# Blockouts

> Close a facility, or every facility, for a date and time range to cover maintenance, club training, or bank holidays.

Canonical: https://www.clubpal.app/docs/facility-hire/blockouts
Section: Facility hire

A blockout prevents bookings on a facility (or all facilities) for a specific date and time range. Use blockouts for maintenance windows, club training sessions, bank holidays, or any period you want to close to member bookings.

Manage blockouts at **Admin > Facility Hire > Blockouts**.

## Creating a blockout

Click **Add Blockout** and fill in the following fields:

**Facility**  
Select the facility the blockout applies to. Leave blank (or enable **Block all facilities**) to apply the blockout to every facility at once.

**Block all facilities**  
When enabled, the blockout applies to all facilities regardless of the **Facility** field. Useful for site-wide closures such as bank holidays or major events.

**Start date and time**  
The date and time the blockout begins.

**End date and time**  
The date and time the blockout ends. The end date can be the same as the start date for a single-day blockout, or a later date for a multi-day blockout.

**Reason**  
An optional label shown to admins, for example "Annual maintenance", "Club training", or "Bank Holiday". Members do not see the reason; they simply see the slot as unavailable.

**Admin reserved**  
Enable this when the facility is in use by the club rather than being closed for maintenance. An admin-reserved blockout indicates the space is occupied, which is useful for tracking club usage alongside member bookings.

> **Note**
>
> Blockouts always take priority over availability schedules. A slot that falls within a blockout period is unavailable even if the facility's weekly schedule says it is open.

## Blockout behaviour

- A blockout blocks any slot that **overlaps** the blockout period. A booking that starts before the blockout ends and ends after the blockout starts is rejected.
- Blockouts apply to new bookings only. Existing confirmed bookings are not cancelled when a blockout is created.
- Multi-day blockouts cover the full day on intermediate dates (between the start and end dates).

## Deleting a blockout

Click **Delete** on the blockout in the list. The blockout is removed immediately and slots within the former blockout period become available again.

> **Tip**
>
> If you want to prevent bookings permanently on a day of the week, use the facility's availability schedule to mark that day as closed rather than creating recurring blockouts.