Run several venues as one collective

Run several venues as one collective

A collective puts two or more linked venues on one public booking page, so your clients see one business. One venue is the host. The host decides which services are on the page and sets their prices, deposits, options, add-ons and forms for every venue. Each venue keeps its own calendars, working hours, clients, bookings and payments.

The one big idea: the host runs the menu, and every venue runs its own diary. A client books a service from the host's menu with a person at one of the venues, and that booking, its payment and the client record belong to that venue.

A collective sits on top of your account links. Joining links you with every venue in it, with full access both ways, and leaving or ending a collective leaves every link exactly as it is. Unlinking from a venue in your collective, or giving it less than full access, takes a venue out of the collective (see Leaving, removing and ending). If you have not linked yet, start with Link with another venue.

Before you start

• You need admin access, and every venue needs an active link with every other venue that shares full booking detail and Create, edit and cancel bookings both ways, with no calendar limits.
• Every venue has to use the same timezone and the same currency, and has to offer appointments. The collective page is built around appointments. Classes, events and bookable rooms stay on each venue's own page unless the host lists them on the collective page too (see linking venues).
• If you are already linked at a lower level, change the link to Work as one team with Edit permissions first; Create venue collective lists your linked venues and says which links need changing.
• A venue can be part of one collective at a time.

Step 1: Create the collective (host)

Not linked with the other venue yet? Start from Link with a venue in the Active links card instead. Choose Work as one team, then Also start a collective, name the collective and choose its address, and send. One request does both: while you wait, a notice on your dashboard says the request is with the other venue; when they accept, they join at the same time and the notice becomes Continue setup, which walks you through step 3. See Link with another venue.

Already fully linked? Then:

1. Open Settings, then Linked Accounts, and scroll to Venue collectives.
2. Click Create venue collective. Create a collective opens in four steps.
3. Read What a collective is, type a Collective name, and choose the address after /book/c/. ResNeo tells you whether it is free. The collective name is what the collective is called in your dashboard and in messages between the venues. Customers see your venue's own name on the page, unless you choose a different one later (see step 5).
4. Tick the venues to invite. Venues that cannot join are listed too, with the reason, such as Already part of another collective, a different timezone or currency, or a venue that does not offer appointments.
5. Read What changes when your collective starts, tick the box to confirm, and click Create and send invitations.

The page is not live yet. It goes live once an invited venue accepts and at least one calendar offers a service.

Nothing is parked while you wait. A collective needs at least two venues, so one with only you in it is not live. Your services stay bookable and your own booking page carries on exactly as it is until the other venue accepts.

Step 2: Join a collective (member)

If the invitation came with a link request, you answer both together: click Review request on the dashboard banner or under Pending requests, and the review walks through the link and then the steps below. Accept and join does both; Accept the link only leaves the invitation on the collective's row for later.

Once you have joined, a notice on your dashboard says [the host] is setting up the services and the shared booking page, so nothing is needed from you yet. It stays until the page is live, and the collective's row under Venue collectives says the same. Your own booking page carries on as it is in the meantime.

1. Otherwise, the invited venue's admins get an email and a bell notice. Open Settings, then Linked Accounts, and click Accept invitation on the collective's row.
2. Join walks you through what joining means, your services, and any forms you already use:
   • Under Services with the same name, any service of yours that shares a name with one of the host's is listed. Choose Use my and the service name, so it keeps its calendars and bookings and takes the host's settings, or Add the host's as a new service. You are never given a silent second copy.
   • Your other services are listed with a tick box each, all ticked to start with. Ticked ones are suggested to the host, who can put them on the page as they are in one go. Untick any you want to keep to yourself. Until the host adds them, they are parked: nobody can book a parked service, your team included, but bookings already made for it are not changed.
3. If some services on the page ask for a form and your forms are switched off, the last step offers Turn on forms for my venue when I join. Guests cannot book those services with you while your forms are off, so tick it unless you would rather turn them on later under Settings.
4. Tick the box to agree and click Join. If anything still stops guests booking every service with you, such as Stripe not being connected for paid services, a short list follows with a button for each: Connect Stripe and Turn on (forms).

Joining a collective that already has several venues. Every venue in a collective works with every other, so joining links your venue with each of them, with full access both ways: each can see, make, change and cancel bookings in the other's calendars, with client details. You do not need to accept separate link requests first. The first step of Join lists the venues under Your links with the venues in it, says what their teams can do in your calendars, and the last step says Joining also links your venue with them. One click on Join makes every link and joins. These links stay if you leave the collective or it ends, until one of you unlinks. If the join does not finish, the links it made are taken back.

The one thing that can stop it is a link you already have with one of the venues that was set up with less than full access. Joining never widens that for you: the dialog names the venue, and you change the link under Linked Accounts with Edit permissions, then join.

Forms work across the collective. Each venue keeps its own copy of the host's forms, and a form a client has already completed at one venue counts at the others, as long as the client books with the same email. The booking's Forms panel then says where it was given. The answers themselves stay with the venue that collected them.

An invitation nobody answers closes after 30 days, with a reminder on day 7. The host can cancel an invitation from the Venues tab with Cancel invitation.

Step 3: Put services on the page (host)

Once the other venue is in, a banner on your dashboard says they joined and that two short steps make your shared booking page live. Continue setup opens a wizard headed Finish setting up and the collective's name, which does everything below for you. Under Which services go on the page? you see Your services and then each venue's own services, all ticked to start with (add one of yours there if you have none yet). Untick anything you want to keep off the page, then save. Under Who does what? tick the calendars at each venue that offer them. A venue's own services keep the calendars that already offer them. The last step shows you the page address and whether the page is live. The same button sits on the collective's row under Settings, Linked Accounts until the page is live.

Nobody is asked to agree to anything along the way. A venue's service goes on the page exactly as it is, with its price, length, options, add-ons and forms, and keeps the calendars that offer it. From then on you control it on the page, like your own services.

If you prefer to do it by hand, or to change things later, open Services. Your services show a Collective badge when they are on the page.

• To put a service on the page, choose On the page on its card, or tick Show on the collective page when you add a new one. The form then lists every venue's calendars, so you can choose who offers it in the same step (All calendars at every venue ticks them all). ResNeo sets it up at every venue with your settings, and afterwards a message says which venues do not offer it yet, with Choose calendars.
• When you save a service that is on the page, the change reaches every venue. The message after saving says whether every venue is up to date. If you change your mind within a minute, click Put it back. It puts back the service's settings, including any calendar prices that save cleared. Calendars you ticked or unticked in that save stay as they are. Adding, changing or removing a form on a service that is on the page works the same way: it reaches every venue straight away, and you can put it back within a minute.
• A service that is not on the page is parked while the collective is live, and its card shows a Parked badge. Choosing Not on the page takes a service off the page and parks it at your venue; choosing On the page again puts it back, and calendars that offered it before offer it again straight away.
• To put other venues' services on the page, open Manage Collective, then Every venue's services (the Add from another venue button on Services takes you there too). Pick a venue, or All venues, and you see each of its services marked On the page or Not on the page. Tick one, several or Select all shown, then click Put on the page or Take off the page. Nobody is asked: a venue's service goes on as it is and keeps the calendars that offer it. After a save, Undo puts it back for 60 seconds. A venue's service that joined one on the page goes back to that venue with the page service's price and length, not its own.
• Taking a venue's service off the page gives it back to that venue. It is parked while the collective runs, and bookings already made are not changed.

When a venue already has that service

If a venue's service has the same name as one already on the page, it joins that page service instead of becoming a second one, so guests see one. It keeps its calendars, and from then on it follows the page service's price and settings. Names are matched ignoring capitals and spaces at the ends. Every venue's services shows this as Joins and the page service's name, and before you save it lists them, with Add them as separate services instead if you want two.

The same happens when you put one of your own services on the page and another venue has one with the same name: theirs joins yours, and nobody is asked. The setup wizard tells you before you save: [their venue] has a [service] too. Theirs joins this one, so guests see one.

Suggestions from your venues

When a venue suggests services, they appear at the top of Manage Collective under Suggested by your venues, grouped by venue. Click Add all to put every one on the page, tick a few and click Add selected, or click Not now to leave them off. The venue gets one notice either way, and can suggest them again later. Each added service goes on as it is, offered by the calendars of the venue that suggested it.

Then choose who offers each service. Under Calendars that offer this service, tick calendars at any venue in the collective. Edit values next to one sets that calendar's own price, length, buffer or deposit. If the service does not let calendars set that value yet, saving one turns it on for you (the dialog says so first), and staff can then set it for their own calendar too. On a service with options, each option sets its own price, length and buffer, the same on every calendar, so calendars cannot have their own. A calendar can still have its own deposit, used for options that do not set one. You can do the same from a cell of the grid in Manage Collective, and the venue whose calendar it is gets a notice.

To set calendars for several services at once, open Manage Collective, tick the services in the grid, or tick a venue's column to choose that venue's calendars for every service on the page, and click Choose calendars. Each calendar is listed with a tick when it offers every service you picked, and a dash when it offers some of them. Tick or clear a calendar to set it for all of them, or use All and None for a whole venue. A dash you leave alone keeps each service as it is. Save saves only what you changed. If it takes calendars off, you are asked first. After any save in the grid, Undo puts it back for 60 seconds. Clicking a cell of the grid does the same for one service at one venue. If a calendar has upcoming bookings for a service, you see them and choose Take it off and keep these bookings or Keep offering it. The bookings stay in the diary. Put on the page and Take off the page appear only when you tick services, and the question before saving names each service and what happens to it.

Tip: Manage Collective in the sidebar has a grid of every service against every venue, a What needs you list, a Venues tab and a History of every change. For two weeks after a service goes on the page, What needs you also lists any venue that offers it on no calendar. A service that is on the page but switched off on Services says so in the grid: nobody can book it at any venue. It also appears in What needs you, and Needs attention counts it. Switch it on fixes it from either place. Services not on the page that are switched off say (Parked, switched off). Use See what each venue will show before saving a batch of changes. The Combined booking page settings button at the top takes you to the page's look, address, embed code and QR code.

Step 4: What members see and do

Members see the host's services under From the host's name. They can open each one with View and choose which of their own calendars offer it. A calendar you have switched off keeps offering it and shows (switched off). Click Remove, then Save your settings, to take it off. Everything else about those services is the host's to change.

• To suggest your own services for the page, open Manage Collective. Under Your services each one is marked On the page, Suggested to the host, or Not on the page. Tick the ones you want (or Select all shown) and click Suggest to the host. The host adds them in one go, and your calendars keep offering them. Suggest to the host on a parked service's card on Services suggests just that one.
• Each venue still sets its own working hours, closures, calendar hours and clients.
• Before the appointment on a service lets each venue add its own note for its own guests, such as where to park.

Staff bookings only

A service marked Staff bookings only can be booked by the team at every venue from the diary, but guests do not see it on the collective page.

Step 5: The booking page

Open Settings, then Booking Page. It opens on the collective page, and a switch at the top moves you between that and your own page. While no guest can reach anything your own page shapes, because everything is handed over and you have no open shop or voucher page, the switch is put away and the tab says your own page is resting. Open your own page settings still gets you there, and your design comes back if you leave.

Contact details works the same way it does for a single venue:

• The host edits its name, address, phone, email and website there, and chooses what the collective page shows at the Top of page and on the About tab. The page shows the host's details, and has none of its own. The email is off until the host ticks it, and Use a different email for guests gives it an address of its own, while alerts stay on the main email. Guests who reply to a booking confirmation reach the venue they booked with, not this address.

• A member edits its own details there, under Your venue’s details, and chooses what the Our locations list shows about it, with its own email for guests if it wants one. The top of the page and its About tab are the host's to choose.

• While its own page is resting, a venue keeps Your emails, the logo and colour on its clients' emails, and a member also keeps Your people on the page.

• The host designs the collective page. Its header shows the host's address, phone and opening hours, which are for information only. Each calendar is still only offered when its own venue says it is free.

• When the venues are at different addresses and the page's About tab is on, that tab lists Our locations: each venue with its address, a map link, its phone number and its opening hours. Venues with the same postcode count as one address. A venue's hours show there only if its own booking page shows them, which means its own About tab is on. When the venues are in more than one town, the header also has an Our locations link to that list.

• Name on your booking page (host): the page shows the host venue's own name, so guests see one business, even when two venues share a name. To show something else, choose A different name and type it. It saves as soon as you click away. Guests see this name at the top of the page, in search results and in their booking emails. Choose the host's name again to go back. If you rename your venue under Settings, Profile, the page follows, and if another venue becomes the host, the page takes that venue's name unless you chose a different one.

• The Collective name field under it is what the collective is called in your dashboard, for example on the Booking Page and Linked Accounts tabs, and in messages between the venues. Customers never see it.

• While the page is live and at least one of your calendars is on it, guests who visit your own booking page are sent to the collective page, keeping the service, date and time they chose. The Booking Page tab says whether this is happening, and why not when it is not.

• When a member's own link or embed brings a guest to the collective page, the page says that venue takes bookings there, for example "Aura Hair Studio in Holywood takes bookings on this page. Its team is listed first.", and lists that venue's people first.

• A link to one of your people opens the collective page with that person already chosen, so links you have printed or shared keep working. See Links for each person below.

• If your venue also runs classes, events or bookable rooms, your own page keeps the ones that are not listed on the collective page. Its appointments tab links to the collective page instead.

• The host can ask to use a member's own page address for the collective page. Nothing changes until that member's admin clicks Agree on their Booking Page tab, and the member gets the address back if it leaves.

On the collective page, each person shows the venue they work at, with its town when the venues are in more than one town or two share a name. Venues with the same postcode count as one place, so a collective in one building shows just the names. Guests see You are booking with that venue before they pay. Their payment goes to that venue, and their confirmation names the page they booked through, unless they booked with the host on a page that carries the host's own name.

On the waitlist, each person is named with their venue. When more than one venue offers the service, guests choose Anyone at one of the venues, or a person, and their place is kept at that venue, which is the one that contacts them. When only one venue offers it, the form keeps Anyone available and says which venue will contact them.

Your settings in a collective

While the collective is live, five booking settings belong to the collective. They apply to every venue in it, on the collective page and on each venue's own page:

1. Require ResNeo sign-in to book.
2. Guest self-reschedule: whether guests can change their own appointment online.
3. Appointment waitlist, and what happens when a slot opens.
4. Any available practitioner, and who gets those bookings.
5. Staff-first booking.

The host changes them under Settings, then Booking settings, where each one is marked with the collective's name. A change applies to every venue straight away. The list under Any available practitioner shows every venue's people, so the host can put them in one order.

A member sees the same screen with the collective's settings, and a line under each one saying the host sets it. A member cannot change them there. Your venue's own settings are kept, and they apply again if your venue leaves or the collective ends.

Some settings stay with each venue, and each screen says so:

• Payments at your venue, card readers and Stripe. A booking's payment goes to the venue whose calendar was booked.
• Business hours and closures. Each venue's own hours decide when its calendars can be booked. The host's hours also show on the collective page, for guests, and every venue's hours show under Our locations where its own page shows them.
• Communications. Confirmations, reminders and other messages come from the venue whose calendar was booked, using its own settings. Text messages depend on that venue's own plan.
• The address, phone number and website on the collective page are the host's, from its Profile. The town in each venue's own address under Settings, Profile is how guests and the other venues tell two venues apart, so fill it in.

Links for each person

Each person keeps their own booking link. While the collective is live, a person's link opens the collective page with that person already chosen, showing their services there. Under Calendar availability, each calendar also shows its link on the collective page, with a Copy button. Share that one from now on. If a person is not on the collective page, their link opens your own page as before.

Working in the diary

Staff at every venue book for the collective from the diary, and every column opens the collective booking form.

• Calendars guests cannot book: staff can still book a service on a calendar that guests cannot, for example at a venue that has not connected Stripe or has its forms switched off. When you choose that person, a note says why, such as Card payments are not set up at that venue, so take payment in person, and no online deposit is offered there.

• Moving a booking to another venue: drag it onto a calendar at another venue. ResNeo asks Move this booking to that venue, then moves it in one step. The other venue gets its own booking at the same price, the booking leaves the first venue's diary, and the client gets one message with the new details.

• A booking with a deposit, card hold or payment, completed forms, or that is part of a visit or group, stays with the venue that took it. ResNeo says why, and you can still move it within that venue.

• If the same person has a calendar at two venues and is already booked at one, whoever books second sees a warning.

• One visit is always with one person, so a multi-service visit is at one venue. A group booking is seen at one venue too: once the first person in a group has chosen who to see, everyone else chooses from the team at that venue.

Clients and reports

• Each venue keeps its own client records. A client who books at two venues in the collective has a record at each, with its own visits, notes and tags. The two records cannot be merged, because each belongs to the venue that took the booking. This is expected.
• What you can see of other venues comes from your account links, not from the collective. Joining links you with each venue at full access both ways, so each can see, make, change and cancel the others' bookings, with client details, and see their booking reports. Leaving or ending the collective does not change the links.
• Reports name every venue. Booked revenue lists each venue's figure in its own row, with a column for the part booked through the collective page, and the export carries the same breakdown.
• On the Bookings list, a Booked through filter shows the bookings made on the collective page, and each booking's details say Booked through and the collective's name.

Leaving, removing and ending

• A member leaves with Leave on the collective's row under Linked Accounts. It keeps every service, calendar and booking. The host's services become its own to edit, its parked services are bookable again, and its own booking page comes back. A short review afterwards points out anything to check, such as prices, Stripe and online meeting links.

• The host invites another venue from Manage Collective, on the Venues tab, with Invite a venue. Find any venue on ResNeo by name or booking page address, or choose one you are already linked with. Before anything is sent you see each venue in the collective and Linked with [venue] when they join, or Your link request goes with the invitation for your own. Click Invite and the venue's name. Venues that cannot join say why, such as Already part of another collective.

• One invitation does everything. The new venue gets one notice and a dashboard banner. When they accept, they are linked with every venue in the collective and join, in one step. Nobody else has to do anything. The venues already in get a notice when the venue is invited, and another when it joins.

• Only a link that one of the venues already has with the new venue, set up with less than full access, holds it up. That venue sees it under Venues joining at the top of Manage Collective, with Change it in Linked Accounts, and the Venues tab says who the new venue is waiting for.

• The host removes a venue from the Venues tab with Remove. The venue keeps everything, as if it had left. Your own venue is the one marked (you).

• The host ends the collective from the foot of the Venues tab with End the collective, typing the collective's name to confirm. Every venue keeps its services, calendars, clients and bookings. For 90 days the old address shows a page listing the venues, so clients can still find them.

• The host can hand over with Ask to host on a member's row. The move happens 14 days after that venue accepts, and every venue is told.

• Changing a link while you are both in the collective. The collective needs every venue linked with every other at Work as one team. If you unlink from a venue in it, reduce its access, or accept a change that gives either of you less, one of you leaves: a member, never the host, and between two members, the one that made the change. If only one venue would be left, the collective ends. The dialog names who leaves before you confirm. If that is all you want, use Remove (host) or Leave (member) instead and keep the link.

A collective needs at least two venues, so it ends when the last member leaves.

Leaving, removing and ending do not touch your account links. Every link stays exactly as it was, and so does the access it gives. To end that too, use Unlink on the link once the venue has left.

Common problems & fixes

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Create venue collective is greyed out	You have no accepted link yet	Send a request with Link with a venue, then, once it is accepted, open Edit permissions on the link if it is not fully open, and set both directions to full detail and Create, edit and cancel bookings, with no calendar limits
A venue shows Cannot join yet	It is in another collective, uses a different timezone or currency, does not offer appointments, or its plan does not include collectives	Read the reason under its name
Your link with a venue needs full access both ways when joining	Your venue already has a link with that venue, set up with less than full access	Open Linked Accounts, choose Edit permissions on that link, set both directions to full detail and Create, edit and cancel bookings, then join
A venue shows Updating for a long time	Its copy of a change has not been applied yet	The host clicks Update now at the top of Services, on the service's card, or on that venue's card in Manage Collective. The card then says whether the venue is up to date or still updating
A calendar will not come off a service	It has upcoming bookings for that service	Choose Take it off and keep these bookings in the grid. The bookings stay in the diary
A member's calendars are missing from the page	The venue has not connected Stripe for paid services, has forms switched off, is still being set up, or its subscription lapsed	The What needs you list in Manage Collective says which
A client cannot book one of my services	It is parked because it is not on the collective page	The host puts it on the page from Manage Collective, Every venue's services. As a member, suggest it from Manage Collective
A booking will not move to another venue	It has a payment, forms, or is part of a visit or group	Move it within its own venue instead
My own booking page still shows	The page is not live, none of your calendars offer a service on it, or your services are still being set up	The Booking Page tab says which
The collective page shows the host's venue name, not the collective name	The page carries the host's own name unless the host chooses another	The host opens Settings, then Booking Page, and under Name on your booking page chooses A different name
Two venues show the same name, on the collective page or in your dashboard	Both trade under one name	ResNeo adds each venue's town from its Profile address, and marks your own venue (you). Fill in Town / city if it is missing
I cannot change my timezone or switch appointments off	Every venue in a collective shares these	Leave the collective first
A venue left the collective after a link changed	Its link with another venue in the collective ended or now gives less than Work as one team	Link again at Work as one team, then the host invites the venue again from Manage Collective, Venues
I cannot set up a new collective, or a venue says it hosts another collective	A venue can be in one collective at a time, even one that nobody else joined	If you host it, open Manage Collective, then Venues, and invite a venue to it or end it. If you are a member, click Leave on its row under Linked Accounts

Next steps

• Link with another venue
• Services
• Your public booking page and embed