In this article:
The Schedule Tab
The Schedule Tab offers all of your calendar views in one convenient spot.
In each calendar view, you can choose what all you’d like to view by using the selections on the left hand side of your screen. For example, when reserving priority hours, you have the option to see your current reservations, priority hours, and availability in addition to available priority hours.
The panel on the left hand side of each calendar view allows you to view as much or as little of your schedule as you like. Simply select or deselect what you’d like shown in each view.
Reservations
If you would like to allow students to schedule a lesson with you in advance, you can open reservation availability by clicking the "Edit your availability" button located found on the left-hand side of your screen.
Reservations are a great way to make the most of your time on Cambly. Many veteran tutors on Cambly have back-to-back reservations every day.
The reservation system
You can open up reservation availability for time periods you are free to take student reservations. Students can request reservations with you during those times and you can set how much advance notice you need for those requests. As you grow your base of regular students, reservations are a great way to make efficient use of your time as you will know exactly when to log on. You should update your reservation time slots if there are changes. This way, students only schedule time with you when you know you will be available.
You can make your availability visible to all students or a specific subset, such as your regulars.
If you set your availability to all students, the availability on the calendar will be blue and display (All) in the availability text. If availability is set to regulars only, the availability will appear red.
If you are also an approved tutor on Cambly Kids, you have additional options to set your reservation availability to adults only (Adults) or kids only (Kids).
Students can reserve lessons lasting from 15 minutes to 2 hours. Once a student reserves a time with you, you’ll receive a reservation notification via email. You will be asked to confirm or cancel your reservation directly from the email. Alternatively, you can login and confirm or cancel directly from your tutor dashboard or the reservations tab.
Tutor-proposed and student-requested lessons will appear white in your calendar in the reservations tab until the reservation is confirmed by both parties.
If you can no longer make your reservation time, you should cancel the reservation either in email or online so we can notify your student that you can no longer make the reservation.
If you have more questions about reservations, click here.
Scheduling automatic breaks
Cambly can schedule buffers between your reservations for you. If you would like to utilize this feature, simply turn on “Automatic Breaks” from your Schedule tab. You can choose the length of the break and how it is triggered. Turning this feature on will apply automatic breaks to future reservations only. It will not impact your current schedule.
Please note that these breaks only apply to your availability schedule. While students will not be able to schedule a reservation with you, you may still receive calls if your status is set to “Visible”.
Additionally, this tool is meant to help you manage your upcoming schedule. As such, Reservations and PHs will count as consecutive lessons but simply receiving an unplanned call while visible can not dynamically generate a buffer in your schedule.
You can always delete a break by clicking on it and removing it from your schedule. If you request a long break, it may be broken up if there isn’t enough space between already booked reservations in your schedule. Claiming PHs that overlap a break will delay or remove the break.
Do priority hours count toward breaks?
Yes. For example, in the screenshot above, after 2 scheduled priority hours, the system would generate a break regardless of whether you had reservations during the priority hour.
Do proposed lessons count toward breaks?
Yes. Any reservation in the proposed state also counts towards breaks.
For example: In the screenshot below, the system generated a 15 minute break after 2 hours of reservations.
Priority Hours
You can sign up for Priority Hours here. PHs are 1-hour time slots where you will receive priority access to students. During your PH, we will actively feature your tutor profile and send you calls from new students. Additionally, you'll be guaranteed a minimum of 15 minutes of paid chat time per hour, even if you don't connect with students. You have signed up to teach the full hour and are expected to answer all calls that come your way during that hour.
Exception: You are not required to answer calls that extend beyond the end of your Priority Hour. In these cases, you will have the option to decline the call. Please only accept the student call if you are able to commit to the entire duration of the incoming call.
Priority Hour visibility
While you are expected to answer all calls on priority hour, you still have the option to update your visibility status to all students, subscribed students only (no trials), or subscribed students and paid trials only. Regulars Only is not available during Priority Hour. If this option is selected during a Priority Hour, you will be visible to paid users only until the end of the Priority Hour.
How the priority hour system works
If you are a new tutor, PHs are very important because PHs will help you meet new students. We suggest that new tutors tutor exclusively on PH for their first two weeks on Cambly. Because you are expected to be online for the whole hour you signed up for, it is a good idea to logon a few minutes early to give yourself some cushion room in case you experience any technical difficulties. If you are more than a few minutes late for your PH, you will be dropped from the PH automatically, which will hurt your ability to sign up for more PHs in the future.
PHs must be cancelled over 12 hours in advance. This gives other tutors enough time to pick up the PH. If your PH is within 12 hours but you can no longer make it, it is better to drop your PH late than to miss that hour. Dropping a PH late will hurt your PH access, but missing your PH will hurt your access significantly more.
You can sign up for as many PHs as you want, up to 10 hours of PHs within any 24 hours period. PHs can be scheduled in 1-hour intervals. Be careful to only sign up for times you will be available to chat. During each PH, you will have the option to take a 5 minute break. However, it is still a good idea to schedule breaks, so that you can rest for an hour or eat a meal uninterrupted. After your PH, you can check on your History tab to see how many students you’ve chatted with and how many minutes you chatted during that hour.
Dynamic priority hour access
All new tutors start out on Cambly being able to schedule PH one week in advance. As you take on more calls and impress more students, your ability to schedule PH automatically increases. On the other hand, if you miss PH, drop PH within 12 hours, or miss calls during a PH, your PH access will become more restricted. You can see every PH available to you by clicking the "list" view on your Priority Hours tab.
If you don't see too many PHs available to you, click here to find out why.
Extra earning opportunties
Cambly will occasionally have opportunities in which we guarantee 30 minutes of paid chat time during your Priority Hour, even if you don't get any calls. That means you'll be paid $5.10 or your actual paid chat time during that Hour, whichever is higher. Time slots with this guarantee are marked with a yellow triangle:
During our highest peak times, Cambly will also sometimes have additional earning opportunities for certain priority hour slots. These time slots are marked with a blue triangle and have a + sign. If there is both a + sign and a 30 number, that means there is both a minute guarantee and an earning opportunity.
Visit this article to learn more about Priority Hour extra earning opportunities.