Setting up amenities

Before residents can reserve the pavilion or sign up for a gym slot, you need to tell HomeHerald what amenities exist. This article is the setup. Once it’s done, the booking system works.

What an amenity is

In HomeHerald, an amenity (also called an asset) is anything community-owned that residents reserve or use on a scheduled basis. Common examples:

• Clubhouse / community room
• Pool (especially if reservations are required)
• Gym / fitness room
• Pavilion or picnic area
• Tennis / pickleball / basketball courts
• Parking spots (guest parking, reserved spaces)
• Boat slips, RV storage, anything bookable

Amenities come in three types:

• Bookable - residents reserve time slots (clubhouse, courts)
• Common Area - open-access spaces with operating hours and an open season, no reservations (pool, playground)
• Link - just a link to somewhere else (a Facebook group, a website)

Don’t model these as Properties - properties are billable units like homes/lots. Amenities are shared community assets.

Where to set them up

Amenities in the admin sidebar (under Community), then the Manage tab (page header “Community Amenities”).

You’ll see a list of existing amenities with options to add or edit each.

Adding an amenity

When you create a new amenity, you’ll typically configure:

Field	What to enter
Amenity Type	Bookable, Common Area, or Link
Name	What residents see - “Clubhouse,” “Pool,” “Pavilion A”
Description	Optional, shown to residents - capacity, what’s included
Rental Fee ($)	Optional - see Rental fees and deposits
Deposit ($)	Optional refundable hold on the resident’s card - only used with Requires Payment
Duration Type	Hourly, Half Day (AM/PM), or Full Day
Max Advance (days) / Min Notice (hours)	How far ahead residents can book, and how much notice you need
Booking Mode	Self-Managed (book instantly), Requires Payment (pay to book by card), or Requires Approval (admin reviews first)
Cleanup Instructions	Shown to the resident after booking (cleanup, key return)
Rules & Guidelines	Rules added one at a time, each with a category

Requires Payment stays locked until your HOA’s bank account is connected through Stripe (see Enabling Stripe payments).

Bookable amenities take reservations within weekly hours (the same window on each day of the week). There’s no field for them on this form: when you save a bookable amenity here, its hours are set to 9 AM to 9 PM every day.

For Common Area amenities (open-access spaces with no reservations), you can set Operating Hours by day of the week and Seasonal Availability - year-round, or the month it opens and the month it closes. Residents see a “Closed for Season” badge outside those months.

For Link amenities, you enter the URL.

Examples - typical configurations

Clubhouse (bookable, Requires Payment or Requires Approval)

A high-value, frequently-abused amenity. Pick based on what you care about most:

• Requires Payment if you want a deposit: rental fee $100, deposit $200. The resident saves a card when they book; the fee is charged and the deposit is held on the card 24 hours before the booking.
• Requires Approval if you want a board review on each booking: rental fee $100. The fee goes on the resident’s account when you approve. No deposit is held in this mode.

Pool (bookable or info-only)

If you require reservations, set it as Bookable with Self-Managed. Lots of slots, low-stakes - residents would revolt if every swim required board sign-off.

If you don’t require reservations, set it as a Common Area with its operating hours and open season.

Pavilion (party / event)

Mid-tier - often a small fee. Use Requires Payment if you want a deposit, Requires Approval if you want to review each booking.

Guest parking spot (bookable, Self-Managed)

Low-stakes; use Self-Managed and let residents self-serve.

Blocking specific dates

If you need to block off dates for maintenance, holidays, or board events, the practical approach is:

• On the Upcoming tab, click Book (Book for Resident), pick yourself or another board member as the resident, choose Comp (no charge), and note why (“Maintenance - clubhouse closure”)
• The system reserves the time and prevents resident bookings in that slot

There isn’t a separate “blackout dates” config - admin-side bookings are how you do this in practice.

Visibility

By default, every amenity is active and visible to residents. Use Deactivate in the amenity’s edit window to take it out of service - useful when an amenity is undergoing maintenance or being phased out - and Activate to bring it back.

When residents see “amenity unavailable”

A few causes:

• Already booked - the slot is reserved by another resident
• Outside bookable hours - they’re trying to book a 7 AM slot when bookings start at 9
• Too far ahead or too soon - outside the amenity’s Max Advance or Min Notice
• Approval still pending - they submitted a booking but it’s waiting on admin

Removing an amenity

If an amenity is no longer available (sold, demolished, permanently closed), you can remove it with Delete Amenity.

Don’t delete if there are past bookings tied to it - bookings linked to a removed amenity may cause display issues. Better to keep the amenity in the system and Deactivate it.

Where to go next

• Approval workflows - for amenities that require admin sign-off
• Rental fees and deposits - money side of bookings
• Resident Digital Lock - automatic door codes for booked amenities