Why do we require Happity Bookings to be activated for online classes?
We often get asked why online classes need to be bookable or featured to appear in Happity search results, whereas in-person classes can be listed for free. We appreciate that this might come as a surprise and so we want to be open about the reasons for this.
At Happity our mission is to support parents in accessing services in their local area, meeting others in the same boat, and escape the four walls. The Happity Membership model was designed to support this mission. By not being solely dependent on booking commission, it meant we could prioritise displaying complete listings for everyone, instead of only showing classes that would make revenue for us.
It also enabled us to offer a number of other membership features (see link below) that would be good for parents, children and class providers alike - but that wouldn't otherwise be supported by a commission model.
However, when everything moved online, we found that parents could suddenly choose between thousands of classes available across the entire globe - not just from a handful in their local area. Listing everything from everywhere just wasn't feasible - and it wouldn't have been fair on existing Happity Members either.
We also found that parents tend to book last minute and wanted something they could do immediately. So limiting the search results to bookable classes only helped them find suitable classes more quickly and easily. As this meant each parent visiting the site was more likely to actually complete a booking, it also meant we could advertise to parents on your behalf and grow the audience for all, having some confidence that it would also contribute to revenue for us.
We are funded entirely by our Members, and every penny goes back into the service. Several thousand classes have been removed from the site during the pandemic, so it is vital that we're also able to earn a living during this period too. Without it, Happity simply wouldn't exist.
If you're a free account holder...
If you can't afford a membership at the moment, that's OK - we understand. You're still welcome to list online classes if you wish, and we'll submit them to Google for you via our category pages which rank well on search keywords.
You'll also still benefit from our 'Followers' feature, which allows anyone viewing your Happity profile to subscribe to automated updates about your classes in future. So, there are still plenty of benefits from having a free account with Happity - it's just that there'll be even more when in-person classes return!
If you do wish to take out a membership, it's just £60+VAT for the whole year.
Useful links