payload-reserve

name

payload-reserve

description

Expert guide for the payload-reserve plugin — a reservation and booking system for Payload CMS 3.x. Use when working with: reservation systems, booking systems, appointment scheduling, calendar views, availability checks, conflict detection, double-booking prevention, status workflows (pending/confirmed/completed/cancelled/no-show), buffer times, cancellation policies, schedule management, service/resource configuration, customer management, walk-in bookings, resource owner multi-tenancy, staff scheduling and auto-provisioning, guest (account-less) bookings, multi-resource bookings, required resource pools, time-off / leave management, capacity and inventory, extra reservation fields, admin UI components (calendar, lanes timeline, dashboard widget, availability grid, availability-aware time picker), CalendarView resource filter, internationalization / translations, or integrating payments (Stripe) and notifications with a Payload CMS reservation plugin. Triggers on: "payload-reserve", "payloadReserve", "reservation plugin", "booking plugin", "appointment plugin", "schedule plugin", "availability overview", "calendar view", "reservation conflict", "double booking", "booking status", "cancellation policy", "resource owner", "resourceOwnerMode", "multi-tenant reservations", "extra reservation fields", "staff provisioning", "staffProvisioning", "guest booking", "allowGuestBooking", "requiredResources", "multi-resource booking", "time off", "leaveTypes", "resourceTypes", "reservation translations", "reservation i18n".

payload-reserve

A full-featured reservation/booking plugin for Payload CMS 3.x. Adds scheduling with conflict detection, a configurable status machine, multi-resource bookings (with auto-expanded required resource pools), capacity tracking, resource owner multi-tenancy, staff scheduling & auto-provisioning, guest (account-less) bookings, extra reservation fields, 6 public REST endpoints, and admin UI components (calendar view with month/week/day/lanes/pending modes + availability shading and click-to-book, an availability-aware time picker, dashboard widget, availability grid). Fully internationalized — ships 12 admin-UI locales.

Install

pnpm add payload-reserve
# or
npm install payload-reserve

Peer dependencies: payload ^3.79.0, @payloadcms/ui ^3.79.0, @payloadcms/translations ^3.79.0

Quick Start

import { buildConfig } from 'payload'
import { payloadReserve } from 'payload-reserve'

export default buildConfig({
  collections: [/* your collections */],
  plugins: [
    payloadReserve(), // zero-config — all defaults apply
  ],
})

What Gets Created (defaults)

5 collections: services, resources, schedules, customers (auth), reservations

Admin components: Calendar view (replaces reservations list — month/week/day/lanes/pending, with availability shading + click-to-book), availability-aware startTime slot picker on the reservation form, Dashboard widget (today's stats), Availability overview at /admin/reservation-availability

6 REST endpoints: GET /api/reserve/availability, GET /api/reserve/slots, GET /api/reserve/resource-availability, POST /api/reserve/book (supports guest + items), POST /api/reserve/cancel (owner/admin or guest via token), GET /api/reservation-customer-search

Default status flow: pending -> confirmed -> completed | cancelled | no-show

Extend Your Own Users Collection

payloadReserve({
  userCollection: 'users', // injects name, phone, notes, bookings join into your existing collection
})

Resource Owner Multi-Tenancy

Opt-in mode for Airbnb-style platforms where each user manages their own resources.

payloadReserve({
  userCollection: 'users',
  resourceOwnerMode: {
    adminRoles: ['admin'],
    ownerField: 'owner',
    ownedServices: false,
  },
})

Auto-wires ownership access control on Resources, Schedules, and Reservations. Set ownedServices: true to also scope Services. The access override in plugin config always takes precedence. Set ownerCollection when owners live in a different collection than your customers (e.g. staff in users); it defaults to staffProvisioning.userCollection ?? slugs.customers.

Staff Scheduling & Auto-Provisioning

Opt-in staffProvisioning (requires resourceOwnerMode) auto-creates an owner-scoped Resource whenever a user gains a staff role. The Resource is created by impersonating the staff user, so owner is always that user. Idempotent, non-blocking, never auto-deleted on demotion.

payloadReserve({
  userCollection: 'users',
  resourceOwnerMode: { adminRoles: ['admin'] },
  staffProvisioning: {
    staffRoles: ['stylist', 'therapist'], // required, non-empty
    roleField: 'role',     // default 'role'
    resourceType: 'staff', // must be a valid resourceType
    nameFrom: 'name',      // default 'name', falls back to email
    beforeCreate: ({ data, user }) => ({ ...data, tenant: user.tenant }), // optional tenant stamp
  },
})

Staff manage their own time off via Schedule.exceptions (date, optional endDate inclusive range, type from leaveTypes). Customize the resourceTypes (default ['staff','equipment','room']) and leaveTypes (default ['vacation','sick','personal','closure','other']) vocabularies.

Guest (Account-less) Bookings

payloadReserve({ allowGuestBooking: true }) // per-service override: 'inherit' | 'enabled' | 'disabled'

A guest booking carries inline guest (name + email/phone) instead of a customer (now optional). The plugin generates a cancellationToken exposed via afterBookingCreate (never returned over the API); guests cancel via POST /api/reserve/cancel { reservationId, token }. The plugin sends no email/SMS itself.

Multi-Resource Bookings

A service can declare requiredResources (hasMany) — extra pools every booking occupies (e.g. a shared chair). On create, expandRequiredResources appends them to items[] and conflict detection blocks the booking if any pool is full. Slot discovery intersects the schedules/capacity of all required resources.

Internationalization

All admin strings are translatable; 12 locales bundled (en, fr, de, es, ru, pl, tr, ar, zh, id, fa, hi). Translations merge into Payload's i18n config and host-provided translations take precedence. All but Hindi ship in Payload core and appear in the language switcher automatically; hi must be registered as a custom language by the host. See references/i18n.md.

Common Config Options

payloadReserve({
  adminGroup: 'Reservations',       // admin panel group label
  defaultBufferTime: 0,             // buffer minutes between bookings
  cancellationNoticePeriod: 24,     // minimum hours notice to cancel
  userCollection: 'users',          // extend existing auth collection
  disabled: false,                  // set true to disable plugin
  extraReservationFields: [],       // extra Payload fields appended to Reservations
  allowGuestBooking: false,         // account-less bookings (per-service override available)
  resourceTypes: ['staff', 'equipment', 'room'],          // Resource.resourceType options (1st is default)
  leaveTypes: ['vacation', 'sick', 'personal', 'closure', 'other'], // Schedule.exceptions[].type options
  resourceOwnerMode: {              // opt-in multi-tenant owner mode
    adminRoles: ['admin'],
    ownerField: 'owner',
    ownedServices: false,
    ownerCollection: 'users',       // collection the owner field relates to
  },
  staffProvisioning: {              // opt-in; REQUIRES resourceOwnerMode
    staffRoles: ['stylist'],
  },
})

Key Patterns

• Escape hatch — bypass all validation hooks: context: { skipReservationHooks: true } on any payload.create/update call
• Status machine — fully configurable; blockingStatuses control conflict detection, terminalStatuses lock records
• Idempotency — pass idempotencyKey on POST /api/reserve/book to prevent duplicate submissions
• endTime — always auto-calculated from startTime + service.duration; do not set manually for fixed services
• Guest vs customer — a reservation needs either a customer or a guest (not both); guest cancellation uses the cancellationToken delivered via afterBookingCreate
• Role-aware staff/admin detection — in single-collection (userCollection) setups, staff are detected by role (adminRoles ∪ staffRoles), not just collection; required for staff to create non-default-status bookings, cancel others' bookings, and use customer search
• Multi-resource conflicts — conflict detection counts a resource held at top-level resource or inside any booking's items[]; a service's requiredResources are auto-expanded into items[]

Reference Files

Load the relevant file when the user's question is about that topic:

Topic	File
All plugin options, slugs, access, resourceOwnerMode, staffProvisioning, resourceTypes/leaveTypes, full config example	references/configuration.md
Collection schemas (fields, types, examples — incl. guest, items, requiredResources, owner, exceptions)	references/collections.md
Status machine config, custom statuses, transitions, internal hook order	references/status-machine.md
Duration types, multi-resource bookings, required resources, capacity modes, guest bookings	references/booking-features.md
Plugin hook callbacks + the staff-provisioning user hook	references/hooks-api.md
REST API: all 6 endpoints (params, responses, fetch examples)	references/rest-api.md
Admin UI: CalendarView (lanes/pending + shading), availability time field, dashboard widget, availability overview	references/admin-ui.md
Real-world examples: salon, hotel, restaurant, staff scheduling, guest bookings, multi-resource, Stripe, email, multi-tenant	references/examples.md
Internationalization: bundled locales, overriding strings, adding a language, Hindi setup	references/i18n.md
DB indexes, reconciliation job, capacity/multi-resource race notes	references/advanced.md