Private lesson scheduling
The coach's diary, negotiated one text message at a time
1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.
TL;DR
Private lessons booked on WhatsApp and invoiced on the day, or booked on AllSquads
- By text, the coach is the diary: every lesson is negotiated in messages and confirmed when the coach replies. On AllSquads the diary is published and the player picks a slot the coach is actually free for.
- The court is checked in the same step as the coach, so a lesson can never be confirmed onto a court that is already booked or blocked.
- Each duration has its own price, and a semi-private price per duration lets two or more players share one slot at one flat rate.
- Requests wait for the coach's approval by default, with reminders to answer; a coach who prefers can turn on instant confirmation per class.
- A minimum lead time in hours stops the eleven-o'clock request for a midday lesson, and it is enforced on the calendar the player sees.
A private lesson is the highest-value hour a coach sells and the most expensive one to arrange. Every booking is a conversation: which day, which time, is the court free, how long, how much, and can you do the week after instead. AllSquads publishes the coach's availability, checks the court at the same moment, prices the duration and takes the payment, so the conversation happens once, in the coach's settings, rather than forty times a term by text.
Try it on this term's class
1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.
How most coaches schedule private lessons today
A parent texts asking for a lesson. The coach checks a paper diary or a phone calendar, offers two times, one of which the parent cannot make, and settles on a third. Then the coach rings the club to check the court, which is taken, so the whole exchange restarts. The price is quoted from memory, the lesson goes in the diary, payment is cash on the day or a transfer afterwards, and a no-show is an awkward text the next morning. Multiply by every player, every week.
- Availability lives in the coach's head and a diary nobody else can see.
- The court is a separate phone call, made after the time has already been agreed.
- A cancelled lesson is a text and a judgement call, with no policy and no record.
Where the text-message diary breaks
One coach with six regulars can run a diary by text. It breaks as soon as the lessons outnumber the hours the coach has to arrange them, which is the exact point at which the coaching business starts to work.
- The diary is the bottleneck: every lesson costs the coach ten minutes of messaging before it costs an hour of coaching.
- Double-booked courts: the time is agreed before the court is checked, and the lesson moves or dies.
- Unpaid lessons: cash on the day and transfers afterwards mean a coach is always owed something by someone.
- Late requests: a message at eleven for a midday lesson, with no polite way to say no.
- No-shows cost the coach the hour: with nothing paid up front, a missed lesson is an hour unpaid and a court wasted.
- Semi-private is improvised: two players sharing a lesson are charged whatever the coach makes up on the spot.
- A club cannot see the coach's lessons, so the club's court calendar and the coach's diary disagree every week.
Publish the hours, not the diary
A coach sets recurring availability windows, such as weekday mornings before school and Saturday afternoons, and private lessons can only be requested inside them. Manual blocks remove specific times for holidays or appointments, and every class session the coach runs is blocked from private lesson availability automatically, so a coach can never be booked for a lesson during a squad. The player sees a calendar of what is actually open rather than a text asking what suits.
The court is checked at the same time as the coach
When a player picks a time, AllSquads checks the coach's availability and the court's availability together. Both must be free for the booking to proceed. If the coach is free but no court is available for the full duration, the player is told and asked to pick another time before anything is charged. A club that assigns a court to the lesson sees it blocked on the court hire calendar for that slot, and the conflict engine flags any partial clash to the club admin rather than letting it through.
Priced by duration, with a shared-lesson rate
Private lessons are priced in duration tiers, thirty, forty-five and sixty minutes, each with its own price. A semi-private price can be set per tier so that two or more players, up to that tier's own maximum, share one slot at a single flat price paid by the booker; a tier without a semi-private price never offers it. The player sees the exact figure before paying, and the price that is shown is the price that is charged.
Approve each request, or confirm instantly
By default a private lesson request is paid and then waits for the coach's approval. The coach gets reminder alerts soon after it arrives, and approving confirms the lesson while declining cancels it, credits the player in full and lets the coach suggest an alternative time. A request left unanswered is only cancelled automatically once the lesson itself is close, four hours away by default, at which point the player is credited and prompted to rebook; a request for a lesson weeks out simply waits. Coaches who would rather not approve each one can switch auto-approval on per class.
Lead time, reminders and the lesson on every calendar
A minimum booking lead time in hours stops last-minute requests, and both the availability calendar and the time picker enforce it in the coach's club time zone. Once confirmed, the lesson shows at its exact date and time on the player's bookings, the coach's schedule and the club's bookings list, whether it was booked from the class page or the coach's profile. The player is reminded by email and in the app the day before and in the app an hour before, and a coach change on a private lesson is notified to the player by email and in the app, unlike a group class where it is not.
Independent coaches and club coaches
An independent coach runs private lessons from their own account, connects their own Stripe account and receives their own weekly payout for them. A club-employed coach's lessons run under the club: the club assigns the coach, the lesson lands on the club's court calendar and the money settles to the club, with no Stripe account needed for the coach. A coach who does both keeps the two side by side in one dashboard.
Manual vs AllSquads
| Text messages, a paper diary and cash on the day | AllSquads | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting paid | Cash after the lesson, or a transfer the coach has to ask for | Paid at booking, held until the coach approves, credited in full if declined |
| The roster | The diary, if the coach remembers to update it | Every lesson on the coach's schedule, the player's bookings and the club's list |
| Cancellations | A text, a judgement call, and an hour the coach eats | The class's own policy applied automatically; late cancels receive no credit |
| Reminders | A message the night before, when the coach thinks of it | Email and in-app a day out, in-app an hour out, for every lesson |
| Member pricing | A quiet discount for the coach's favourites | A member price on the lesson class, applied at checkout to active members |
| Waitlist | Not really a thing; the coach offers a different time by text | None, because a lesson is booked into published availability rather than a capacity |
| Payouts | Whatever ended up in the coach's pocket that week | Lesson income in the weekly payout, to the coach or to the club |
| Records | A diary and a memory of who still owes for last month | Every lesson, payment, credit and reschedule on the player's contact record |
Where the text-message diary is fine
A coach with a handful of long-standing private students at fixed times, on a court the coach controls, does not need a booking system for them; the diary never changes and everyone pays. The text diary stops being fine at the first new enquiry from a stranger, the first shared court, the first no-show that cost an hour, or the first term the coach wants to fill the gaps in the week rather than the same six hours.
Which private lesson setup fits you?
An independent coach who wants to fill the gaps in the week
Good fitPublish the gaps as availability windows and let players find them. The court is checked with each request, the price follows the duration, and lessons are paid before they happen. Your own Stripe account receives the weekly payout, and your coach profile lists the lesson beside your group classes.
A club with several coaches and a shared set of courts
Good fitEach coach publishes their own windows, the club assigns a court to each lesson, and the conflict engine keeps lessons, squads and court hire from colliding. Club coaches need no Stripe account of their own; the lessons settle to the club, and the club sees every lesson on its bookings list.
You want to vet every request before it is confirmed
Good fitThat is the default. Requests are paid and held for your approval, you are reminded to answer, and declining credits the player in full with the option to suggest another time. Nothing is cancelled for being unanswered until the lesson is a few hours away.
You want players to book instantly without waiting on you
Good fitTurn auto-approval on for the private lesson class. Requests inside your availability confirm on the spot, and the minimum lead time keeps them from landing too close to the hour. Keep approval on for a second lesson class if some formats still need your say-so.
Two players who always train together
Worth knowingSet a semi-private price on the duration they book. One player books the slot for both at a flat rate, and if the pair wants to train weekly on the same day, a recurring group lesson with a capacity of two and a subscription may suit them better than repeated private requests.
Choose AllSquads for lessons, or keep the text diary
Choose AllSquads if
- Arranging a lesson currently takes longer than a lesson.
- A lesson has ever been agreed and then lost because the court was taken.
- A no-show has ever cost you an unpaid hour.
- You have quoted a different price to two players for the same lesson.
- A stranger has ever asked how to book you and been told to text.
Stick with WhatsApp if
- Six regulars at fixed times on a court you control, and everyone pays.
- You take no new students and never move a lesson.
- You enjoy the messaging more than the coaching.
Rather have it walked through?
A free 30-minute call. Two minutes to book, no pitch.
Publish your lessons in an evening
Existing students do not need to change anything until their next lesson. Publish your availability, send the link, and let the next booking happen without a text.
Set your availability windows
Schedule, then Manage Availability: add the recurring days and times you take lessons, and block any dates you are away.
Create the private lesson class
Pick Private Lesson in the class wizard, set the duration tiers and their prices, and add a semi-private price to any tier you want to share.
Decide on approval and lead time
Leave approval on to vet each request or switch on auto-approval, and set a minimum lead time in hours so requests cannot land inside your buffer.
Assign a court if the club has them
With a court assigned, every request checks the court alongside your availability and the lesson blocks the court calendar once confirmed.
Share your profile link
Players book from your coach profile or the class page; either way it is the same lesson, at its exact time, on every calendar.
What to try with your first published lessons
Everything here is inside the free trial and takes an evening. Each step ends with something you can see on a calendar.
Set availability for Saturday mornings and book a lesson as a player.
The calendar offers only Saturday-morning slots, and the request appears on your schedule awaiting approval.
Assign a court that is already hired at ten, then request a ten o'clock lesson.
The player is told no court is available at that time and asked to pick another slot before paying.
Set a semi-private price on the sixty-minute tier and book for two.
The checkout shows the flat semi-private price for the pair, and the lesson lists both players.
Decline a request and suggest an alternative time.
The player receives a full credit and the suggested time, and the slot returns to your availability.
Set a minimum lead time of twenty-four hours and try to book tomorrow morning.
Slots inside the lead time are not offered on the calendar at all.
Got a question right now?
Instant answers, in the page, without leaving it.
Why clubs and coaches run on AllSquads
One platform for the whole operation: bookings, payments, courts, members and messages, built for racquet clubs and the coaches who run them.
Every class type on one timetable
Group classes, terms, camps, private lessons, socials, court hire and retreats all live on one schedule, with one roster per session.
Every way to pay
Upfront, weekly or monthly subscriptions, drop-ins, memberships, session packs and term instalments, collected online and paid out to your club every week.
Court hire with cost splitting
Players book one court or several in a single checkout and split the cost between up to eight people, so nobody chases anyone for their share.
A CRM with every channel
Every player and parent has a contact record, and you reach them by email, in-app message, push notification or broadcast. Paid plans add SMS for cancellations, reminders and payment requests.
Team scheduling
Coaches set their availability, you assign a head coach to each class, and a substitute takes a single session without rebuilding the class.
Admin that runs itself
Reminders go out before a session and before every subscription charge, the waitlist tells everyone waiting the moment a place opens, and cancellations turn into account credit under your own policy.
Promo codes and a pro shop
Discount codes at checkout, and a pro shop with member pricing and online or cash sales that land in the same weekly payout.
An AI agent on both sides
The Club Agent answers questions about your bookings, members and money from the dashboard, and the Concierge helps players find and book the right class.
Analytics you can act on
Revenue, bookings, attendance, court use and member trends, with weekly, monthly, quarterly and financial-year reports you can drill into.
Coming soon: Competitions: leagues, ladders and tournaments; The AllSquads app on the App Store and Google Play.
What AllSquads is
AllSquads is booking, payments and admin software for sports coaches and clubs. Players find your classes, book and pay online, and get reminded before every session. You get the roster, the money and the contact record in one place, with a payout to your bank every week. It runs term programs, casual classes, camps, private lessons and court hire side by side, so the whole operation is in one system rather than a booking tool plus a spreadsheet plus a payment app.
- Over ten thousand
- bookings taken
- Thousands
- of players
- Hundreds
- of classes live
- A growing group
- of Australian clubs
Less admin
Automated booking confirmations, 24hr and 1hr reminders, waitlists, credits, and cancellation management. Stop chasing people.
Get paid weekly
Players pay online at booking, via payment links, or you manage payments manually. Payouts are paid weekly, for the week ending Sunday, direct to your bank account.
Player contacts & CRM
Every booking adds a player to your contacts automatically. Import your existing list via CSV. Track membership, booking history, and notes.
Messaging & group chats
Message players one-on-one or in groups. Class group chats created automatically. Broadcast announcements to all followers.
Analytics built in
Track revenue, bookings, and player retention over time. Coach view, club view, and court hire stats — all in one dashboard.
“I had all of term 1 paid in the first week. 75% less admin, 100% fewer late cancellations, and 80% fewer emails and phone calls.”
Talk to a person
Two minutes, no pitch.
Founding rate locked for life
First 100 paying signups lock the founding rate, no matter what we change later.
Frequently asked questions
Where this comes from
- Coach and court availability checked together; duration tiers and semi-private
- Help centre: Class types
- Availability windows, manual blocks and request reminders
- Help centre: Coach guide
- Class sessions block private lesson availability automatically
- Help centre: Scheduling
- Declined and auto-cancelled requests credit the player in full
- Help: Cancellation policy
- Private lesson coach changes notified by email and in-app
- Help: Notifications
- Independent coaches connect their own Stripe account
- Help: Getting started
Put your first class online tonight
Start your free trial - full tier access, 1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.