Lap swim

Use Lap swim to see and change when members can book lap lanes. One bookable block of lap swim (for example 6–7 am on lanes 1–6) is a session. The member portal still calls a session a slot.

Lap swim (under Programs; managers and admins) has three tabs:

• Calendar: the sessions week by week, with bookings, closures and cancellations.

• Weekly schedule: the regular lap hours for each season.

• Registration: whether members can see lap swim and book it. See Registrations and prices.

The top of the Calendar says whether members can book lap swim now and how far ahead. When they can't, it says why: for example, registration opens on a later date, is closed, or is still a draft. Booking rules opens a panel with the club's rules: how far ahead members may book, how many upcoming bookings a household may hold, how late they can cancel themselves and whether no-shows are released. They are configured in Settings, under Club → Programs.

The week view shows Monday to Sunday. Each session's tile shows its time and how many places are booked ("8/12 booked"). A full session says so, with the waiting list if there is one ("Full · 2 waiting"). A session further out than the booking window shows when members can start booking it ("Opens Oct 23"), or, if it already has bookings (say, from before the window was shortened), how many; its panel shows both. A session under way has a colored edge, and its panel, the Day roster and phone cards say In progress. It can still be canceled until it ends; after that it is dimmed. An Extra tag marks a session added for one date. Hours with no lap swim are folded into a thin band so the week fits on one screen. This week brings you back to the current week.

The calendar refreshes itself about once a minute while it is open, and opening a session loads its latest bookings.

Closures show as shaded bands with their reason, such as "Lap lanes closed · Swim meet", whether they were saved before or after the sessions were created, so a missing morning always has a reason on the page. A session canceled by a closure or by staff shows as canceled.

Day shows one day as a roster: a row per session and a column per lane, with each swimmer's name in their lane and how many places are open. Use it at the pool deck, or Print day sheet for a paper copy: each session as a lane-by-lane table with every booked swimmer's name and a check box, blank lines for open places, and the day's closures and cancellations noted. A lane with more than four places continues on the next line, and the sheet says when its bookings were read. Nothing else on the page prints. On a phone, the calendar shows a strip of days and the chosen day's sessions as a list; print the day sheet from a wider screen.

Sessions are created as far ahead as members can book, and at least two weeks. Past that, the calendar shows the sessions the weekly hours will create. They can't be booked yet, but you can cancel one ahead: open it and use Cancel this session…. It is marked canceled now, so it never opens for booking, and nobody is emailed, because nobody could have booked it.

A session

Click a session to open it. The panel shows where it comes from (for example "Mon–Fri 6–9 am · Fall 2026 hours", with a link to edit those hours), how many places are booked, and each lane with the swimmers in it and how many places are open. A booking made before lanes were assigned is listed under Not in a lane, here and in the Day view.

• Cancel a booking: Cancel beside a swimmer's name. It skips the members' cancellation cutoff, offers the freed place to the next household on the waiting list (not once the session has started), and tries to email the household. The banner says only that the booking was canceled; an email can be blocked by a bounced address, a suspended household or a club that isn't live yet, so check the household's messages if it matters.

• Cancel this session…: everyone booked loses their place and the waiting list closes. Each member who booked it is sent an email saying the club canceled that time (one per booking, even for several swimmers), and each household on the waiting list is told it isn't running; the same caveat about blocked emails applies. You can add a Reason members see (optional, for example "Not enough lifeguards"): it goes into that email and shows on the calendar and on the members' lap swim list as "Canceled · Not enough lifeguards". The confirmation doesn't promise a number of bookings: the page was loaded earlier, and the cancellation acts on the bookings at that moment.

• Change lanes for this date…: for a session that hasn't started, created or not yet, choose its lanes and swimmers per lane for that date only; the weekly hours don't change. The review shows how many swimmers it would hold and anything in the way:

  • swimmers booked in a lane you're taking away, or booked without a lane (each with Cancel);

  • lanes that would hold more booked swimmers than the new limit;

  • another session that uses those lanes at the same time.

  While anything is listed, Save lanes isn't offered: cancel those bookings first, or pick other lanes. A lane change moves nobody and emails nobody booked. If it adds places while households are waiting, the review says so, and once you save, households on the waiting list are offered the new places one household at a time. Each offer requests an email, and may text members who turned texts on. If the first household joins the waiting list, or the last one waiting leaves it, before you save, you are asked to review again. A session not created yet is created as you save.

  If the lap hours for that date change later (its own, or other hours that take the date over, such as Winter hours), a session nobody has ever booked moves to the newer hours, and its lanes for that date are lost. Review changes lists it by date before you save. One that has had a booking, even a canceled one, keeps these lanes until you cancel it, on the calendar or, where a review offers it, with cancel-and-replace.

Several sessions

Select lets you tick upcoming sessions in the week you are looking at, one by one or a whole day at a time (All above a day in the week view, Select day in the day view and on a phone), then Review cancellation. Moving to another week clears the ticks. The review lists the sessions, the swimmers' bookings, the households that booked and the waiting-list households. Nothing is canceled if bookings change after the review; review again. The review takes the same optional reason members see, for all of the sessions. After the cancellation, each member who had booked and each household on a waiting list is sent an email, with the same caveat as above: a blocked address means it doesn't arrive. Up to 100 sessions at once, and only sessions that have already been created.

Extra sessions and closures

+ Extra session adds one session on one date without changing the weekly hours: pick the date, times, lanes and swimmers per lane and, if the club has more than one lap swim registration, the one it belongs to. It is refused if it overlaps another session on the same lanes, starts at the same time as another session that day (a canceled one included), or falls inside a closure. Members can book it once it is inside their booking window and registration is open; adding it doesn't email anyone. Clicking outside the panel doesn't close it, so what you typed isn't lost.

Close lap lanes opens the Hours & closures change form right on the calendar, with Lap lanes chosen, starting on the day you're looking at (or today, if that day has passed). Saving it closes the lanes through the same closure rules as Hours & closures: it cancels every session it covers and tells the families who had booked, and the calendar then says what closed ("Lap lanes closed.") and shows those sessions as canceled. To change or remove a closure you made earlier, use the link in the form to Hours & closures. See Hours & closures.

Seasons

The timeline across the top shows the club's seasons and the gaps between them, with the seasons listed beneath it as links (a short season is only a sliver on the timeline). Pick one to see its lap hours. Season dates are set in Hours & closures (Change season dates).

Year-round hours fill any weekday that the current season has no hours for, and the days between seasons. The timeline marks where they apply. A season with no lap hours of its own says so and names what applies instead.

Lap hours

Each row is one set of hours on the days that share them, written the way you'd post it: "Mon–Fri · 6–9 am · 3 × 1 hour · lanes 1–6 · 2 per lane", with "Up to 12 swimmers per session" beneath. Beside the table, The week at a glance shows the shape of the week with the hours in use today (hours that start later aren't drawn).

Edit opens the row:

• Days: the days these hours run. When you untick a day from existing hours, choose what happens to it. Keep their current hours as a row of their own (the default) leaves that day as it is, so you can change the rest without touching it. Stop these hours on those days ends these hours there.

• Starts and Ends.

• Sessions: split the time into 1-hour, 45-minute or 30-minute sessions, or run one session for the whole time.

• Lanes and Swimmers per lane, with the total each session holds.

• When these hours run: Start using these hours on (left empty, today) and, if they should stop, Stop using them after. For existing hours, a later start date keeps the current hours running until the day before, then switches; the review counts only the dates from then on. A row shows its dates under its days ("From Mon, Nov 2", "Until Sun, Dec 20"). Hours that have stopped move to Past hours below the table.

Review changes shows what saving will do over the sessions already created: sessions added (including any that other hours gain, such as year-round hours on a day these hours stop), the sessions nobody has booked that move to the new hours (below), booked sessions that keep the time, lanes and places they were booked with (by date and number of swimmers), and the days whose hours stop. Sessions not created yet follow the new hours when they are created.

A session nobody has ever booked follows the newest hours, from the date they start; one that has already started stays as it is. That includes other hours' sessions on dates these hours take over (Winter hours on a Monday that had year-round hours, say), however far ahead. The review lists every date that changes, grouped by the time the sessions move to ("Mon, Oct 26 and Mon, Nov 2: 6–7 am → 6:30–7:30 am", or "made again with the new hours' lanes and places" at the same time), and says when lanes changed for one date are lost. A booked session is never moved by itself (see below). Changing a season's dates on Hours & closures follows the same rule: its Save lists the sessions that will be removed, and the booked ones that stay, before it saves (see Hours & closures). Nothing is saved until Save hours, and if the schedule or its bookings change in the meantime you are asked to review again.

A session that once had bookings, all since canceled, isn't removed, because its booking history is kept. The review lists these sessions by date. Nobody is booked on them, but members can still book them, so cancel them on the calendar if they shouldn't run.

When booked sessions (or sessions kept for their booking history) no longer fit the new hours, including other hours' sessions on dates these hours take over, the review asks what to do with them. Keep them as booked (the default) leaves them as they are. Cancel them, email the households, and add the new sessions cancels them and adds the new hours' sessions in their place, even at the same start time. A cancellation email is requested for each household booked on them, and each household on their waiting lists is told they aren't running; the emails carry a reason members see, which starts as "The club changed its lap hours" (change it if you like; left blank, that is what members read). The review lists the sessions it would cancel, with the households booked and waiting on them, and refuses the save if anyone joins a waiting list in the meantime. A canceled session stays in the club's records with its bookings, but no longer shows on the calendar or the members' list.

A session never shares a lane with another session at the same time. A new session that would overlap a booked one is left out, and the review lists it. If the booked session belongs to the hours you are changing, or to other hours these take over on that date, choose Cancel them, email the households, and add the new sessions in the review (above). If it is an extra session, cancel it on the calendar first (the households booked and waiting on it are emailed), then add the new time with + Extra session. Hours that would overlap another row on the same lanes and days are refused when you save.

Remove these hours takes the row off the schedule after its own review: its empty upcoming sessions are removed (the review lists them by date), booked ones stay until you cancel them, and sessions that once had bookings stay as above. The review offers the same choice: Keep them as booked, or Cancel them too, and email the households (with a reason members see). If other hours take over on those days (year-round hours, say), the review counts the sessions they add. Removed hours can be shown below the table, where Restore hours brings them back, again after a review that counts the sessions added and any left out because other sessions hold those lanes, and lists by date the unbooked sessions of other hours that move back to these. Other hours' booked sessions on those dates stay; cancel them on the calendar if these hours should run then.

Copy hours from… copies another season's lap hours into this one (into a season, not into the year-round hours): the hours in use on that season's last day, open-ended. It skips hours that are already there and hours that would overlap this season's own hours on the same days and lanes. Before you copy, it checks what the copy changes: how many sets of hours it copies and skips, and, by date, the sessions nobody has booked that move to the copied hours (other hours' sessions on dates the copied hours take over). Booked sessions on those dates stay; cancel them on the calendar if the copied hours should run then. Copy hours is offered once that check is in, and if anything changes before you copy, you are asked to check again. + Add lap hours starts a new row.

When a member cancels, the session follows the club's cancellation and waitlist rules. If the club sets a time in the Lap no-show release setting in Settings, a booking still holding a place that many minutes after the start is released by a check that runs every five minutes. This goes by the hold time alone: the club does not check who came, and there is no screen for ticking people off as present. Everyone still on the booking is released, whether or not they swam.

The member who made the booking gets one email, however many swimmers were on it. It says the hold time passed, that the club does not check who came, and that nothing is needed if they swam. It never says they missed the session.

A release never offers the place to the waiting list. The session has already started, and a started session is not open for offers, so households on the waiting list keep their place. Do not edit a past booking to correct history; use the supported cancellation action. See Program waitlists.

Bookings that are still reserved (a session that has already happened counts) and waiting-list places move to the household the other was merged into (the surviving household). Cancelled and released bookings stay behind as history. A merge is refused if the two households would clash on one session: one household cannot wait for a session it is booked into, or wait for it twice (several swimmers of one household can be booked into the same session). Staff cannot remove a lap swim waiting-list place, so ask a member of the household that is waiting to leave the waitlist (Lap swim in the member portal, then Leave waitlist), or cancel the booking here (open the session on the Calendar, then Cancel beside the swimmer). Then merge again. The surviving household's adults sign the lap swim rules again when asked, because the old household's signature stays on its own record. See Household ownership and merging.

Bookings are one row per swimmer. The reserve form lists the household's people, and a member can book several of them into one session at once.

The form offers the smaller of two numbers: the club's limit per booking, configured in Settings, and the room left in the session's roomiest lane, because everyone on one booking shares a lane. Extra boxes are greyed out with a line saying why. On a club that allows one swimmer per lane, one is the honest answer, and only a change to the lane limit changes it. Leaving every box unticked is turned down rather than quietly booking whoever is signed in.

When a session has more than one lane, members pick a lane or let the platform choose the emptiest one. The whole group lands in one lane. A single-lane session has no lane picker. If a chosen lane fills first, they are asked to pick another. If the group is simply bigger than the room left, the message names the real number of places so they can book fewer swimmers or choose another session.

The member calendar shows one chip per day: how many sessions there are and how many still have a lane open. The list view shows each session's time and open lanes.

Today stays on the member's day buttons all day, and the page opens on it. A session that is under way stays on the list in lighter text, marked "In progress · until" its end time, with no button to reserve or join the waiting list, and a place the household already holds still shows as theirs. Sessions that have finished fold into Earlier today, closed until the member opens it. When nothing is left to book today the page says "No more lap swim today." and links to the next session a member can book, or says nothing else is open to book inside the booking window. A day's count and its calendar chip both count the sessions still on the list that are not canceled; finished and canceled ones are shown but never counted. A canceled session keeps the word "Canceled".

Close to the start time, the row says it is too late to cancel online instead of offering a button the system would refuse. That is when a member is most likely to call the club, and staff can still cancel for them from the session panel.

A session that has already started is never offered to anyone on the waiting list. A place freed by a no-show is in a session already under way, and those offers could only end in an error while blocking the queue behind them. If a household clicks an older offer after the session has begun, they are told it has started and they keep their place at the front of the queue.

If lap swim is on but no sessions fall inside the booking window, the member's page says "No lap swim times are scheduled right now" and that the times will show up there once the club posts them, with a Contact us button. The filters, the calendar and the how-booking-works note appear only once there is something to book. Members can book only as far ahead as the booking window set under Club → Programs, so a session further out does not show yet. Adding sessions does not email members by itself, so if you want them to know, tell them.