A court booking system runs the daily rhythm of a club: who plays when, on which court, at what price, and whether it has been paid. Changing it later is painful. This guide gives you a neutral checklist for choosing a court booking system for a tennis, padel or pickleball club, plus questions for a trial. It does not rank products.
Start with your rules, not the feature list
Before you watch any demo, write one page on how your club works today.
- Who may book: members only, guests too, or members with a guest?
- How many days ahead can people book, and is it the same for members and guests?
- Until when can a booking be cancelled without a charge?
- Are there daily or weekly limits per member?
- Do prices change between peak and off-peak hours? Do members pay less?
- Which courts are kept for lessons, teams or members only?
This page becomes your test script. A system that cannot express your rules pushes staff back to phone calls and spreadsheets.
Court booking system checklist: rules and calendar
Booking rules. Check that each rule can be set per court or per group of courts, not only once for the whole club. Ask how no-shows are handled, whether full slots can have a waiting list, and whether players get reminders.
Several sports. If you run tennis and padel courts, or plan to add pickleball, each sport should have its own slot length, prices and rules.
Front-desk calendar. Your staff will look at it all day. One column per court, day and week views and drag and drop save real time. Time how long a phone booking takes to enter.
Recurring bookings and closures. A weekly team practice, a season-long Tuesday slot or a court closed for resurfacing should be created once, handled as a series, with conflicts shown clearly.
Members, lessons and coaches
Members and memberships. Look for member categories, membership periods and renewals, and lesson packages used up session by session. Ask whether you can import your current member list from Excel.
Lessons and coaches. If you run an academy, lessons should block the court automatically. Group lessons need participant lists and attendance. Coach payouts need clear rules (per lesson, per hour or per player).
Payments, reconciliation and exports
Decide what you need now: payment at the desk, online payment, or both. Online payment can reduce no-shows, but some players will always pay at the club. Each booking should show its payment status, and you should get daily and monthly payment lists by type (court bookings, memberships, lessons, leagues) for your accountant. Excel or PDF export is the minimum.
For card payments, any party that stores, processes or transmits card data has to meet the PCI DSS standard. In most setups that is a payment provider, not the booking software itself. Ask the vendor which provider handles card data and whether it can show proof of compliance, such as an Attestation of Compliance.
Player app, communication, leagues and reports
Player side. Test booking on a phone: can a player see free slots, book, pay online or choose to pay at the club, and cancel within your rules? Can players find partners or join open matches?
Communication. Push notifications, e-mail and an inbox cut down on phone calls. If you need SMS or WhatsApp, ask what is supported and who pays for the messages.
Leagues and tournaments. Ladders, round-robin leagues, knockout draws and social padel formats such as the Americano (partners rotate every round) keep members active. Check that results update the standings without manual work.
Reports. At least occupancy per court and hour and revenue by type. Knowing the busiest hours lets you set peak prices on facts.
Data protection and data portability
Your booking system holds names, contact details, juniors' birth dates and payment history.
- EU (GDPR): the club is usually the controller and the vendor a processor. Article 28 requires a contract with the processor. Among other points, it must say that at the end of the service the processor deletes or returns the data, at the club's choice. Article 20 gives members the right to receive the data they provided in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. The French regulator CNIL names CSV and JSON as examples.
- Turkey (KVKK, Law No. 6698): the controller is jointly responsible with the processor for technical and organisational security measures, and transfers abroad follow Article 9. Ask where the data is hosted.
- Russia (Federal Law 152-FZ): Article 18(5) requires Russian citizens' personal data to be recorded and stored in databases located in Russia, with narrow exceptions. Clarify this if you operate there.
Whatever the law, ask for a full export of members, bookings and payments, and test it during the trial.
Accessibility, languages, support and exit terms
Accessibility. WCAG 2.2, a W3C Recommendation since December 2024, is the common reference for accessible web content. Level AA is the usual target. Ask whether the player-facing screens have been checked against it.
Languages and currencies. Members and coaches from abroad need the interface in their language, and prices must show in your local currency.
Onboarding and migration. Who imports members, sets up courts and prices, and trains staff? How long does it take? What happens to future bookings already in your old system?
Contract and exit. Check the minimum term, notice period, price changes, transaction fees and what you get back when you leave.
Quick checklist for court booking software
| Area | Proof to ask for |
|---|---|
| Booking rules | Your own rules set up and working per court |
| Calendar | Your front desk running a busy evening |
| Members | Your Excel list imported |
| Lessons | A recurring group lesson that blocks the court |
| Payments | A daily payment list that matches the till |
| Player side | A booking and a cancellation on a real phone |
| Data | A full export and a signed processing agreement |
| Exit | Notice period and data return written in the contract |
How to run a court booking system trial
- Shortlist two or three systems that cover your must-have rules.
- Set up your real courts, prices and rules, not the demo club.
- Let the front desk run a full week, including a peak evening and a weekend.
- Ask a few members of different ages to book from their own phones.
- Ask each vendor: Who handles card data? Where is the data hosted? How do we export everything? What is not included in the price? How fast does support answer, and in which language?
- Write down everything staff still had to do outside the system. That list is your real answer.
Where PFM fits
PFM (Play For More) is a player app plus a web panel for clubs. The PFM Club Panel has a court timeline with one column per court (day, week and month views, drag and drop), recurring bookings and court closures. It handles tennis, padel and pickleball courts with hourly price tables, member prices and members-only courts. Booking rules cover who may book, how far ahead, cancellation windows, daily and weekly quotas, a waiting list and reminders. Members are imported from Excel and grouped in categories; memberships and lesson packages run on credits. The academy covers private and group lessons, recurring series that block the court, attendance and coach payout rules. Payment ledgers are kept per type and export to Excel or PDF, and reports show occupancy and the busiest hours. Leagues (round-robin, group, knockout, tennis ladder) and padel Americano, Team Americano and Mexicano are built in. Players pay at the club or through the PFM app, as the club decides, and the club's free slots and open matches appear in the player app. Communication runs through push, bulk e-mail and an inbox, plus WhatsApp lesson notifications from the club's own number. The court calendar can be embedded on the club's own website with one line of code; once the club turns on web booking, players book from it without the app and pay at the club.
What PFM does not do today: no point of sale or stock, no SMS, and no light or door control. Courts are for tennis, padel and pickleball only. The panel comes in six languages, but some screens are still partly in English and the academy screens are in Turkish only.
If PFM matches your list, the Club Panel page shows how it works, and you can see the plans before you plan a trial.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), Articles 20 and 28, EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union
- The right to data portability (in French), CNIL
- Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698, Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK)
- Federal Law No. 152-FZ "On Personal Data" (in Russian), ConsultantPlus
- PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), PCI Security Standards Council
- What is an Attestation of Compliance?, PCI Security Standards Council
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, W3C
Frequently asked questions
- What should a court booking system for a tennis club include?
- At minimum: a court calendar for the front desk, booking rules you can set yourself (who may book, how far ahead, cancellation), member and guest prices, payment records you can export, and booking from a phone for players. Lessons, leagues and reports matter more as the club grows.
- Do we need online payment from day one?
- No. Many clubs start with payment at the desk and add online payment later. What matters is that every booking shows whether it is paid and that the payment list matches your till and bank at the end of the day.
- Who is responsible for member data when a club uses booking software?
- Under the GDPR the club is usually the controller and the software vendor a processor, so you need a written processing agreement. In Turkey, the KVKK makes the controller jointly responsible with the processor for security measures.
- Can we take our data with us if we switch court booking software?
- You should be able to. Before signing, ask for an export of members, bookings and payments in a common format such as CSV or Excel, and for a contract clause on returning or deleting the data when the service ends.
- How long should a trial of court booking software last?
- Long enough to cover one normal week, including a busy weekday evening and a weekend. Run it with your real courts, prices and rules and with the staff who will use it, not only with a demo account.