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Choosing your booking flow: experience-first vs date-first

Two ways your guests can find a booking. Which one fits depends on what you sell.

ArtistryHost lets you present bookings to guests in one of two ways. The choice depends on what your venue actually sells.

Experience-first

The guest picks what they want to do, then sees available dates for that experience.

"I want to book a Candle Pour Workshop." → Calendar of upcoming Candle Pour Workshop sessions.

Best for venues that:

  • Run a small number of distinct experiences (Candle Pour vs Candle Bar vs Custom Vessel)
  • Have customers who know what they want before they pick a date
  • Sell at different price points by experience type

Most candle bars, paint-and-sip studios, and pottery studios use experience-first.

Date-first

The guest picks when they want to come, then sees what's happening that day.

"I want to come Saturday at 7pm." → Whatever experiences are running Saturday 7pm.

Best for venues that:

  • Run mostly one type of experience that varies by host or theme
  • Have customers planning a specific night (date night, bachelorette, corporate offsite)
  • Run private events on the same calendar as public sessions

Most wineries, tasting rooms, and venues with packed schedules use date-first.

You can switch later

Settings → Booking flow. Toggle it and republish. Existing bookings aren't affected. Test both for a couple weeks if you're not sure. Your conversion data will tell you which one fits.

A combination is fine too

You can set the default flow at the venue level, then override per experience. For example: a winery running date-first overall, but a "Reserve Tasting" experience that's only available by reservation and uses experience-first specifically.

If you're new to this and unsure, start with experience-first. It's the more common pattern in our category and it's easier for guests who only book occasionally.

Last updated June 11, 2026.