Open Match Policies — Admin Guide

An Open Match lets players create and join matches with other players of similar skill level. A player books a court, sets criteria like rating range, and publishes the match — other eligible players can then join. It functions as a built-in player-matching system layered on top of court bookings.

Admins must configure Open Match policies for the feature to work correctly. These policies are configured per location, not globally — so a club running multiple venues can set different rules for each one. They need to be set up in advance.

You'll find them under: Settings → Policies → Open Match

PadelOS supports three types of open matches:

All three types use the same policy configuration described below.

Hide Match Rating When Logged Out When enabled, match rating ranges are hidden from users who are not logged in.

Rating Step Size Sets the minimum interval that users can select on the rating slider.

Book Ahead Limit Controls how many days in advance players can create open matches, configured per sport and court group.

Match Creation Lead Time Defines how far in advance a match can be created. For example, if set to 6 hours, players cannot create matches starting sooner than that.

Pending Payment Cutoff When a player adds another player to the match, that invited player has a limited window (e.g. 48 hours) to pay. This setting only applies when players are allowed to add partners (see Allow User to Add Their Partners below) — if the invited player doesn't pay in time, their spot is released and becomes available to others.

Booking Cancellation Time Defines how close to the match start players are allowed to cancel. For example, if set to 24 hours, cancellations within that window may be blocked.

Court is Booked When Determines when the court is officially booked. There are three options:

PadelOS Recommendation: We recommend setting this to require all players to have paid before the court is booked. This avoids reserving a court before the match is genuinely confirmed, and ensures full commitment from every player before court time is blocked off.

Court Booking Grace Period Only applicable when Court is Booked When is set to 2 or 4 players. When the match creator books a match, the court is immediately reserved for the duration of the grace period, giving the creator time to fill the remaining spots. If the required number of players haven't paid by the time the grace period ends, the court booking is released. This ensures courts aren't held indefinitely while still giving match creators a fair window to fill their match.

Allow User to Add Their Partners When enabled, match creators can add their partners directly to the match rather than waiting for them to join independently.

Rating Range for Competitive Match Sets the rating range above and below a player's rating within which they can join competitive matches.

Rating Range for Friendly Matches Sets the rating range above and below a player's rating within which they can join friendly matches.

This is the part admins most often find confusing, so it's worth walking through slowly.

The key thing to understand: a court being reserved is not permanent. A court can be booked, then unbooked again automatically, depending on whether the payment conditions you've set continue to be met. Two settings drive all of this — Court is Booked When and Court Booking Grace Period — and a third, Booking Cancellation Time, determines when players can still pull out.

Below are the scenarios you're most likely to encounter.

Scenario 1 — Court is Booked When: 1 Player Has Paid

This is the simplest setup. As soon as the match creator pays, the court is reserved. It doesn't matter whether anyone else has joined or paid yet.

Example: A player creates a match on Tuesday for Saturday at 7 PM and pays their share. The court is immediately booked and taken off the schedule for everyone else, even though three spots are still empty.

The risk with this setting is that a court can sit reserved for a match that never fills — which is why many clubs prefer one of the settings below.

Scenario 2 — Court is Booked When: 4 Players Have Paid (no grace period)

Here the court is not reserved until all four players have paid. Until that point, the court remains open on the schedule and can still be booked by someone else for a normal reservation.

Example: A player creates a match for Saturday at 7 PM and pays. Two friends join and pay. The court is still not booked — only three of four have paid. When the fourth player joins and pays, the court is reserved at that moment.

Important — the court can still become unbooked: Once all four have paid and the court is reserved, if one of those players cancels while still inside the cancellation window, the match drops back to three paid players. Because the condition of "4 players have paid" is no longer met, the court is automatically unbooked and released back onto the schedule. The match itself stays open, so a new player can join and pay — and when they do, the court is reserved again.

Scenario 3 — Court is Booked When: 4 Players Have Paid, with a Grace Period of 24 Hours

The grace period exists to solve a practical problem: if you require all four players to pay before reserving the court, a match creator has no way to hold the court while they round up their friends. The grace period gives them a temporary hold.

Here's how it plays out:

Example: A player creates a match for Saturday at 7 PM and pays their share. Even though only one player has paid, the court is immediately reserved — because the grace period is active. That player now has 24 hours to get their other three friends to join and pay.

Think of the grace period as a temporary courtesy hold, not a permanent booking. When it expires, the normal policy takes over.

Scenario 4 — The Original Court Is No Longer Available

Because a court isn't always held from the moment a match is created, it's possible for the originally chosen court to get taken by someone else before the match's payment condition is met. The system handles this automatically.

Example: A player creates a match on Court 1 for Saturday at 7 PM under a "4 players have paid" policy. Because the court isn't reserved yet, another player books Court 1 at 7 PM as a normal reservation in the meantime. When the fourth player in the open match finally pays, Court 1 is no longer free.

This is worth keeping in mind when choosing your Court is Booked When setting. The stricter the payment condition, the longer the court stays unreserved — and the greater the chance the original court gets taken in the meantime.

Scenario 5 — A Player Cancels Before the Cancellation Window Closes

Players are allowed to cancel or leave a match right up until the Booking Cancellation Time. If a player cancels while a court was reserved on the basis of their payment, that reservation is re-evaluated.

If their leaving means the payment condition is no longer met, the court is automatically unbooked and the match stays open for someone else to take their place. Once the vacancy is filled and paid for, the court is reserved again.

Scenario 6 — The Match Never Fills

If a match doesn't reach the required number of paid players — for example, only one player ever pays and nobody else joins — the system automatically handles the cleanup:

No admin action is required. The court simply returns to the schedule and becomes available for other bookings.

Scenario 7 — An Invited Player Doesn't Pay in Time

When a match creator adds a partner directly to the match, that invited player has a limited window to pay — set by the Pending Payment Cutoff.

Example: A player creates a match and adds a friend to one of the spots. With a 48-hour cutoff, that friend has 48 hours to pay. If they don't, their reserved spot is released and becomes open for any other eligible player to take.

For the difference between Public, Invite, and Super League matches, see the Open Match Types Guide. For the full list of club-wide policies, see the Club Policies Guide.