Open matches: the social half of openmatch
In short
- An open match is a booking whose host is looking for players they do not know. Everyone pays their share and you receive your court price exactly as on any other booking.
- Open matches happen at your venue on every plan. The screen where you see them all is a Growth feature.
- If a match does not find enough players, openmatch cancels it in good time before the start and refunds the players.
What an open match is
On an ordinary booking, a group who already know each other turns up. On an open match, a player puts their booking out publicly: "Padel doubles, Thursday 7pm, two spots free." Other players nearby see it in the discover feed, join, and pay their share straight in the app.
For you that is simply another filled hour, and one that would otherwise have stayed empty. There is nothing for you to set up, unlock or moderate. A player either creates the match while booking or converts an already paid booking afterwards, because their own players dropped out.
The money works exactly as on any other booking: you receive your court price, less your commission. Who pays and how the players split it between themselves is not your concern. openmatch handles that and transfers your share through Stripe (see payouts).
Open matches happen everywhere, the overview is Growth
A precise distinction is worth making here, because it is often misread:
| Starter | Growth+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Players create open matches at your venue | ✓ | ✓ |
| You get paid for the court | ✓ | ✓ |
| You see every open match at your venue on one screen | ✗ | ✓ |
Open matches are therefore never switched off. What the plan controls is your overview of them. On Starter you see the individual bookings in your bookings list as normal, just not the match view with player counts.
From Growth up you have the Matches screen: every open match at your venue, filterable by status (open, filling, confirmed, done, cancelled), each with the activity, time, host and current player count. Tapping a row opens the match details.
The statuses and how they change
You change nothing on a match by hand; the status follows the player count and the clock:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open | still below the minimum number of players |
| Filling | minimum reached, room still left |
| Confirmed | full |
| In progress | start time reached |
| Done | end time passed |
| Cancelled | too few players, or cancelled by the host |
When a match does not fill up
So that a half-filled match does not land on your court at short notice, every open match has an automatic cancellation deadline. If the minimum number of players is not reached by then, openmatch cancels the match and refunds every player who has already paid.
| Case | Cancellation deadline before the start |
|---|---|
| Match with up to 6 players | 2 hours |
| Match with more than 6 players | 4 hours |
| Match converted from an existing booking | 24 hours |
The last case is deliberately more generous: someone who has already paid for the court and is looking for players should get a full day rather than two hours.
A match that has reached its minimum number of players is never cancelled automatically, not even if it does not fill completely before kick-off.
A player you have blocked for your venue can no longer join an open match with you either (see customer retention).