How to accept yoga class bookings on a WordPress site

List each class name, instructor, location, duration, price, maximum capacity, booking deadline and cancellation policy. Decide whether students book one date at a time or reserve a repeating weekly place.

Do this before configuring the site. A recurring class usually creates separate bookable sessions, so changing the timetable later may require editing future sessions rather than changing one master entry.

For a small studio with a few bookings, create a Classes page with the timetable and add a form that collects the student’s name, email, class and preferred date. Confirm each request by email and record confirmed places in a calendar or spreadsheet.

This manual route is cheap and simple, but it does not provide reliable live availability, automatic capacity control, online payment or reminder messages. For public bookings, use a booking plugin. WordPress itself lets you create pages and install plugins, but booking rules and availability come from the plugin.

In the dashboard, open Plugins, choose Add New, search for a class or appointment booking plugin, then install and activate it. You can also upload a plugin package from the same screen.

Check that the plugin supports group bookings, class capacity, recurring sessions, customer notifications and your preferred payment method. Do not assume that a calendar display includes capacity control; those are separate features in many booking systems.

Create each class or service with its name, instructor, duration, location, price and maximum number of students. Add the days and times, then set when bookings open and close if the plugin provides those controls.

For weekly classes, use the plugin’s recurring-event or recurring-schedule option rather than copying dates manually. Check the first few generated sessions because capacity, price and booking-window settings may be inherited from the first occurrence but edited separately later.

Connect the payment method supported by your site and decide whether a booking is confirmed immediately or held for approval. Set the confirmation, cancellation and rescheduling messages, and add practical details such as what to bring, arrival time and the studio address.

Send a test booking to confirm that the student and instructor receive the right messages. Scheduled reminders often depend on the site’s scheduled task system, so a reminder that works in the dashboard can still fail if the site’s cron process is unreliable.

Create a page called Book a class and insert the booking form, calendar or shortcode supplied by the plugin. Add it to the main menu and link to it from every class description and call-to-action button.

Test the complete customer journey on a phone: choose a class, submit the form, pay if required, receive the confirmation, and try booking the last available place twice. Also test a full class, cancellation and an incorrect email address before sending visitors to the page.

Review upcoming sessions regularly and update cancellations, instructor changes, holidays and room changes in the booking system. Do not only edit the timetable page, because customers may still be able to book an unchanged session in the booking database.

Collect only the information you need, explain how it is used and keep your privacy policy accurate. Names, email addresses and phone numbers are personal data, and WordPress recommends reviewing the data collected by themes, plugins and connected services.