Extend a booking
Move a booking's end later, see exactly what the added time costs before you confirm, and how payments and existing prices are treated.
Admins can extend a booking without rescheduling it: the start stays where it is and the end moves later. Open the booking, go to Schedule & details, and use the Extend booking section. It is not shown on cancelled or completed bookings.
Extending only ever changes the added period. Everything the customer already booked, and everything already paid, stays as it is.
What the added time costs
- Only the added period is priced. The price of the period that was already booked is history and is never recalculated.
- The current rate is used. The added period is priced with the rate your service has today — the same rate you see in the preview — not the rate that applied when the booking was made.
- Whole units. Time is charged in the unit your service is priced in, and starting a new unit charges the whole unit. See Pricing by hour, day and night for how each unit is counted.
Worked examples
| Situation | Before | After | Added charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle, priced per day (100 per day): extend from 3 days to 4 days | 3 days = 300 | 4 days = 400 | 100 |
| Vehicle, priced per day: extend a 3-day rental by just 5 minutes | 3 days = 300 | Crosses into a fourth day: 4 days = 400 | 100 |
| Accommodation, priced per night (80 per night): extend from 2 nights to 3 nights | 2 nights = 160 | 3 nights = 240 | 80 |
| Room or resource priced per hourly session (session length 60 minutes, 40 per session): extend from 1 session to 3 sessions | 1 session = 40 | 3 sessions = 120 | 80 |
Two more cases where the extension changes the schedule but adds no charge:
- A stay that already includes the extra time, for example extending an accommodation stay by a few hours that do not cross another night.
- A team-delivered hourly service priced per person: its price depends on how many people are booked, not on how long the booking lasts.
When an extension adds no charge it is applied straight away.
What is added — and what is not
The added period can carry:
- The base rate for the added time.
- Per-unit or percentage fees for additional people — the additional driver or guest fee, when the service has one and the booking has more people than the service includes. These are charged for the added period only.
The added period does not repeat:
- One-time (fixed) fees. A fee that was charged once for the booking is not charged again.
- Introductory offer, service discount and discount code. They priced the original booking and are not applied to the added time; a discount code is not used up a second time.
- Extras, travel (commute) charges and deposit instructions. They do not depend on how long the booking lasts, so extending does not change them.
Preview first, then confirm
- Choose a quick extension (for example +30 min, +1 hr, or whole days for nightly stays) or pick Custom.
- ServEase first works out the commercial effect. If the extra time adds no charge, the booking is extended and you see Booking extended.
- If it adds a charge, a Confirm additional charge window opens. It shows the Current end, the New end and the Added period, then the Charge for the added period line by line, the Booking total and the Outstanding balance (each as "from → to").
- It also states that the added period is priced using the current rate and the existing booked price is not changed, and lists what was not applied to the added period.
- Nothing changes until you press Confirm extension. Cancel leaves the booking exactly as it was.
If the price changed while you were looking
The confirmation you give is tied to exactly what you reviewed. If something changes before you confirm — a payment arrives, someone else extends the booking, or the price is edited — the extension is not saved. The window reopens with the updated figures and a notice, The booking or its price changed while you were reviewing. Check the updated details and confirm again. Review the new numbers and press Confirm extension again. If the change means the extension no longer adds a charge, you are told to choose the extension again.
What happens to payment
The settlement sentence in the confirmation window tells you which case applies.
| Booking state | What happens |
|---|---|
| Nothing paid yet | The booking's open charge is increased by the added amount, so the outstanding balance grows by the same amount. |
| Partly paid | The payments already received stay unchanged. A new charge for the added period is added, so the outstanding balance becomes the previous balance plus the added amount. |
| Fully paid | The payments already received stay unchanged. A new charge for the added period is added, so the added amount is now outstanding. |
| Billed when completed (pay after the service) | The booking total increases and the final charge will include the added period. |
Payments are a record of what actually happened, so an extension never edits or replaces one. The new charge simply becomes part of the booking's charges and outstanding balance.
When an extension cannot be applied automatically
In a few cases the added time would carry a charge that ServEase cannot settle for you. The window then says This extension can’t be applied automatically and Nothing was changed — the booking keeps its current end time and nothing is charged.
- Paid with a Service Voucher. A voucher covers the booked period only, so extra time that adds a charge cannot be settled with it. See Service Vouchers.
- Covered by a Subscription. ServEase cannot confirm that a longer booking is still included in the subscription.
- No system-issued main charge. The booking was billed manually, or has not been billed yet, so there is no charge to add the extra time to.
Extensions that add no charge are not blocked by any of these: they go ahead as normal.
Good to know
- Extending is an admin action.
- An extension can never overlap another booking on the same team or resource (including a resource's turnaround time). Move or cancel the conflicting booking first.
- Availability and the public booking pages reflect the longer booking automatically.