In this article:
- How do I set my availability?
- Weekly availability templates
- Meeting with your reserved student
- Can I hold a certain spot for a student?
- What if I need to cancel?
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?
Availability allows students to propose reservations to you during that time. To add availability to your calendar, follow these simple steps:
- Click the “Schedule” tab
- Click on the time slot you'd like to add directly from your calendar
- From the pop-up window, you can propose a private lesson with a student, or choose to open up your availability to the students of your selection (all students, Cambly Kids, or just your regular students)
Alternatively, you can now click and drag to add blocks of time to your schedule! This allows you to seamlessly add large blocks of availability to your calendar with a single click.
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.
You also have the option to edit time slots on your weekly template. Keep reading for more details on how to add weekly slots!
Weekly availability templates
Having a consistent schedule helps you attract regular students. If you tutor at the same times each week, you can quickly add your availability by creating a template and pasting it to each week.
How to create your weekly availability template:
1. Click on the schedule tab
2. Select "edit availability" from the left column
3. Click on the '+' for each day that you want to add availability for, and edit the times you'd like to open for students to book with you. You can choose to add availability for everyone, regulars only and Cambly Kids
4. The time slots you add will be auto-saved. If you'd like to remove the slot from your template, click the trash can icon next to the day and time you'd like to remove. Please note that this will not remove the slot from your schedule if you've already added it. You must delete that slot directly from your calendar.
5. Go back to your schedule. Scroll to the weeks you'd like to add this template to, and click the "paste weekly availability" button.
To remove slots from your calendar, click on the slot you'd like to delete directly from your calendar. Then, select "delete" from the pop-up modal.
To clear an entire week's availability at once, scroll down in the left column and select "Clear this week's availability"
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. Rest assured, you are paid for that time you wait for your student to arrive. Just be sure you are in the classroom with the lesson started.
Unfortunately, sometimes students have last-minute emergencies and aren’t able to show up at all. After 10 minutes past the lesson start time, you are welcome to end the lesson. In that case, please feel free to follow-up with the student to understand what happened and reschedule the lesson.
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 “Schedule private lesson” in the top left corner of the Reservations page or click directly on the reservations calendar on the date and time you wish to schedule the lesson.
- Select your student from the dropdown menu.
- Select the lesson day, start time and length.
- Click “Send Invite”
To schedule a repeating lesson with a regular student:
The repeat lesson feature enables tutors to schedule multiple lessons with a regular student at once. Learn more about that feature here.
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 late cancel or miss your reservation, 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.