With Parent Bookings in the Famly app, you can book extra sessions and products for your child beyond their regular attendance plan, like an extra afternoon or a lunch add-on.
💡 Not seeing Parent Bookings in your app? Your nursery decides whether to offer Parent Bookings. If you don't see the option, it means your nursery hasn't enabled it. Reach out to your nursery if you'd like to know more.
How to Find Parent Bookings
There are two ways to open the booking flow in the Famly app:
Request care on the Activity tab
Add button on the Bookings tab
Both take you to the same booking flow.]
Two Types of Bookings
When you browse available sessions, you may see two labels: Book and pay and Request. Here's what each one means.
Who can use Parent Bookings?
Book and pay requires the parent role, and you must be a bill payer for the child
Request requires the parent role
Book and Pay
Sessions labelled Book and pay can be booked and paid for immediately. You select the session, go through a short checkout, and the booking is confirmed as soon as payment goes through. There's no waiting for nursery approval.
What to know about Book and pay:
You pay at checkout using a saved card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay
The booking is confirmed immediately
A separate invoice is created straight away
If you don't have a card saved, you can add a new payment method directly from the checkout flow
Request
Sessions labelled Request are sent to your nursery for review. You select what you'd like to book, submit the request, and your nursery will approve or decline it.
What to know about requests:
No payment is needed when you submit the request
You'll receive an email and an in-app notification when your nursery approves or declines your request
Once approved, the session is added to your next regular invoice
Seeing Both in the Same Booking
Depending on how your nursery has set things up, you may see both Book and pay and Request sessions on the same screen. For example, one session might be available to book and pay for instantly, while another needs a request. The label on each session tells you which type it is.
What You See When Browsing
When you open the booking flow and select a date, you'll see:
Already Booked
At the top, under Already booked, the app shows what's already in your child's plan or previously approved bookings for that day. Any sessions that would overlap with existing bookings are automatically filtered out, so you'll only see sessions you can actually add. This means there's no risk of double-booking.
Available Sessions and Products
Below that, you'll see the sessions and add-on products available for your child, each showing:
The session name and time
Whether it's Book and pay or Request
The price (including any discounts that apply)
Checkout and Summary
After selecting what you'd like to book, you'll see a summary screen.
If your selection includes Book and pay items, the summary will show the total amount to pay now and a Proceed to payment button. Any request items in the same booking are submitted alongside, and you'll see both types clearly labelled in the summary.
The summary also explains how it works:
Book and pay sessions are automatically approved as soon as you pay
Request sessions need approval. If approved, they'll be added to your next invoice
If your selection only includes Request items, you'll see a Request button instead of a payment step.
Booking Window
Your nursery controls how far ahead you can book, including both the earliest and the latest available date. For example, they might require at least 1 day's notice and allow bookings up to 30 days ahead. Sessions outside this window won't appear in the app.
The window takes your nursery's opening hours into account. So if the nursery closes at 3pm on a Thursday and you're browsing after that time, Friday may no longer be available and the earliest option could be the following Monday.
If you have questions about when you can book, reach out to your nursery as they control the booking window and can help explain what's available.
Discounts
Your nursery can choose to apply discounts automatically to extra bookings. If this is enabled and your child has an active discount (for example, a sibling discount or staff discount), you'll see the discounted price when browsing. Whether automatic discounts are applied depends on your nursery's settings.
Viewing Your Bookings
You can see all your extra bookings on the Bookings tab of your child's profile, under Purchases. Each purchase shows:
The sessions and products included, with prices
A status label so you know where things stand:
Pending — your request is waiting for the nursery to review
Approved — the booking has been confirmed
Rejected — the nursery declined the request (they may include a note explaining why)
Paid — a Book and pay session that has been paid for
Any discounts that were applied
You can toggle Show rejected on or off to filter out declined bookings.
Changing or Cancelling a Booking
Pending Requests
If you've submitted a request that hasn't been approved yet, you can delete it yourself directly in the app, with no need to contact your nursery.
Approved Requests and Book and Pay Sessions
Once a request has been approved or a Book and pay session has been confirmed, you'll need to contact your nursery to make any changes or cancellations. For sessions that have already been paid for, the nursery will handle any refund.
Have questions? Reach out to your nursery if you need help with extra session bookings, as they can assist with anything related to your child's bookings and payments.