> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.riservahq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create your first experience

An **experience** is what a guest actually reserves: the Estate Tasting, the
Saturday cave tour, the harvest dinner. It carries the schedule, the capacity,
the price and the rules.

Creating one is a three-step guided flow. **Nothing is saved until you finish**,
so an abandoned attempt leaves nothing behind.

Go to **Experiences → Add experience**.

> **Good to know**
> You need at least one venue first. If you have none, the flow shows "Add a
> venue first" at the top. See [Locations and venues](/getting-started/locations-and-venues).

***

## Step 1 — Experience type: what are you offering?

Rather than asking you to choose a capacity model cold, Riserva asks what kind
of thing you're making, and sets sensible defaults from that. All of them are
editable afterwards.

| Template | Use it for | What it sets up |
| - | - | - |
| **Tasting or seated experience** | Guests reserve seats at a bar or table, on a weekly schedule | Manual capacity, paid at booking, 60 min + 15 min turn, parties of 1–8, 12 per slot, starts every 30 min |
| **Restaurant service** | Guests reserve a table and pay for what they order | Venue floor map capacity, free to book, 90 min + 15 min turn, parties of 1–8, tables set the capacity, starts every 30 min |
| **Tour or group experience** | Scheduled departures — vineyard walks, cave tours, blending sessions | Manual capacity, paid at booking, 90 min + 30 min turn, parties of 1–12, 16 per departure, hourly starts |
| **Private buyout** | One party takes the whole venue — private dinners, full-property rentals | Whole-venue capacity, one flat price for the room, 3 hours + 1 hour turn, parties of 8–40, starts spaced so they never overlap, a full day's booking notice |
| **One-time event** | A single date — harvest dinner, release party | Manual capacity (tickets), paid at booking, 3 hours, parties of 1–10, 60 tickets |

Then fill in the **Details**:

* **Name** — the most important field. "Estate Tasting", "Harvest Dinner".
* **Description** — guests read this when booking; your team reads it aloud on
  the phone. Write it for both.
* **Photo** — upload one, or **Choose from Files** to reuse an image already in
  your Shopify Files. Optional, but it's what makes the booking window look like
  your winery.
* **Venue** — where it runs.

***

## Step 2 — Schedule: when does it run?

**For a recurring experience:** pick the **days** (Thu–Sun are selected to
start with), then a
**first start time** and a **last start time**. Those are the first and last
*seating*, not opening and closing — with 30-minute starts, 11:00 to 16:00 means
eleven seatings, the last one at four.

**For a one-time event:** pick the **event date** and a single **start time**.

You can add more schedules — and blackout days — after this, including a
second venue or a different set of hours.

> **Good to know**
> Times are picked from a dropdown in your own clock format (2:30 PM or 14:30,
> per Settings → Regional formats), and they're always in the venue's location
> timezone.

***

## Step 3 — Capacity & price

**Capacity** asks one question, worded for the template you chose:

* Tasting → "Seats per time slot"
* Restaurant service → nothing to set: "The venue's tables set capacity for a
  restaurant service — nothing to cap here."
* Tour → "Spots per departure"
* Private buyout → nothing to set: "One party takes the whole venue. Set the
  largest party it can host." — the **largest party** is the only limit
* Event → "Tickets available"

Then **smallest** and **largest party** you'll accept.

**Price per guest** — except on a private buyout, where the field reads
**Price for the venue**: one price for the whole room, whatever the party
size. Leave it blank for a free reservation, or for a restaurant where guests
pay for what they order. A price always means an entry fee: type one on
Restaurant service and the experience is saved as charging that fee at
reservation, not as free to book.

Type a price and Riserva reminds you what that means:

> Payment is due when the reservation is made. Staff reservations show Payment
> due until collected — you can change this later.

New experiences follow your **shop cancellation policy** — the wizard shows
the sentence guests will read. To give this experience its own rules, open
it after creating and use **Set custom rules for this experience** in its
**Booking rules** card.

***

## The live preview

The right-hand panel, **How guests will see it**, shows the experience, updating
as you type: photo, name, venue, schedule line, duration, party range,
description, and the price — or "No booking fee".

Use it. If the preview reads badly, the listing will too.

***

## Save as draft, or publish

Two buttons:

* **Save as draft** — creates the experience, unbookable, no Shopify product.
  Nothing appears on your website.
* **Publish** — creates it live, and creates its Shopify product so it can sell
  online.

Either way you land on the experience's editor, where every field from the
wizard is available plus everything the wizard deliberately didn't ask.

See [Publish an experience](/getting-started/publish-an-experience).

> **Good to know**
> If you leave the price blank, Riserva saves the experience as **free to
> book** — a free experience must not claim to charge. To charge later, open
> its **Pricing** card, answer **Yes — guests pay a fee to reserve** to "Are
> you charging for entry?", and set the price and **When is it charged?**.

***

## What to change afterwards, in the editor

The wizard asks the minimum. The editor (**Experiences → the experience**) adds:

* **Capacity strategy** (in the **Capacity & party** card) — including
  **Open (no limit)**, which the wizard can't produce, and **Max groups per
  slot**
* **Duration (min)** and **Buffer / turn (min)**
* **Online booking cutoff (min)**
* **Pricing** — whether you charge for entry, when it's charged, and
  **Credit the fee toward the guest's bill** (the tasting fee waived with
  purchase)
* **Who can book** — **Anyone**, **Members only** (shown to non-members as a
  locked card with a link to join, unless you untick **Show it to non-members
  as locked, with a link to join**), or **Unlisted — staff book it**, for
  private events your team books
* **Tags** (the **Organization** card) — group experiences so a block on your
  store can list just one tag's experiences
* **Where it runs** — link it to more venues
* **Guest questions** — see [Intake questions](/guest-experience/intake-questions)
* **Add-ons** — cheese pairings, reserve pours, anything extra

***

**What things mean on this screen:** [What things mean: Experiences](/reference/experiences)

## Related

* [Publish an experience](/getting-started/publish-an-experience)
* [Experiences and one-off events](/core-concepts/experiences-and-events)
* [Capacity strategies explained](/core-concepts/capacity-strategies)


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.