Holiday closures: check which availability rule wins

Treat a closure as a rule to verify

WooCommerce Bookings resolves availability rules using priority, with a lower number overriding a higher number. For a hypothetical language tutor, that means a holiday closure should be tested against existing service and resource rules. It is not enough to add a closed date and assume every booking page honours it. Write the intended result first: no new lessons during the closure, with any explicitly approved exception documented separately. Then inspect the actual public options for each service rather than relying only on the admin calendar.

• WooCommerce: availability rule priority ↗

Keep normal hours separate from exceptions

Record the tutor's ordinary schedule in a simple form, then list temporary changes with dates and reasons. Avoid repeatedly editing the weekly schedule to represent a one-off absence, because it can be difficult to restore the original pattern correctly. Give exceptions an owner and an end date. If a special lesson is allowed during a closure, make that deliberate rather than the accidental result of an older rule winning. The person maintaining the calendar should understand which rule explains any available time a customer can see.

Check existing commitments as well

Closing new availability does not automatically explain what should happen to lessons already booked. Review those commitments and decide whether they proceed, move or are cancelled under the agreed terms. Contact affected customers through the business's established process and record the outcome. Keep a list of unresolved responses. In the hypothetical tutoring practice, a closed calendar with three existing lessons still needs attention. The owner should not mistake an empty public booking page for evidence that every affected student has been notified and given an appropriate next step. Keep a list of the service pages checked after a closure change, so a rarely booked offer does not accidentally retain conflicting availability.

Retest when the exception ends

Try booking immediately before, during and after the closed period. Include services with different durations and any manually created availability. Check the time zone displayed to the customer. After the closure, verify that ordinary hours return without leaving unintended gaps or opening hours that were meant to stay closed. Keep a short record of the test and the relevant rule changes. A reliable calendar is one whose availability can be explained and corrected by the owner, even when several exceptions overlap with the usual weekly pattern.