with responsibility as well as daily organizational challenges. Parents want to be sure that their child will join a group where they receive proper attention, while also appreciating the convenience of arranging everything online. A well-configured booking system can significantly ease the operational burden – from registration and payments to communication with parents – freeing up the provider to focus on what matters most: caring for children.

What needs to be managed ...
  • Managing enrollment in regular groups with strictly limited capacity.
  • Collecting essential information about the child – health restrictions, allergies, and the legal guardian’s contact details.
  • Maintaining clear records of children across groups, age categories, and dates.
  • Flexible payment options – one-time admission, prepaid packages, and payment for the entire month.
  • Reliable and automated communication with parents.

Childcare is an area where parents’ trust is crucial – and that trust is also built through how professionally the provider presents themselves even before the first contact. Modern online registration gives parents a clear overview of the available groups, clubs, activities, places, and terms. They do not have to call, write emails, or wait for a response – they register their child, choose a payment method, and receive confirmation automatically. For providers, this means less administration and less confusion in communication, as the system automatically monitors capacity, records registrations, and keeps parents informed about everything important. Once a group is full, registration automatically closes and interested families are placed on a waiting list, from which they are contacted automatically as soon as a place becomes available. Switching from paper applications or manual spreadsheet records to an online system is often surprisingly quick, and parents appreciate it just as much as the provider does.

Every children’s group or activity club is a little different – they vary in the children’s ages, length of attendance, operating days, activities and program, as well as in what they require from parents. The booking system therefore needs to be flexible enough to accommodate regular weekly attendance, occasional one-off visits, and holiday programs. Electronic registration forms make it possible to collect all the necessary information during enrollment – from allergies and legal guardian details to consent for taking photographs – so the provider has everything in one place. Prepaid packages or credit also make it easier for families to plan their expenses while providing the operator with regular and predictable income. Satisfied parents return and recommend the service to others – and a smooth, transparent process from initial registration to final billing helps ensure their satisfaction.

Key features for children’s groups and childcare

The booking system covers the entire customer care cycle – from registering a child and approving their enrollment to selecting a payment method and maintaining ongoing communication with the parent. This means the provider does not have to manage each step separately and can focus on the quality of care they provide to the children entrusted to them.

Custom booking forms

When the standard details collected from a customer during booking aren't enough, the solution is simple. Booking forms can be extended with custom fields that a customer may or must fill in while booking.

Custom booking forms

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Find out everything you need about customers right at the time of booking – extend the standard form with your own fields and tailor the form to a specific event and type of service.

Custom booking forms let you extend the standard reservation form (name, e-mail, phone) with any additional fields your business needs – from checkboxes, through selecting from options, entering text, all the way to uploading a file (e.g. a photo of the customer or a scanned confirmation). It's also possible to collect specialized data, where the system takes care of validating the correct format.

Individual custom fields can be required, or only shown based on the reserved capacity or a previously selected value. A special group is formed by form fields that affect the reservation price – which makes it easy to handle, for example, a surcharge for renting equipment, a discount for members, or a price adjustment for an above-standard scope of service.

A form can be assigned to a single event, or set globally so it automatically applies to all events on the reservation page. Working with custom forms is therefore very simple while also offering very broad possibilities for use.

Data entered in a custom booking form is saved as part of the specific reservation and can also be included in an export to Excel, and worked with further as needed.

Event: Whole sequence

An event type designed exclusively for long-term, recurring courses. Its specific feature is that, as part of the booking process, all the individual reservations are created together as a defined sequence.

Event: Whole sequence

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Offer customers a booking for an entire course or cycle of lessons at once – the event is always booked as a single unit, rather than day by day separately.

This event type is fairly specific and lets you define a set of events that are always booked together as a single unit. A typical example is a course taking place every Monday from 9 to 11 for 3 months – a customer doesn't book each Monday separately, but rather books the whole course at once, as an indivisible sequence.

A sequence can also be edited, by using recurrence for the event and then editing individual occurrences, which ensures that all events remain part of the defined sequence. So it's no problem to create a sequence with Monday sessions at 5pm and Wednesday sessions at 7pm.

A sequence is particularly suited to dance courses, swimming courses, educational courses, language classes, kids' clubs, and similar recurring activities.

Online payments

Being able to pay for a reserved service through an online payment gateway is now the standard. Customers today are used to paying quickly and securely in online shops and expect the same comfort when booking or ordering services online.

Online payments

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Let customers pay for their reservation or tickets online right away, before the service is provided – faster, more convenient, and with the certainty that the reservation will be paid, and therefore used.

The reenio system allows you to require prepayment as part of the booking process, so a customer's reservation only becomes valid once paid. You decide yourself whether online payment is mandatory, or whether you leave it up to the customer to pay on site. With mandatory payment, you can set a deadline by which a new reservation must be paid, otherwise it is automatically cancelled and the slot is released for another customer.

For online payments you can choose from several supported payment gateways. The reservation system then handles the technical connection and communication with the chosen gateway, but all business and formal matters are handled directly with the payment gateway provider – you keep the money you receive under your own control, in your own merchant account.

  • GoPay

    An online payment gateway offering a wide range of payment methods, from card payments to fast bank transfers, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.

  • Comgate

    Another Czech payment gateway that also operates in other European countries. Its payment methods vary and cover common needs.

  • Stripe

    A global payment gateway that is becoming increasingly popular. It offers fast integration and approval, so you can start accepting payments within minutes.

  • Bank transfer

    A special type of payment method where the reservation system itself can generate a QR code for payment and then automatically verify and match received payments.

After a successful payment, the system automatically marks the reservation as paid and generates and sends the customer a payment document. The reenio system offers a wide range of options and features for working with payments, including exports, refunds, and more. However, it should be noted that reenio itself is not an accounting system.

Waiting list

If there's high demand for an event, it can be useful to let a customer "join" as a waiting-list candidate. That customer then waits until they receive information (e-mail, SMS) that their turn has come and their reservation has become a full reservation.

Don't lose customers just because an event is already fully booked – let them sign up for a waiting list and automatically notify them as soon as a place opens up for them because an earlier customer cancels their reservation.

The waiting list feature lets customers express interest in a reservation even when an event no longer has free capacity. A reservation doesn't get created for them at that point yet – the system simply records their interest, including their details. As soon as the corresponding capacity becomes available (e.g. another customer cancels their reservation), the system automatically picks a waiting-list candidate from the queue based on order and capacity and creates a standard reservation for them with everything that entails – sending a confirmation, a possible payment request, cancellation rules, and so on. If a candidate on the waiting list doesn't get a spot, the system no longer notifies them any further.

This feature is only available for the Full single event type and must first be enabled and configured for the specific event.

Flexibility of resources and events

Resources and events let you create various combinations of events, services, or places within a single reservation page. Under one roof, you can effectively cover a one-off large event as well as regular hourly bookings.

Flexibility of resources and events

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Run an arbitrarily varied range of services on a single reservation page – one-off events, recurring courses, space rentals, and ticket sales all at the same time? The reenio reservation system can cover even these complex business models.

The reenio reservation system is not limited to just a single type of offering – within one page, you can create any number of resources (places, services, employees) and assign each of them the type of event that best suits that particular offering. This means an hourly court rental via interval events, a monthly yoga course as a full sequence, a one-off seminar as a full single event, and the sale of punch cards or gift coupons, can all run side by side – all on one reservation page and in one administration.

Clarity for such a varied offering is provided by a navigation hub, which can be set up as a multi-step guide, walking the customer through it step by step (e.g. first choosing a service, then an employee or branch).

Last but not least, thanks to collision protection over time, the system also automatically makes sure the same resource (e.g. a specific employee or room) never ends up in two reservations at once, even when it's used across different event and resource types.

Customer database

An overview of your customers, their details, and history is key to any business. The customer database not only records this data but also provides tools for communication, data export, and meeting GDPR requirements.

Customer database

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Keep a clear customer database with a reservation history and a whole range of related tools. The reenio system automatically builds the customer database based on reservations made or direct registration. A registered customer gains the ability to log in and manage their reservations directly within the reservation page. If customer credit is used, they can see their balance within their account and top it up online.

Depending on your settings, a reservation can also be allowed without registration, simply by entering an e-mail address or phone number, which is especially suitable where you don't expect one specific customer to use the reservation system regularly and often.

A well-maintained, extensive customer database is an important marketing tool. The system offers the option of bulk sending e-mail or SMS messages, which is useful for reaching customers with a new offer, a discount campaign, but also operational information or as part of crisis management.

The customer database naturally contains personal data, which today requires a certain approach to how it's handled and protected. The reservation system allows you to set up automatic deletion of personal data after a chosen period, and also keeps track of customer requests to have their data deleted. This makes it easier to meet GDPR requirements in line with the rules defined for your particular business.

If you need to import a customer database from another system or a manually maintained spreadsheet, that's no problem – an existing customer list can be easily and smartly imported into the reenio system.

Event: One single event

The easiest event type to set up and use, offering a booking for a specific, fixed time from and to, including an optional capacity limit. A customer always books the entire listed event.

Event: One single event

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Offer customers a reservation for a fixed time slot with a limited capacity – ideal wherever more than one person needs to be able to attend an event, but not more than you're able to serve.

With the Full single event type, a customer always books the whole event as set, i.e. a fixed time slot from – to, with no option to choose a custom time. This is typically an event with a higher capacity, taking place at a fixed time – suitable for sports events and lessons, seminars, lectures, concerts, exhibition openings, one-off courses, workshops, or tours.

For this type you can also enable a so-called waiting list, where a customer can still express interest in booking even after all available capacity has been used up. This event type also supports creating recurring reservations and supports online events.

Notifications

Keeping customers informed is one of the key functions of any system. The ability to send a customer confirmation of a reservation being created, cancelled, or paid, or a reminder about it, is thus an integral part of the reenio system.

The reservation system can automatically inform customers, as well as admins and employees, about what's happening around reservations – you can set up system notifications according to your needs and the way you operate.

System notifications are automatic e-mails and SMS messages that the system sends on behalf of your reservation page without any further action on your part. These include confirmation of a successful reservation, confirmation of cancellation, confirmation of payment, reservation approval, a PDF with reservation codes, a reminder of an upcoming event, and more.

For each event type in the settings, you determine which channel it should be sent through – e-mail, SMS, or both – and, if relevant, how far in advance. For example, a reminder about an upcoming event can be sent 24 hours and also 3 hours in advance. Sending, of course, assumes you have the corresponding customer contact details available.

  • For customers

    All communication and information from the system to the customer, including a reminder so a reservation doesn't lapse unnecessarily.

  • For administrators

    To provide a basic overview of what's happening in the system without needing to constantly check and log into the administration.

  • For employees

    Ideal when a specific employee needs to be notified that a reservation for their services has been made and they need to plan for it.

Unlike custom messages, these are messages with a fixed, predefined content reflecting reservation information – their content or form cannot be freely edited, only when and to whom they are sent can be configured.

Punch cards and customer credit

Customers who use your services repeatedly and regularly will welcome an efficient way to pay for them, including a discount. Whether it's a punch card for a certain number of visits or a set value, or top-up credit that customers draw down, this feature has you covered.

Punch cards and customer credit

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Offer loyal customers a more convenient way to pay for repeat visits – a punch card for a set number of visits or value, or top-up customer credit.

The reenio system offers several ways to let customers pay for reservations based on a previously prepaid value, instead of individual direct payments.

Punch cards work as a special type of coupon with a set number of visits or a gradually drawn-down amount (credit-based punch card). Applying the punch card code adjusts the reservation price accordingly, either by subtracting a defined amount or applying a discount of up to 100%. These codes don't have to be tied to a specific registered customer account, so they can be used easily and flexibly. They can also be restricted to specific events, so you clearly define which offered activities a punch card can be used for and which not.

Customer credit, on the other hand, works as a virtual wallet linked to a registered and logged-in customer account. A customer can top up their credit themselves online via a payment gateway (potentially with a bonus), or you can top it up manually in the administration, for example when paying in cash at reception. A credit wallet can in principle also have an expiration set.

Both solutions can be used effectively together with online payments, where the whole process of purchasing punch cards or credit can be fully automated. There are many possibilities, and it always depends on your specific settings and how you think through how and under what rules these customer-loyalty tools will work for your particular type of business.

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Are you wondering if an online reservation system is right for you? Check out the FREQUENT QUESTIONS or the DOCUMENTATION pages and try out the reenio system.