How do I set up self-booking for trial lessons?

Applies to: Owner / Manager
PLUS Feature: No
Plan: All
Last updated: November 10, 2026

Overview
Before you start
Step 1: Give the trial a plan a new family can pay
Step 2: Let visitors see the trial
Step 3: Create the trial link
Step 4: Save with Update Business
Step 5: Test it the way a new family would
Limiting trials to one per family
When the trial link is not working
Group class trials
Setup checklist
FAQ
Related Articles

Overview

A trial is usually the first time a family deals with your studio, and the moment they decide to book is often in the evening, after the front desk has gone home. An Opus1.io trial link lets that family pick a teacher and an open time, create an account at checkout, and pay the trial price on their own. Your staff sees the booking on the schedule the next morning.

Why it matters: a trial link that shows an empty calendar or a login page does not generate a support ticket. The family simply leaves, and you never find out you lost them.

A trial link is an Appointment Self-Booking link pointed at your trial service. Ongoing weekly lessons use the same kind of link with two settings changed: a trial link shows one-time openings and the trial price, while a weekly enrollment link shows only times a teacher can keep every week. Most broken trial links are a weekly link's settings applied to a trial. Keep the two jobs on two separate links.

Before you start

Creating and editing self-booking links in Opus1.io is an Owner or Manager task. Staff can copy and share a link that already exists.

Have these in place first:

A trial appointment service, named so a parent can tell it is a trial, with the length in the name, such as Piano Trial Lesson - 30 min. The service's description, conversion settings, and auto-hold are covered in How Do I Set Up Trial Lessons?. This article starts where that one ends.
At least one teacher with Available Hours/Days for the trial service.
A location with open hours.

Keep the trial separate from your ongoing lesson service. Piano Trial Lesson - 30 min and Piano Private Lessons - 30 min are two services. The trial goes on the public link; the ongoing service is what the family enrolls in afterward.

Step 1: Give the trial a plan a new family can pay

Open the trial service in Opus1.io, go to the Payment tab, and edit Plans. A trial uses one Single Visit plan:

Setting	For a trial	Why
Plan type	Single Visit	A trial is one visit, so there is nothing to renew
Price	Your trial rate, or $0 for a free trial	This is the price the family sees at checkout
Payment interval	Once, due at sign-up	The family pays when they book

Click Enable for Self Booking on the plan, then click Update Service. The plan card shows the badge enabled for self-booking when it worked. The button now reads Disable for Self Booking, because that is the next action available. Go by the badge, not the button.

Two plans to keep off a trial link:

Single Visit (Credit Only). Opus1.io creates this plan so a client can spend credit they already hold. A new prospect has no credit, so if this is the only self-bookable plan, the service disappears from the link and the page can read Invalid link or Invalid service / plans. Keep the payable Single Visit plan enabled alongside it.
Weekly or monthly plans. If one is enabled for self-booking on the trial service, a family can pick it at checkout and book a weekly series instead of one trial. Leave ongoing plans on the ongoing service, or filter them off the link in Step 3.

Step 2: Let visitors see the trial

A prospect is not signed in, so Opus1.io shows them only what you have marked visible to visitors. Turn these on:

Can visitors see this service? and Can clients see this service? on the trial service
Can visitors see this staff? on every teacher who should appear on the trial link
Can visitors see this location? on every location where you offer trials

Owners, Managers, and Staff still see a service, teacher, or location when these are off, so the problem stays hidden while you are signed in. See How do I make my services visible to clients/visitors? for where the service toggles are.

Step 3: Create the trial link

In Opus1.io, go to Settings > Business and open the Self-Booking Links tab. Click the edit pencil on the Self-booking links card, click Add a custom link, and choose Appointment Self-Booking.

The widget type cannot be changed after the link is created. If you pick the wrong one, remove the link and create a new one.

Name it, and add a title and photo

Link name becomes the public address. For a school whose Opus1.io subdomain is yourschool, a link named piano-trials opens at https://yourschool.opus1.io/w/piano-trials. Your own subdomain is in Settings > Business. Replace the random name Opus1.io suggests with something you would print on a flyer, using lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes.

Set Title and Photo now, even if you are only sharing the /w/ address today. A landing page cannot show the link until both are set.

Show only the trial

Field	For a trial link
Select services	The trial service, such as Piano Trial Lesson - 30 min
(optional) Filter by payment plan type	Single visit, so no weekly or monthly plan appears
(optional) Filter by location	The studios that offer trials, or leave empty for all
(optional) Filter by staff	Specific teachers, or leave empty for everyone who teaches the trial

Leaving Select services empty shows every appointment service you offer, ongoing lessons included. Select All saves today's list only, so a trial service you add next month will not appear until you edit the link. Leave Single visit (Credit Only) out of the plan filter on a prospect link.

Leave the weekly-timeslot toggle off

Leave Only show timeslots available on a weekly on-going basis off. New appointment links start with it off; confirm it is still off before you share the URL.

That toggle is for weekly enrollment. When it is on, Opus1.io offers a time only if the teacher can keep it every week for months, so a teacher with several open half-hours for a one-time trial can show no times at all.

Open it to visitors

Turn Make accessible by visitors on. New links start with it off, and a link that is off sends a new family to a login page. Call to action and Default primary selection can stay at their defaults for a trial link. How to create and share a self-booking link covers every other field.

Step 4: Save with Update Business

Click Add Link. The link appears in the list, but it is not live yet.
Scroll to the bottom of the Business settings page and click Update Business.
Wait for Business updated successfully.

Add Link only puts the link on your screen. Update Business is what saves it to your Opus1.io account. If you leave the page before that click, the link is gone. The row should then show /w/piano-trials and Accessible by: Everyone.

Step 5: Test it the way a new family would

Open your trial address in a private browser window, or on a phone that has never signed in to Opus1.io. A signed-in staff account skips the visitor checks, so the same link can work for you and fail for a parent. An Opus1.io email opened while you are signed in can sign you back in, so use the private window.

Check that:

The page opens with no login request.
The trial service is listed, and no weekly or monthly plan is offered.
A teacher and at least one open time appear.
Checkout shows one date and the trial price.

After the first real booking comes in, look at that teacher's schedule. You should see one trial appointment, not a weekly series.

Put the address on your website as a button or text link. See How do I add a booking button to my website? for the steps in Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. Opus1.io support can troubleshoot the /w/ page itself, but not a booking flow embedded inside another website's frame.

Limiting trials to one per family

Opus1.io does not stop a family from booking the trial service more than once. If they can see the trial link, they can book it again.

To keep a discounted or free first trial to one per student, use a promotional link:

Set the trial service's Single Visit plan to your full trial price.
Create an appointment promotion with the discount, such as a promotion titled Fall trial offer.
Turn off Each client can use promotion an unlimited number of times and enter 1.
Share the promotional link instead of the plain trial link.

A second booking through that link is charged the full trial price. Turn off the per-client toggle, not Promotion can be used unlimited number of times. Setting that one to 1 lets only the first family in the whole school use the offer. Setup is in How do I create and share promotional links?.

When the trial link is not working

Work down the table in order. Each fix in Opus1.io needs Update Business afterward.

What the family sees	What to check
A login page	Make accessible by visitors is on, and the link list reads Accessible by: Everyone
The trial is missing	Can visitors see this service? is on, the link type is Appointment Self-Booking, and the trial is in Select services
Invalid link or Invalid service / plans	A payable Single Visit plan shows enabled for self-booking, and the plan filter is not limited to Single visit (Credit Only)
The trial shows, but no times appear	The weekly-timeslot toggle is off, the teacher has Available Hours/Days for the trial service, the location has open hours, and visitors can see the teacher and the location. The trial service's minimum and maximum lead time can also push every opening out of range
A weekly or monthly price	Filter by payment plan type is Single visit, or the ongoing plan is not enabled for self-booking on the trial service
The trial time looks taken on later weeks	Check whether auto-hold is on for the trial service. A hold reserves that weekly time on the ongoing service so the family can enroll, and it releases if the trial is canceled or moved. See How Do I Set Up Trial Lessons?

The full list of causes is in Why isn't my service showing on my self-booking link?.

Group class trials

A trial visit to a group class that already meets on a set day and time uses a Group Class Self-Booking link, not an appointment link. In Opus1.io, add a Single visit (cash or credit) plan to the group class, describe it as a one-time trial, click Enable for Self Booking, and click Update Service. Then build a Group Class Self-Booking link for that class with Make accessible by visitors on. Group class links have no weekly-timeslot toggle. Plan details are in How do I create a trial payment plan for my group classes?.

Setup checklist

Run through this list in Opus1.io before you share the trial link anywhere.

Trial service is named as a trial, with the length in the name
A payable Single Visit plan shows enabled for self-booking
No weekly or monthly plan is enabled for self-booking on the trial service, or the link filters them off
Visitors can see the trial service, its teachers, and its locations
Teachers have Available Hours/Days for the trial service, and the location has open hours
Link type is Appointment Self-Booking, with a printable Link name, a Title, and a Photo
Select services lists the trial, and Filter by payment plan type is Single visit
Only show timeslots available on a weekly on-going basis is off
Make accessible by visitors is on
Update Business was clicked, and Business updated successfully appeared
A private-window test shows the trial, an open time, and the trial price, with no login request

FAQ

Do families need an account before they can see trial times?
No. On a public Opus1.io trial link, a family browses teachers and times first. Opus1.io asks them to create an account, or sign in if their email is already on file, at checkout.

Will I know when someone books a trial?
Yes. Opus1.io sends Owners and Managers activity updates about every 15 minutes, including self-booked appointments, unless they opt out on their staff profile. See Are owners and managers notified when a client self-books a trial lesson?.

Can I have a trial link for just one teacher?
Yes. Create a separate Opus1.io trial link and choose that teacher under (optional) Filter by staff. A family who opens that link sees only that teacher, so if the teacher is fully booked the page has no times to offer. Keep a general trial link on your website as well.

What happens after the trial?
The next step is set on the Opus1.io trial service, not on the link: which ongoing services the trial converts to, the automated enrollment email, and the optional weekly hold. See How Do I Set Up Trial Lessons?.

I changed the trial link and my website still shows the old version.
In Opus1.io, click Update inside Edit Link, then Update Business at the bottom of the page. If you changed Link name, the old /w/ address stops working, so update your website button and any flyers to the new one.

How Do I Set Up Trial Lessons? — the trial service itself: conversion, auto-hold, and follow-up
How to create and share a self-booking link — every self-booking link field, explained
Why isn't my service showing on my self-booking link? — ten checks for a link that looks empty
How do I create and share promotional links? — discounted trials and once-per-student offers
How do I add a booking button to my website? — putting the trial link on your site
How do I create a trial payment plan for my group classes? — trials inside an existing group class