Create and configure a package
Packages are what guests actually book on your reservation page. Each one is a bookable experience with its own name, price, duration, and the resources it ties up — and most venues offer several, one for each way a guest can spend time with you.
A bowling alley might have a "Bowling Reservation" priced per lane per hour and a "Birthday Party" that bundles a lane and a party room for a flat rate. A golf venue might rent a "Simulator Bay" by the hour and sell a "Corporate Party" package for a group buyout. Each of those is a separate package, and a guest picks one when they book.
This guide walks through every card on the package detail page — from naming and pricing it to setting its duration, assigning resources, and flipping it live for guests.
Set up your resources before you create packages. A package books against resource categories you've already built — without them, there's nothing for the package to reserve.
New here? Start with Create your resources, then come back to build your first package.
Open the venue you're configuring, go to the Packages tab, and click Create Package. The Create a Package form captures the basics — Package Name, Package Prefix, Pricing Method, Priority, Short Description, and Long Description. Click Save changes and you'll land on the package detail page, where every other setting lives in its own card.
Package Info
Click Edit on the Package Info card to update the name, prefix, descriptions, pricing method, and priority you set on creation.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Package Name | What guests see on the reservation page. Be specific — "Bowling Reservation" beats "Reservation." |
| Package Prefix | A short identifier (2–4 letters) that prepends every reservation number for this package. Use something recognizable — BWL for Bowling, PRT for Party. Helps your staff sort reservations at a glance. |
| Pricing Method | How the package is priced. The method changes which fields appear on the schedule and the booking page. |
| Priority | Controls where this package appears relative to others on the reservation page. Higher numbers show first. |
| Short Description | One sentence shown on the package card. Aim for what's included plus a hook. |
| Long Description | Full details guests see after clicking into the package. Include what's included, fine print, restrictions. |
Pricing Method offers eight models — from Per Lane per hour and Per Person per hour to several Flat Rate options and Age Groups pricing. For how each one works and where to set the actual prices, see Configure package pricing.
Package Settings
Click Edit on the Package Settings card to set how resources are allocated, guest limits, and the deposit.
Resource allocation
The Resource Allocation dropdown controls how many resources Rex assigns to each booking and whether that number scales with the number of guests.
Flexible Based on Guest Count
RecommendedRex automatically assigns more resources as guest count goes up. You set the Max Guests on Resource plus a min/max for the whole booking. Best for activities where each resource has a real capacity limit.
Best for: Bowling lanes, golf bays, anything where one resource holds a small group and large parties need to split.
Fixed Number
Every booking uses the same number of resources, set under Number of Resources, regardless of guest count.
Best for: Private rooms, single-resource experiences where the price doesn't change with party size.
Guest Chooses
Guests pick the number of resources at checkout from the options you provide.
Best for: When guests need explicit control — "how many lanes do you want?"
Guest limits and deposit
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Max Guests on Resource | (Flexible mode) The cap on a single resource before Rex auto-assigns a second one. For bowling, this might be 6 — a party of 7 triggers a 2-lane booking. |
| Minimum Guests | The smallest party size a guest can book — usually 1. |
| Maximum Guests | The largest party size you'll accept. With 6 per lane and a max of 24, that's up to 4 lanes per booking. |
| Deposit | A percentage of the package total or a fixed dollar amount, collected at checkout. 100% is common for low-priced bookings; 20–50% with the balance due at the venue is normal for higher-priced parties and events. |
Duration Settings
Click Edit on the Duration Settings card to set how long bookings last and how far in advance guests can book. Start with the Duration Mode — how the length of each booking is decided:
Set Duration
Most commonEvery booking is the same length — you pick it, and guests don't choose.
Best for: Fixed-length activities, like a 90-minute escape room.
Guest Chooses Duration
Guests pick from the durations you allow (1 hr, 1.5 hr, 2 hr, and so on), shown as a dropdown at checkout.
Best for: Lanes or bays rented by the hour, where guests decide how long to stay.
All Day (fills rest of day)
Each booking fills from the selected start time to the end of that day's open hours. The duration is set automatically.
Best for: Full-day rentals or buyouts that run until you close.
The rest of the card fine-tunes the timing around each booking:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Buffer time before reservation | Padding added before each reservation — for setup, cleaning, or staff transition between groups. |
| Buffer time after reservation | Padding added after each reservation, for the same purpose. |
| Booking Cut Off | How much notice a booking needs — reservations close this far before the start time. |
| How far in advance can guests book? | The furthest ahead a guest can book. Anything outside the window is unbookable. |
Schedule
The Schedules card at the top of the page sets the package's hours of operation and the price for each time block. Click Add Schedule to create one — most packages only need a single schedule covering all operating hours.
Schedule setup has its own builder with date ranges, per-day time slots, rates, peak pricing, and age-restricted windows. See Set up your schedule and pricing for the full walkthrough.
Assign Resource Category
Click Edit on the Assign Resource Category card, then Add Item. Pick the resource category this package draws from — for a Bowling Reservation, that's your Bowling Lanes category. The Primary resource is required; add a row for each extra type if the package spans more than one (like a lane plus a party room).
Choosing how many of each resource a booking reserves, restricting a package to specific resources, and staggering resources across the booking window are all covered in Assign resource categories to a package.
Taxes and Fees
Click Edit on the Taxes and Fees card to set the package's tax rate, add custom fees, and choose when each is collected.
For custom fees — booking fees, equipment charges, service fees — and the difference between taxed and untaxed fees, see Add custom fees to an activity or package.
Activate the package
The main column holds the package's settings; the Package Controls card on the right is where you flip it live and set how it shows up. Toggle Package Status to On — until you do, the package is inactive and invisible to guests.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Package Status | On/Off toggle. Off hides the package from guests and the Host App, regardless of visibility. |
| Visibility | Default (everyone), Admin only (staff in the Host App), or Front-end only (guests, not the Host App). Default is the right choice for most packages. |
| Package Thumbnail | The image guests see on the package card and detail page. Use a recognizable photo of the activity at your venue. |
Advanced package settings
The Package Controls card and a handful of others hold settings most packages don't need on day one — hiding a package behind a direct link, contact-only booking, cancellation and modification rules, and host-app overrides.
When you're ready to fine-tune how a package behaves, see Configure advanced package settings.
Clone an existing package
Once you have one package set up, you don't have to build the next from scratch. From the Packages list, open a similar package's actions menu and choose Clone. The clone copies the package's settings — just give it a new name and tweak what's specific to it.
Assigned resources don't transfer when you clone a package. The cloned package starts with no resource categories attached. Open the Assign Resource Category card on the new package and add them again before activating.
Updated Jun 22, 2026
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