Want to Reopen Pools & Community Facilities Safely during COVID-19? Here’s Something that can Help!

The past few months have been harsh for everyone, and it is crucial that we, as a community, make efforts to normalise our surroundings as much as we can.

In light of this, many community centers, swimming pools and recreational centers are in the process of reopening.

If you are the manager. owner, or in charge of a community facility, we understand how reopening your venues can be a task while keeping everyone around you safe, and following government regulations.

This is where online scheduling can help you. You can get visitors to pre-book a time of their visit, and select the facility that they want to visit. For community pools, visitors can also choose a pool lane prior to their visit and ensure both occupancy management and social distancing. 

Here’s a quick example of how community swimming pools can using this method effectively and reopen safely for visitors.

If you want to see a similar setup for your facility live in action, just leave your email address below.

We at Appointy have helped many communities safely restart and manage the demand for their community facilities as they reopened in the past few weeks and would be happy to give you a free demo tailored for your use cases. No strings attached! 

(You’ll be able to book a time of your choice once you submit your email address.)

Oh, and if you want to try it out post demo, we’ll also set up your Appointy account for free and you can then try it out with your team during the 14-day free trial! 

Online scheduling  can not only ensure safety, but also ease your admin workload so that you can focus on restarting your recreational centres, community centres, parks, and swimming pools successfully!

Want to understand the process better on your own? Read on to find out how Appointy can be the ideal all-in-one community and pool reservation system as you reopen successfully during Covid-19.

Reopen pools & community facilities safely during Covid-19: How online scheduling with Appointy can help?

1. Appointment Scheduling

Reduce redundancy and ensure safety of your members by accepting pre-bookings for your venues/facilities.

• Eliminate any speed-bumps in the booking process as members can self-schedule their appointments through your website or Appointy’s booking portal.

• Give your members the flexibility to schedule their appointments for multiple family members, any time of the day, even after working hours!

• List your venue’s COVID-19 T&C on Appointy that your members will have to consent to prior to making an appointment.

• Make your members fill out in-take forms. You can ask them the number of members in their family if anyone is at high risk to contract infections, their locality, COVID-19 symptoms, and more.

• Customize your cancellation policy to accommodate your members during these times – how far in advance can they cancel or book an appointment.

Here’s how your facility’s Appointy booking portal will look like. This is a sample for a community pool:

2. Capacity Management

With social distancing becoming a norm, managing capacity is the need of the hour for community managers.

• Work at your desired capacity level by capping the maximum number of members at a particular venue at a time. Appointy will deny reservations once the threshold is reached avoiding a jam and ensuring safe distance between members. 

• Restrict the number of bookings members can make in a day, week, or month. You get to accommodate more members this way, now that you are functioning at a limited capacity.

• Set lanes in your facility as services on Appointy and set availability and capacity accordingly for each lane. Whether your lanes have varying capacity or are available different times of the day, Appointy manages all that for you.

• Allow only members/residents to access your facility. Enable appointment approvals by your facility manager, who can view and approve appointments from community members or residents. Appointy will send email confirmations only to them.

With controlled capacity and a regular disinfecting routine, you can safely reopen your facilities like pools to make this summer fun for everyone!

3. Resource And Facility Management

With features to help you track your supplies, Appointy is an ideal resource and facility scheduling software.

• With Appointy, members can book equipment and resources – whether it is a table, chair, swimming goggles, spaces, halls, any other resources they might need when they visit community centres, pools, libraries & other facilities.

• Know exactly what resources are available, are assigned to who, and for how long. Manage your resources efficiently with Appointy.

• View your monthly resource schedule with our resource calendar, all at one place.

• Assign area codes to venues so that members can see the availability of the venues according to the area code they select. Now, your members don’t have to crowd up one venue, which is something you definitely don’t want right now!

4. Staff and member management

Manage your members’ information and your staff schedule effortlessly on one dashboard.

• Let your facility managers have control over the availability of staff members. They can view and manage their schedules with a dedicated manager login.

• Appointy in-built CRM helps you to store all your member information – check in & check out time and their appointment history. This can help you in contact tracing in case there’s an outbreak.

5. Built-In Calendar

Seamlessly manage and view all your appointments from one place.

• Block timings from your calendar as per your needs. Appointy will not let anyone book appointments for the specific time slot. You can make a cleaning schedule and use this time to disinfect your venue/pools!

• Filter out your appointments on daily, weekly or monthly basis and make any changes to appointments with just a couple of clicks! You can also integrate your personal calendar on Appointy!

6. Automated Notifications

Keep your members informed about their reservations even when you’re offline.

• Easily convey messages to your members with Appointy’s automated email notifications. Whether it is appointment confirmations, reminders, cancellations, or reschedule emails, Appointy takes care of it all. You can also opt to send SMS notifications to your members.

• Integrate Appointy with third party email marketing apps like Mailchimp and send all your COVID-19 updates and announcements and keep your members up-to-date with the changes.

With Appointy taking care of your communication needs, you don’t have to worry about a thing!

7. Hassle-free Payments

Ensure minimum contact by going cashless and cardless by accepting pre-payments with Appointy.

• Appointy provides you integrations with payment gateways like Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Authorize.net so that you can receive payments with ease.

• Reduce checkout-time and unnecessary delays with payments that just require one click and you’re done!

•  Take partial deposits when members are making a booking with you on your portal.

Ready to use Appointy to reopen community pools, facilities, and recreation centers? 

Appointy helps you accept pre-bookings from your members for your pool facilities ensuring safety. Maintain social distance by limiting the number of members in your pool at a time. Take their information through in-take forms and make them sign waivers before booking reservations at your pool and community facilities. 

We’re here to make sure your community reopening is a breeze!

Just leave your email address below to book a 15-min live demo tailored for your use case. (You’ll be able to book a time of your choice once you submit your email address).

Disclaimer: The information which is summarised herein does not constitute medical or other professional advice and is general in nature. It does not take into account your specific circumstances and should not be acted on without full understanding of your current situation and future goals and objectives. In doing so you risk making commitment to a strategy that may not be suitable to your needs. Whilst we have tried to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the contents of this website, you should verify all information and facts independently.

About Appointy

We at Appointy, help business owners grow and run their businesses with our online scheduling software. This blog was a part of our ‘Manage your Business’ category, where we provide expert tips, and resources, or simply talk about the challenges that small and medium businesses face every day. 

If you have any thoughts on this blog or would like to chat about your business struggles and achievements, let us know in the comments below. 

We love a good talk!