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What happens to a student's lesson slot during a hold?

Pausing a student for the summer or a vacation frees their lesson time by default. With Cancel appointments during hold on, each private lesson inside the hold is marked On hold, and the teacher, room, and time open up for another student. In a group class, their seat opens instead. Turn the option off to keep the spot reserved while billing pauses. Lessons after the hold stay in the student's regular weekly time.

Applies to: Owner, Manager, Staff
PLUS Feature: No
Plan: All
Last updated: October 28, 2026

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Free the time or keep it reserved
  3. Private lessons during a hold
  4. Booking another student into the freed time
  5. Choosing a studio policy for held times
  6. Group classes during a hold
  7. Keeping the time reserved during a hold
  8. After the hold ends
  9. Billing, pay, and hold rules
  10. FAQ
  11. Related Articles

Overview

A subscription hold pauses one student's enrollment for the dates you choose. The enrollment itself stays in place, so the student does not need to be enrolled again when they come back. Lessons before the hold starts and lessons after it ends stay on the schedule at the student's regular day and time.

The question this article answers is what Opus1.io does with the lessons inside the hold. A student away for ten weeks over the summer leaves ten empty lessons on a teacher's week. Opus1.io can release that time so you can fill it with a trial, a makeup, or a student who wants a summer-only spot. Or it can keep the time blocked so nothing changes on the teacher's calendar while billing is paused.

Why it matters: A popular teacher's Tuesday 4:00 PM is worth money. Releasing it for the summer lets you earn from it, and keeping it reserved protects a family who has been promised that exact time. Opus1.io lets you make that choice per hold.

Free the time or keep it reserved

The choice is one setting in the hold window, and it is on by default. It has a different label depending on the type of enrollment.

Enrollment type Setting in the hold window When it is on (default) When it is off
Private lessons Cancel appointments during hold Lessons in the hold are marked On hold and the teacher, room, and time are free to book Lessons stay scheduled and the time stays taken
Group classes Mark client as cancelled during hold The student is marked On hold for those class dates and their seat opens The student stays on each class roster and keeps their seat

To reach the setting, open the student's client profile in Opus1.io, scroll to Subscriptions, and click Hold on the enrollment you are pausing. Set the start and end dates, choose the option, and click Place On Hold.

⚠️ Warning: Hold dates and this choice cannot be changed after you click Place On Hold. If you need to change them later, see Can I change, extend, or cancel a subscription hold?

Private lessons during a hold

With Cancel appointments during hold on, Opus1.io marks each private lesson inside the hold dates as On hold.

An On hold lesson no longer reserves the teacher, the room, or the time. You can book another student into the same slot for those weeks. The original lesson stays on the calendar with its On hold label, so anyone looking at the teacher's week can still see why that student is missing.

Two kinds of lesson are treated differently:

  • Lessons already marked Closed. A lesson that was already marked Closed for a studio closure, such as a holiday, stays Closed. The hold does not change it to On hold.
  • Lessons shared with another student. If another student is on the same appointment, such as siblings who share a lesson, Opus1.io takes only the student on hold off that appointment. The other student keeps the lesson at the usual time.

Booking another student into the freed time

Book the freed time from the Opus1.io calendar the same way you book any lesson, whether it is a trial, a makeup, or a summer-only student. The difference is how long the new booking should last.

The returning student's lessons after the hold end date still hold that day, time, teacher, and room. So a booking for someone else should finish by the time the hold ends. In Opus1.io, either book single lessons, or book a recurring series and set it to stop after a number of lessons or after a date that falls on or before the hold's end date.

For example, a student on hold from June 1 to August 31 returns to their Tuesday 4:00 PM on the first Tuesday in September. A summer student booked into that time should have their last Tuesday lesson no later than August 31.

If you want the new student to keep the time permanently, the returning student needs a different time. Agree that new time with their family first, then reschedule their lessons after the hold to it, before you book the new student.

Choosing a studio policy for held times

Opus1.io keeps the returning student's lessons after the hold at their regular time. Whether that time is guaranteed is your studio's policy, and families will ask before they agree to a summer break. Schools tend to take one of two positions.

  • The time is guaranteed on return. The student comes back to the same day, time, and teacher, however long the break. This matches what Opus1.io does by default. Fill the time during the hold only with bookings that end before the return date, or turn the cancel option off for families whose time you never want touched. Why: Families are more willing to pause instead of quitting when they know their spot is safe.
  • A long hold risks the time. For a hold past a set length, such as 30 days, the studio may give the time to someone else and offer the returning student a new time. Opus1.io does not move the returning student for you, so a staff member reschedules their lessons after the hold before the new student is booked. Why: A popular teacher's prime-time slot earns all year instead of sitting on hold for a whole summer.

Whichever position you take, put it in your studio policies and tell the family when you place the hold. A family who expected their Tuesday 4:00 PM back is harder to win over in September than one who knew the rule in June.

Group classes during a hold

With Mark client as cancelled during hold on, the class stays on the Opus1.io calendar and meets as usual for everyone else. The student is marked On hold for each class date inside the hold.

When the class has a maximum class size, marking the student On hold opens their seat for those dates. Another student can enroll in the open seat for those classes. A class with no size limit has no seat to open, so nothing changes for anyone else.

Class dates outside the hold still list the student as enrolled. After the hold ends, they return to the remaining classes at the same time.

ℹ️ Note: Only class dates already on the calendar when you place the hold are updated. If you add a class date inside the hold afterward, that new date still lists the student on hold as enrolled. Check the roster for any class date you add during a hold.

Keeping the time reserved during a hold

Turn the option off when the family should keep their exact time even though they are not coming and not paying for those weeks. A long-standing family taking a two-week vacation is a common case: you would rather the time sit empty than risk giving it away.

With the option off, Opus1.io leaves those lessons scheduled. The teacher, the room, and the group class seat all stay taken, and the student still appears on each lesson or class roster. Billing for the hold dates still follows the plan's hold rules.

The trade-off is that the teacher's calendar looks unchanged. Those lessons look like any other lesson, so tell the teacher which dates are paused before the hold starts. That way nobody waits for a student who is not coming, or records them as a missed lesson.

After the hold ends

When the end date passes, Opus1.io makes the enrollment active again automatically. There is nothing to click.

Lessons that were already booked after the end date stay at the student's regular time, so the student picks up where they left off. Lessons marked On hold during the break are not put back on the schedule and do not turn into makeup credits. If a family should get any of those weeks back, book the extra lessons by hand.

Billing, pay, and hold rules

These apply to every hold, whichever option you choose, and are covered in full in How do I use subscription holds?

  • Invoices. On payment plans that support it, Opus1.io prorates invoices covering the hold dates. If the plan does not prorate holds, the hold window says so before you confirm.
  • Teacher pay. The teacher's pay rate setting Count appointments/classes on hold? decides whether On hold lessons count toward payroll. When it is off, they are not paid.
  • Who and when. Staff, managers, and owners can place a hold, and the payment plan has to allow holds. A student can have one hold at a time on a subscription. The hold must fall inside the enrollment, cannot start in the enrollment's first calendar month, and cannot run longer than the plan allows.

FAQ

Does Opus1.io tell the family their lessons are on hold?
By default the family can be emailed when you place the hold. Turn on Do not notify the client in the hold window to skip that email. Opus1.io does not send a separate email when the hold ends, so remind the family of their return date yourself.

How do I reserve a time for a family who hasn't enrolled yet?
That is a different feature called an appointment hold. It reserves an open time for a family who is still deciding, with no subscription or charge. See What are appointment holds? and Subscription hold vs. appointment hold: which do I need?

I placed the hold with the wrong option. Can I switch it?
Not on the existing hold, because a saved hold cannot be edited in Opus1.io. Can I change, extend, or cancel a subscription hold? explains which fix to use for each situation.

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