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How do I filter a self-booking link?

A self-booking link is a door into a slice of the studio. Select services, Filter by location, and Filter by staff combine, so every filter you populate has to match at once. Leave one empty to include everything eligible of that kind, including things you add later. Fill it in and it becomes a snapshot that will not pick up a new teacher or program on its own.

Last updated: September 14, 2026
Applies to: Owner / Manager (create and edit); Staff (share links only)
PLUS Feature: No
Plan: All

This page is how to aim a link on purpose. If a teacher you expected is missing and you did not mean to hide them, use Why isn't a teacher showing as available for self-booking? instead — that article is diagnosis, this one is configuration.

Table of Contents

  1. Why you'd filter a link
  2. This article or the troubleshooting one?
  3. Who can change filters
  4. Before you start
  5. The three filters, and how they combine
  6. Empty vs filled in
  7. Set the filters
  8. A link for one instructor
  9. A trial promo for one teacher
  10. Show one class and hide another of the same service
  11. Add a location to a link that already has a location filter
  12. Keep a teacher's legacy students, but stop new bookings in a secondary instrument
  13. How to verify the result
  14. What these filters do not do
  15. FAQ
  16. Related Articles

Why you'd filter a link

The public URL on your website is a promise. "Book a piano trial with Jordan downtown" is a different promise from "browse everything we teach." Families who click an ad, a flyer, or a teacher's page should land on the thing you named — not a menu of instruments, teachers, and neighborhoods they did not come for.

That is what the three filters are for. You already have a self-booking link (or you are about to create one). Filtering is how you walk that door toward a specific person, program, or place:

  • A teacher page that should only book Jordan
  • A trial campaign that should only discount one instructor
  • A Downtown button that should not list the Uptown studio
  • A fall group-class URL that should list Kids Guitar and not every other class you run

You can run several of these at once. A catch-all "book a lesson" URL, a Jordan-only URL, and a Downtown-only URL can live side by side. Each one is a different door into the same studio.

Location: Settings → Business → Self-Booking Links

This article or the troubleshooting one?

Use this page when you mean to limit what the URL shows — one teacher, one service list, one location, or a combination.

Use Why isn't a teacher showing as available for self-booking? or Why isn't my service showing as available for self-booking? when a teacher, service, or time is missing and should not be. That article walks visibility, Available Hours/Days, weekly-only timeslots, and the other rules that hide someone even on an unfiltered link.

A missing name is often the right setting on the wrong door. Decide which job you wanted before you start turning things on.

You want… Read
This URL should only sell Jordan / Downtown / Piano Trial This article
Jordan should appear here, and they do not Why isn't a teacher showing as available for self-booking?
You have not created the URL yet How to create and share a self-booking link
The teacher should never be self-booked, on any URL How do I prevent my teachers from being available for self-booking?

Who can change filters

Creating and editing self-booking links is an Owner or Manager job. Front-desk staff can copy and share a link that already exists. They cannot change its filters.

Persona Open Settings → Business Edit filters Share a link that already exists
Owner Yes Yes Yes
Manager Yes Yes Yes
Staff No No Yes 
Limited Staff No No No

A greyed-out edit pencil on the Self-booking links card reads: Only managers/owners are allowed to modify business settings.

Before you start

Filters narrow a link. They do not create a teacher, a service, a location, or a bookable time. For the slice you want families to see, confirm:

  1. The widget type matches the offering. Appointment links sell private lessons and trials. Group class links sell scheduled classes. Event links sell recitals. You cannot mix types on one URL — see Which widget type should my self-booking link use?.
  2. The service is visible to the audience for this URL, and at least one payment plan is enabled for self-booking.
  3. For an appointment link: the teacher has Available Hours/Days for that exact service, at a location this link can use, and the right visibility for visitors or clients.
  4. You will finish with Update Business. Update in the link window only stages the change on your screen.

If you still need to build the URL itself — widget type, link name, visitor access, weekly-only timeslots — start with How to create and share a self-booking link, then come back here to aim it.

The three filters, and how they combine

Under Add additional optional filters: Opus1 shows the filters that apply to this widget type.

Filter Label in the window Appointment Group class Event What a populated list means
Services Select services Yes Yes Yes Only these offerings
Location (optional) Filter by location Yes Yes No Only these places
Staff (optional) Filter by staff Yes No No Only these teachers

Appointment links also have (optional) Filter by payment plan type. That is a fourth, billing-rhythm filter — a trial URL that should not also list a monthly membership. It is not one of the three catalog filters this article is about. See How to create and share a self-booking link and How do I enable my payment plans for self-booking?.

They stack. They do not override each other.

Populated filters are and, not or. A family has to pass every filter you filled in.

Piano + Downtown + Jordan means: Piano, with Jordan, at Downtown. Jordan does not appear for Guitar on that link. Jordan does not appear at Uptown. A different piano teacher does not appear at Downtown.

If Jordan's Available Hours/Days for Piano are only at Uptown, putting Jordan on a Downtown-filtered piano link still shows nothing for them. The location filter and their hours both have to be true.

They only include what is already eligible

A filter cannot force an ineligible offering onto the page. A hidden service, a teacher with visitors off, a class with self-booking disabled, or a plan that is not enabled for self-booking stays off the URL even if you select it. Filters choose from the eligible set. They do not punch a hole in the other rules.

Empty vs filled in

This is the setting that surprises studios every term.

Empty = all eligible options of that kind, including ones that do not exist yet.

  • Empty Select services on an appointment link: every appointment service that is eligible for self-booking. Not group classes. Not recitals.
  • Empty Filter by location: every location families are allowed to see.
  • Empty Filter by staff: every teacher who is visible to this audience and has availability for a service on this link.

Empty is the low-maintenance door. Next month's new guitar program, the second storefront, and the teacher you hire in January can appear without you editing the link — as long as they are eligible.

Filled in = a snapshot of what you picked.

The link keeps pointing at that list until someone edits it. A service, location, or teacher you add to the studio later does not join automatically.

Select All on Select services is not empty. It stores today's services as a filter. The guitar program you create in January is not in that snapshot. Leave the field empty if you want new services of this widget type to show up on their own. Pick specific names when this URL should sell a slice.

Staff are added one name at a time (they show as chips under the field). Location is a multi-select. Both behave the same way once anything is selected: the list is the list, until you edit it.

Set the filters

  1. Go to Settings → Business.
  2. Open the Self-Booking Links tab.
  3. Click the edit pencil on the Self-booking links card. The page title becomes Edit Self-booking links.
  4. On the link you want to aim, click Update.
  5. Under Add additional optional filters:, set Select services, Filter by location, and Filter by staff as this widget type allows.
  6. Click Update in the window. The window closes. Nothing is live yet.
  7. Scroll to the bottom and click Update Business. Wait for Business updated successfully.

Update in the window stages the filters on your screen. Update Business writes them to the studio. If you click Go Back, refresh, or close the tab after step 6 but before step 7, the filters revert. See Saving self-booking links: the Update Business step.

To aim a link you have not created yet: Add a custom link, choose the widget type, set the filters in Create Link, click Add Link, then Update Business. Widget type still cannot be changed later.

A link for one instructor

Use this when you marketed a person — Jordan's teacher page, a "book with Jordan" flyer, a new-hire launch.

Why this door: A catch-all appointment URL lists every teacher who is taking students. The family who clicked Jordan's name should not then pick someone else. Filtering the URL keeps the promise. It does not hide the rest of the faculty from your other links.

  1. Use an Appointment Self-Booking link. Group class and event links have no staff filter. The teacher on a class is already on the session.
  2. Open the link with Update.
  3. Leave Select services empty if Jordan should offer every appointment service they teach, or pick the services this page is selling (Piano Trial, not every instrument).
  4. Under (optional) Filter by staff, select Jordan. They appear as a chip. Add a second name only if this page is a short list, not a faculty directory.
  5. Click Update, then Update Business.

Jordan still needs visibility and Available Hours/Days for those services. The staff filter cannot put them on the page if those are off — see Why isn't a teacher showing as available for self-booking?.

To hide Jordan from every public URL, do not use this filter. Turn off Can visitors see this staff? (and Can clients see this staff? if current families should not see them either). See How do I prevent my teachers from being available for self-booking?.

A trial promo for one teacher

Use this when the discount should follow Jordan, not the whole faculty.

Why this door: A promotion on top of an unfiltered trial link lets a family pick any teacher and still get the sale — or pick a teacher the promo does not cover and check out at full price. If the campaign said "Jordan's $20 trial," the booking URL should only offer Jordan.

Two layers, and they do different jobs:

Layer What it controls Where
The self-booking link's Filter by staff Who the family can pick This article
The promotion's Should the promotion apply to all staff? Who the discount applies to Using Promotional Links
  1. Build or reuse an appointment link that already filters to Jordan (and to the trial service, if this URL should not also list ongoing lessons). Save with Update Business.
  2. Create the Appointment Promotion under Settings → Promotions. Turn Should the promotion apply to all staff? off and pick Jordan. Limit Should the promotion apply to all services? to the trial service.
  3. On the promotion card, open promo links and Copy with promo for that Jordan link.

Send the copied URL, not the main one under Business Settings. The regular trial link stays at full price on purpose.

If Promo Links shows an orange warning, the link and the promotion do not cover the same teachers or services. Families can still use it; only matching bookings discount. A red state with no copy button means the link shows none of the qualifying services — fix the link's Select services or the promotion, then copy again.

Show one class and hide another of the same service

Use this when Kids Guitar at 4pm should be on the public group-class URL, and Teen Guitar at 5pm — same service, different class — should not.

Why this is a different door: Select services filters the service, not the class time. If both classes live on Group Guitar, picking Group Guitar on the link lists both. Filter by location only splits them if they meet in different places. There is no class-time picker on the link.

What to do instead: disable self-booking on the class you do not want families to enroll in.

  1. Open the session (the class time), not the service.
  2. In the session header, choose Disable Self-Booking.
  3. Confirm. Self-booking on that class turns off. The other class of the same service stays enrollable on any group-class link that includes the service.

Staff can still enroll a student in that class from inside Opus1. Disable Self-Booking is the family-facing door. Disable on the session itself is stronger — it also takes the class out of staff's active list and stops waitlist joins. Use that only when the class should stop running as an offering, not when you merely do not want it on the public URL.

If the two classes are truly different products (Kids vs Teen, beginner vs ensemble), splitting them into two services lets Select services do the job on the link. That is a catalog decision. You do not have to split them to hide one class from self-booking.

Add a location to a link that already has a location filter

Use this when the studio opened a second storefront — or you started offering Online — and a live URL still only lists the original place.

Why you'd walk through this door: empty Filter by location already includes the new place (once that location is visible to families and has open hours). You only need this edit when the filter has names in it. That list does not notice the new location.

  1. Settings → Business → Self-Booking Links.
  2. Edit pencil, then Update on the link.
  3. Under (optional) Filter by location, add the new location. Leave the ones you still want.
  4. Click Update, then Update Business.

The main URL does not change. Website buttons and flyers keep working. Event links have no location filter; skip this step there.

After you save, confirm the teachers (or classes) you expect at the new place actually have hours or sessions there. Adding Downtown to the link does not create Downtown availability.

If this URL should follow the studio as you open locations, clear the location filter instead of maintaining the list. Empty means all eligible locations from now on.

Keep a teacher's legacy students, but stop new bookings in a secondary instrument

This is achievable. It is not a staff-visibility toggle, and it is not a per-instrument checkbox on the teacher.

The situation: Jordan's main instrument is piano. They still teach a few guitar students from years ago. Those enrollments should stay. A new family on the public booking page should not be able to pick Jordan for guitar.

Staff visibility cannot do this. Can visitors see this staff? and Can clients see this staff? hide Jordan from piano and guitar together.

Filter by staff on a single catch-all "book a lesson" URL cannot do this either. That filter is per link, not per service inside the link. Including Jordan includes them for every service on that URL they have hours for.

Pick the door that matches what "keep the legacy students" means for you.

Door A — Nobody self-books guitar with Jordan. You place those guitar lessons by hand.

Leave guitar off Jordan's Available Hours/Days. Keep piano on those hours.

  1. Open Jordan's profile and click the pen (Update Profile).
  2. Under Available Hours/Days, edit each row. In Select Services, keep Piano (and Piano Trial, if they take trials). Remove Guitar.
  3. Click Add or Update on the row, then Update Staff. Wait for Staff Updated Successfully.

What stays true:

  • Existing guitar enrollments do not cancel. The students remain on the calendar.
  • You can still book guitar with Jordan from the studio calendar. Self-booking has no override; staff booking does.
  • On every self-booking URL, Jordan no longer appears as a guitar option. They still appear for piano, as long as piano is on their hours and their visibility is on.

Use Door A when the front desk is willing to schedule the remaining guitar students, and you do not need those families to self-book a guitar makeup with Jordan.

Door B — Current guitar families can still self-book Jordan. New families cannot.

Jordan needs guitar on Available Hours/Days, or they will not appear for guitar on any URL. The split happens on the links, not on the teacher.

  1. Keep guitar on Jordan's hours. Keep their visibility on for clients (and for visitors if they should still appear on public piano URLs).
  2. Public guitar URL: Appointment Self-Booking, Select services = Guitar (and Guitar Trial if you offer one), Filter by staff = the teachers who are taking new guitar students. Do not add Jordan.
  3. Current-family guitar URL: a second appointment link with Guitar selected and Jordan included in Filter by staff. Turn Make accessible by visitors off so only signed-in families can open it. Share that URL with the legacy students, or use it as a call to action on their profiles — not on the website.

Door B needs two guitar links. One catch-all public URL that lists both Piano and Guitar cannot show Jordan for piano and hide them for guitar. If you want that mix on a single public address, put the two guitar links, and your piano link, on a landing page as separate cards.

Which door to pick
What should happen after you save Door
Jordan vanishes as a guitar option everywhere. Staff keep the legacy roster on the calendar. A — guitar off their hours
Signed-in guitar families can still pick Jordan; prospects on the public guitar URL cannot. Jordan still appears for piano on public piano URLs. B — two guitar links, different staff filters
Jordan should not be self-booked for any instrument Neither. Turn both visibility toggles off.

Do not remove Jordan as staff, and do not deactivate them, to solve this. Those actions hide them from piano too, and deactivation is for someone who has left.

How to verify the result

Do not trust the view you get while signed in as Owner, Manager, or Staff. Those accounts bypass the family-facing filters. A filtered link looks complete to the person who built it.

Always open the URL in a private / incognito window, or on a phone that has never signed in to the studio.

You are proving How to test What you should see
One-instructor URL Private window, not signed in Only that teacher, for the services on the link
Trial promo for one teacher Private window, using the Copy with promo URL Only that teacher, discount at checkout
One class hidden, another of the same service still listed Private window on the group-class URL The enrollable class. Not the one with self-booking disabled
New location on an existing filter Private window The new place, with teachers or classes that actually meet there
Door A (guitar off hours) Private window, pick Guitar Jordan is not in the staff list
Door B (two guitar links) Private window on the public guitar URL, then sign in as a test client on the current-family URL Jordan absent for prospects; present for the signed-in family

If the teacher appears for you and not for a prospect, you are still signed in, or they are clients-only. Sign out completely. Do not test by clicking a link inside an Opus1 email sent to yourself — those messages can sign you in automatically.

If the private window is empty or missing a name you intended to include, stop retuning filters at random. Work Why isn't a teacher showing as available for self-booking? for a missing teacher, and the empty-flow checklist in How to create and share a self-booking link for a page that loads with nothing to book.

What these filters do not do

  • Change widget type. An appointment link will never list a group class. Filter the right kind of link, or create another — see Which widget type should my self-booking link use?.
  • Hide a teacher studio-wide. That is visibility on the staff profile, not Filter by staff.
  • Hide one class time of a service. That is Disable Self-Booking on the session.
  • Split a teacher by instrument on a single catch-all URL. Use Door A or Door B above.
  • Add a new service, location, or teacher to a populated list. Edit the link and add them, then Update Business.
  • Make something eligible. Visibility, payment plans, hours, open hours, and session self-booking still have to be on.
  • Go live from the link window. Update Business is the save.

FAQ

If I leave every filter empty, does the link show the whole studio? It shows every eligible offering of that widget type. An empty appointment link is all self-bookable private-lesson services, not group classes or recitals.

I added a new service this term and it is not on the link. The link's Select services is populated (including if someone used Select All). Empty would have included it. Edit the link, add the service, click Update, then Update Business.

Can I filter a group-class link to one teacher? No. Session and event links have no staff filter. Families pick a class, not a teacher. Put the teacher on the session, or use an appointment link for private lessons.

Can Jordan stay on guitar for current families and off guitar for prospects without two links? Not as a per-instrument split. Visibility is studio-wide. A staff filter is per link. Use Door B (two guitar URLs) or Door A (staff books remaining guitar by hand).

Will changing filters break the URL on my website? Not if you leave Link name alone. Filters change what the path shows, not the path. Renaming the link is a different action and does replace the URL.

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