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Introduction

Most bookings are for one person having one service. But a booking can take several other shapes: a parent booking herself and both children in the one visit, a couples massage with two therapists, eight friends sharing a high tea, a whole bathhouse booked out for a private party. Bella has a purpose-built setup for each — and picking the right one is the whole game, because each behaves differently at pricing, availability and payment time. This page is the starting point. It lays out every shape a multi-person booking can take, gives you a decision table to pick one in under a minute, and a worked example for each. Once you know which shape you need, follow the link to its deep-dive guide.
Three deep-dive guides sit underneath this one, and you’ll be pointed to them below:

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The six shapes at a glance

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Which setup do I need?

Read down the “You want to…” column, find the row that matches how the service is really delivered, and use the setup on the right. The deciding questions are almost always: does each person need their own team member?, do they share one space?, and am I discounting the combined price?
Two questions settle almost every case. “Does each person need their own team member?” — yes → group booking; no, they share a space → People per booking. “Am I giving a combined discount for booking together?” — yes → a fixed-total parallel bundle; no → group booking or People per booking as above.

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The six shapes, worked through

Every worked figure below is shown as a plain number in your business’s own currency — Bella uses your location’s currency everywhere, so read 120 as A$120, £120, €120, or whatever your business trades in.

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1. Individual booking

The baseline: one client, one service line. A client books a 45-minute facial priced 90; the appointment holds one team member (and a room, if the service needs one) for the slot, and the client pays 90. There’s nothing to switch on — every other shape on this page is this pattern extended to more people. Why it’s the default. Most appointments really are one person having one thing. Keeping the simple case simple means the multi-person setups only appear when you deliberately enable them on a service.

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2. Family and multi-client booking

One appointment can carry several service lines, each assigned to a different linked family member, all booked and paid for by the account holder. It’s how a parent books the whole household’s Saturday morning in a single visit. Worked example. Sam books a 10:00 am visit for the family: It’s one appointment and one payment of 145, made by Sam. Each line is recorded against the right family member, so Ava’s and Noah’s own visit history, notes and photos stay on their client records — not lumped onto Sam’s. The payer’s benefits fund the whole appointment. Because Sam is the account holder and the one paying, Sam’s entitlements cover every line: if Sam holds a membership that discounts services, or a prepaid package or client credit balance, it’s applied across all three lines — the children don’t each need their own membership. This is deliberate: the account holder is the payer and the point of contact, so their “wallet” is what settles the visit. Why the model works this way. A parent paying for the household shouldn’t have to give each dependant their own membership just to share a benefit, and each child’s clinical/visit record should still be their own. Recording the family member per line, while settling against the payer, gets both right at once. To link family members first (or let a teenager book independently), see Managing family members.

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3. Group (party) booking

A group booking repeats the same service for a small party, with each guest getting their own team member at the same start time — a couples massage with two therapists, two friends in for facials. It’s the one-toggle alternative to maintaining a separate “Couples” version of a service. Worked example. You already offer a 60-minute Remedial Massage at 120, performed by your therapists. On the service’s Group bookings tab you turn Allow group bookings on and set Max party size to 2. A client picks the service, a How many people? stepper appears, and they choose 2. Bella offers only the slots where two therapists are free at once, auto-assigns two distinct therapists (Alex and Sam), and the booker pays for the whole party in one go:
  • Price is per person × the party: 120 × 2 = 240.
  • If you take deposits, they accrue per guest too.
  • The two lines sit on one appointment; move or cancel it and the whole party moves together.
Why the model works this way. Some services genuinely need a provider each — one therapist can’t massage two people at once — so Bella creates a real, separately-staffed line per guest and only offers a time when enough qualified team members are free. And because each guest is a full appointment line, the price scales honestly per person; there’s no built-in group discount (for that, see bundles below). Full guide: Group Bookings.

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4. Shared-space attendance

Sometimes several people share one booking in one space, with one — or no — provider: a couples float room, a private sauna for two, a high tea for eight. This is the service’s People per booking setting (on the Resources tab), together with how it’s priced — per booking or per person. Worked example. You run a Private Sauna session (45 min) in a room that seats up to four. On the service’s Resources tab you set People per booking to 4. A client books, and a How many people? stepper asks the headcount — they choose 3:
  • It’s one booking, one line. The declared headcount decides how much of the room it uses: occupancy = headcount × units per person = 3 × 1 = 3 of the room’s capacity, leaving room for one more solo booking.
  • Naming who’s coming is optional — the booker can link family members and/or type plain guest names, up to the headcount minus one. (A high tea for eight is the same setup with People per booking set to 8.)
Per booking or per person. How you price the service decides how the charge scales with the headcount:
  • Per booking (the default) — one flat charge for the whole booking. Price the sauna at 90 and it’s 90 whether one person or four share it. This is how shared-space services have always priced, so existing services are unaffected.
  • Per person — the price is the per-head rate, charged for everyone coming. Price the sauna at 30 per person and a party of three pays 30 × 3 = 90; a party of four pays 120. Online, the card reads “From 30 per person” and the review line shows the sum (3 × 30 = 90, “For 3 people · priced per person”). The headcount is folded into the one line, so a membership, package or deposit settles the whole amount exactly like any other line (add-ons stay per line, never multiplied per head).
For a discounted fixed party price instead — a “2-for” below the natural sum — use a fixed-total bundle, not per-person pricing. A per-size variant is another way to price distinct party sizes when they also differ in duration. Why the model works this way. A couples float or a group sitting is one delivery in one space — there’s no second provider and no second appointment line. Whether you charge once for the room or per head, it stays one booking, one payment and one space reservation. Full guide: People per booking and private hire.

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5. Private hire

Private hire is when one booking reserves the whole space, so no one else can be booked into it for that time — however many people actually turn up. It’s the service’s Reserves the whole space setting. Worked example. You offer a Private Bathhouse Hire at a flat 300 for the slot. Turn Reserves the whole space on for that service. Whoever books it holds the entire bathhouse for the session — whether two people come or twelve — and Bella won’t let any other booking share the room at that time. Why the model works this way. Here exclusivity is the product: the client is buying the room, not seats in it, so the headcount is irrelevant to what’s reserved. That’s a different question from People per booking (which counts heads against capacity), so it’s a separate setting. Full guide: People per booking and private hire.

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6. Bundles

A bundle composes several services into one item that a client books in a single flow. Two of its jobs are about serving more than one person at once: Different services at the same time — a parallel bundle. Hair and makeup for a bride, a facial and a massage for a couple: a parallel bundle runs different services simultaneously, each staffed by its own team member. A discounted duo or party price — a parallel same-service bundle with a fixed total. A group booking is deliberately priced per person × the party, with no combined discount. So when you want to advertise a reduced “couples” or “2-for” price, use a bundle instead:
  • Add the same service twice as a two-component parallel bundle.
  • Set the Pricing Mode to Set total price (or % discount) — this is the only place a combined price below the sum lives.
  • Turn on Show savings so the online booking page strikes through the original.
Worked example. Your Signature Massage is 120 for 60 minutes. Two of them naturally total 240. Create a “Couples Massage” parallel bundle with two Signature Massage components and a fixed total of 200. The client sees 200 (saving 40), each leg is delivered by its own therapist at the same time, and the fixed total is split across the two lines internally so coverage and reporting stay correct. Why the model works this way. Group bookings keep per-person pricing so a party of three costs exactly three, transparently. Discounting is a separate, deliberate act — and the bundle’s fixed-total mode is the single lever for it, whether you’re combining different services or offering a reduced price on the same one. Full guide: Service Bundles, and specifically Sequential vs parallel execution.

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What can’t combine

These shapes are alternatives, and a few deliberately can’t overlap:
  • Group booking and People per booking can’t both be on for one service. They’re two different answers to “several people”, and the group fan-out already gives each guest their own line. If a service has People per booking above 1, set it back to 1 before switching group bookings on (Bella prompts you).
  • Group booking and private hire can’t both be on for one service. They’re opposite booking shapes — private hire (Reserves the whole space) holds the entire room for one booking, while a group booking fans out into a separate line per guest, each needing their own team member and space. Turn one off before switching the other on.
  • A bundle can’t be group-booked, and a party line isn’t a bundle leg. A bundle is already a composition of services; to run a bundle for several people, book it once per person. A group booking’s per-guest lines and a bundle’s component lines are different mechanisms and don’t nest.
  • Typed guest names are labels only. When a booker names a guest by typing their name (rather than linking a family member), that name is a display label — it creates no client record, carries no contact details, and grants none of that guest’s own entitlements. To give someone their own history, notifications and benefits, link them as a family member instead.

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What isn’t supported yet

Drop-in classes — one instructor leading a fixed session that many people sign up for independently (each booking and paying separately into the same class) — are not yet supported. Today’s nearest fits, depending on what you need:
  • If one payer is booking the whole group into a shared session, use People per booking — one booking holds the class for a declared headcount.
  • If each person must book and pay for themselves, take individual bookings at the same start time (limited by how many can be served at once), and use a room’s capacity to cap the number.
Neither gives a true “class register” of independent sign-ups against one instructor — that’s a planned capability, not a current one.

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FAQs

Q: A parent wants to book herself and two kids in one visit — which setup? A: A family and multi-client booking. Link the children as family members first, then add a service line for each on the one appointment. The parent (account holder) pays once, and her benefits fund every line. Q: Couples massage with two therapists vs a shared couples room — what’s the difference? A: If each person needs their own therapist at the same time, that’s a group booking (Bella assigns two distinct therapists, price per person × 2). If they share one room with one or no provider, that’s People per booking (one booking — priced per booking or per person, your choice). Q: I want to offer a discounted couples price — how? A: Not with a group booking (those are always per person × the party). Create a parallel bundle of the same service twice, set a fixed total below the natural sum, and turn on Show savings. See the bundle worked example. Q: How do I charge more for a bigger shared-space party? A: Set the service to charge per person — the charge then scales with the headcount automatically (per-head × people). If different party sizes also differ in duration, a variant per size (“2 people”, “4 people”) is an alternative. For a discounted fixed party price, use a fixed-total bundle. See Shared-space attendance. Q: Can I book out the whole room for a private party? A: Yes — that’s private hire. Turn on Reserves the whole space on the service, and one booking holds the entire room regardless of headcount. Q: If I type a guest’s name, do they get their own loyalty points and history? A: No. A typed guest name is a label only — no client record, no entitlements. Link them as a family member to give them their own record, notifications and benefits. Q: Can I run a drop-in class where everyone books themselves? A: Not yet — see What isn’t supported yet for the nearest current options.