We use what we understand to be industry standard West Coast USA scheduling terminology and policies:
Avail: this means you’re checking on whether time is available. It does not come with any guarantee the time will remain available unless you ask to put it on hold.
1st Hold: this means you have right of first refusal on any other requests for this time. Someone may challenge you for it. At one business day before the scheduled time it will automatically become booked unless you cancel the session explicitly before that time via email or (preferably) phone.
2nd, 3rd, &c. holds: These work just like a 1st hold except that you have 2nd or 3rd right of refusal, so if someone issues a challenge for time that has 3 holds, the 1st holder gets the first change to buy or release and if they release the 2nd holder gets it, then the 3rd, and so on.
Booked: This session is bought and will be invoiced whether you use it or not. If you want to cancel a booked session, we will waive the charge if we can resell the time.
Challenge: If you issue a challenge, you are committing to booking the session should you win the challenge. If you are challenged for time you have on hold or booked, you will be informed you are being challenged and will be asked if you want to book or release the time and you will have 4 working hours to respond or you will lose the time. Challengers take note: if there is more than one hold, this process can take up to 4 business hours per hold (4, 8, 12, &c.).
