While Priority Hours are a great way to meet new students, reservations can help you create a predictable and consistent schedule. Using a mix of both will help you maximize your time on Cambly and build a schedule based on your availability, no matter what time zone you are in.
How do I set my availability?
- Click the “Reservations” tab
- Click the “edit” button next to My Reservation Availability
- Click and drag on the calendar to mark when you are available for reservations. You can add availability for “anyone” or just for your regular students.
Once you’ve set your schedule, students will be able to view it on your profile. Students will also see your scheduled Priority Hours included as times you are available for reservations.
When a student reserves time with you, you will receive a reservation request via email (check your email preferences here). Please confirm or cancel the reservation as soon as you can (AT LEAST 12 hours in advance), so we can let your student know.
Pro Tip: Having a consistent schedule will help you attract regular students. If you consistently tutor at the same times each week, you can quickly add your availability by creating a template. Just click “edit weekly template”.
Meeting with your reserved student
Just like with Priority Hours, it’s best to sign in a few minutes early to test your connection. After passing the connection test, you will see the reservation listed as an upcoming event on your Dashboard. You may choose to be visible to all students or just your reserved student. When the student calls, you’ll be able to answer by clicking on their name.
If your student is late, you are only required to wait for 10 minutes after the scheduled start time. You're also welcome to answer other calls that come in during this time. We will alert you when your reserved student calls in, allowing you to transition directly into the next call with one click.
Unfortunately, sometimes students have last-minute emergencies and aren’t able to show up at all. In that case, please feel free to follow-up with the student to understand what happened and reschedule the lesson. Just as before, you are able to take other calls during the reserved time. We will also add a no-show credit to the Miscellaneous Credits section of your Account. The no-show credit does not apply if the student calls during the first 10 minutes of your reservation.
Can I hold a spot for a certain student?
Yes, you can! As you continue to meet new students, you will find some who really enjoy chatting with you and keep coming back for more lessons. Adding these students to your Regular Students list allows you to propose lesson times and even create blocks in your schedule only they can see.
How to add a student as a regular:
Click on their name in either the History or Messages page, then toggle “Regular Student." You can view all of your regular students on your History page.
To propose a lesson time for a regular student:
- Click “hold a spot for a regular” in the bottom left corner of the Reservations page
- Select your student from the dropdown menu
- Select the lesson length
- Click on the calendar to select the lesson time
- Click “submit”
What if I need to cancel?
We understand emergencies happen and that they are often outside of our control! If you are not able to make it, please cancel the reservation yourself as soon as you can. Including a quick note to your student explaining the situation can help mitigate any disappointment.
Cancelling one reservation will not have any effect on your account, but if you cancel or miss multiple reservations in a row the system will consider your schedule outdated and may clear it automatically. Consistently cancelling or missing reservations will temporarily limit your reservation calendar to regular students only.
If you are experiencing an emergency and are unable to cancel your reservations, please contact tutor support when you are able to and let them know of your situation. If able, please also include when you intend to return to tutoring. While this may not prevent the system from clearing your schedule, it will allow us to internally log your absence so that we can prevent a loss in your ability to tutor due to frequent no shows or late cancels.
| Note: Please be aware that due to the volume of these kinds of messages, tutor support will not be able to cancel reservations on behalf of tutors. |  |
Additionally, to prevent students from waiting, unconfirmed reservations are automatically cancelled a certain number of hours before their start time. These auto-cancellations happen:
- 1 hour before the start time if the reservation is made less than 12 hours in advance
- 4 hours before the start time if the reservation is made 12 - 24 hours in advance
- 12 hours before the start time if the reservation is made more than 24 hours in advance
- Also, all Priority Hour reservations will be automatically confirmed
You can set how much advance notice you require for reservations under “Reservation Settings”.
For further information about Reservations, check out the Priority Hours & Reservations section.