How the Locations Screen Tracks Where Lessons Happen and Pulls Weather for Each Spot
Published September 24, 2026
How the Locations Screen Tracks Where Lessons Happen and Pulls Weather for Each Spot
A kiteboarding school teaches at three beaches: the main launch on Saturdays, a shallow lagoon for beginners mid-week, and a downwind spot for advanced riders on big-wind days. A rock climbing guide service runs trips at five crags, each with different access hours and weather windows. A horseback riding barn runs trail rides that start from two different trailheads, each half an hour apart. A fishing charter runs inshore trips out of one marina and offshore trips out of another, thirty miles away.
The location is not just where you tell the customer to meet. It is where the wind blows, where the forecast matters, where the instructor drives, and where the equipment lives. When a school runs lessons at multiple spots, those differences shape the whole schedule. A lesson at the lagoon on a light-wind Tuesday is not the same lesson at the main beach on a Saturday with twenty knots.
That is what the Locations screen handles. It stores the teaching spots, ties each one to weather data, and connects locations to lessons, instructors, and availability. When the schedule shows a lesson, the location is right there on the same record. When the weather forecast loads, it pulls conditions for the spot where that lesson actually happens. When an instructor sets availability, they can say which locations they cover.
This is not a map feature or a calendar note. It is the product screen that keeps your teaching spots organized, pulls the right forecast for each one, and makes sure the schedule always knows where a lesson runs.
Table of Contents
What the Locations Screen Does
The Locations screen lists the physical spots where your school runs lessons. Each location has a name, an optional address, latitude and longitude coordinates, and a default flag. Lessons, camps, instructor availability, and the booking widget all reference locations.
When a location has coordinates, Seshana pulls live weather for that spot: wind speed and direction, temperature, precipitation, and tide or wave data when the school has those overlays turned on. The forecast shows up on the schedule next to lessons at that location, on the Weather Forecast screen, and in the session detail card.
Locations also tie to instructor availability. An instructor can set weekly or date-specific availability at one location, a different schedule at another, or blanket availability across all spots. When you assign an instructor to a lesson, the product checks availability at the lesson's location, not just the time slot.
The default location is what new lessons and the booking widget use unless you choose something else. If your school teaches at one main spot and occasionally moves to a backup, mark the main spot default. If you rotate between locations equally, pick whichever you book most often and adjust the rest manually.
For schools that teach at only one location, the Locations screen is a one-time setup: create the spot, add coordinates, mark it default, and you are done. For schools that run at multiple beaches, crags, trailheads, or marinas, this screen is how you keep the schedule tied to the right place and the right forecast.
When a School Needs More Than One Location
A school needs the Locations screen the moment it runs lessons at more than one physical spot, or when the same spot has different access points that matter for logistics.
A sailing center might teach at a main dock, a shallow training cove, and an offshore mooring. A mountain bike school might run beginner clinics at a pump track and shuttles at three different trailheads. A fishing charter might launch inshore trips from one marina and offshore trips from another. A horseback barn might offer arena lessons at the home facility and trail rides that start from a state park thirty minutes away.
The reason to track these separately is not just so the customer knows where to show up. It is because the weather, the drive time, the instructor pool, and the available hours are different at each spot. A lesson at the offshore mooring on a windy Wednesday is a different operational problem than a lesson at the training cove on a calm Saturday morning. The schedule needs to know which one is which.
Even schools that teach at one main location sometimes add a backup spot for weather days or overflow capacity. When that happens, the backup location gets its own coordinates, its own forecast, and its own place on the schedule. You do not move a lesson to the backup by typing a note in the calendar. You assign it to the other location, and the product pulls the right forecast automatically.
Create a Location and Add Coordinates for Weather
Open the Locations screen from Settings or the admin sidebar. Click Create Location. Name it whatever your instructors and customers already call it: Main Beach, Lagoon, North Crag, Trailhead A, Home Arena, Inshore Marina.
Add an address if you want one. The address shows up on lesson confirmations and instructor schedules. It does not have to be a full mailing address. A lot of outdoor teaching spots do not have street numbers. A recognizable landmark or intersection works fine as long as your team and your customers know where it is.
The coordinates are what matter for weather. Latitude and longitude tell the product where to pull forecast data from Open-Meteo and NOAA. If you leave the coordinates blank, the location works for scheduling and instructor availability, but the forecast will not load for lessons at that spot.
Getting coordinates is not complicated. Open Google Maps, right-click the teaching spot, and the first line in the menu is the lat/long pair. Copy it. Paste it into the Locations form. The product stores it and uses it every time the schedule pulls weather for a lesson at that location.
Some schools skip coordinates on indoor fallback locations or spots they only use once in a while. That is fine. The location still works for scheduling. You just will not see a forecast overlay for lessons there.
Mark a location as the default if you want new lessons and the booking widget to pre-select it. Only one location can be default at a time. If you do not pick one, the product will not guess. New lessons will open with no location set, and you will have to choose one manually every time.
Set a Default Location for New Lessons
The default location is what the schedule uses when you create a new lesson or when a customer books through the widget. If your school has one main teaching spot and rarely uses the others, set that main spot as default. If you rotate between locations equally, pick whichever you book most often.
When you open a new lesson form, the default location is already selected. You can change it if the lesson runs somewhere else. When a customer books through the widget, the default location is what the booking uses unless the school has configured the widget to let customers choose.
If no default is set, new lessons open with the location field blank. The widget still works, but every lesson you create manually requires an extra click to set the location. That is fine for schools that only use locations for the occasional backup spot. For schools that book multiple locations every week, picking a default saves time.
Changing the default does not touch existing lessons. It only affects new bookings and new staff-created sessions going forward.
How the Schedule Uses Location to Pull the Right Forecast
When a lesson has a location with coordinates, the schedule can pull live weather for that spot. Wind speed, wind direction, temperature, precipitation, and optional tide or wave data all come from the coordinates stored on the location.
The forecast shows up as an overlay on the calendar view and in the session detail card. When you open a lesson, the weather section loads conditions for that location at the lesson start time. If the location has no coordinates, the weather section stays empty.
The Weather Forecast screen pulls conditions for all locations with coordinates. Open it from the admin or instructor sidebar. Pick a location from the dropdown. The forecast loads for that spot. Switch to a different location, and the forecast switches too. If a lesson moves from one location to another, the forecast on that lesson changes to match the new spot.
This is how a school with three teaching beaches can check the wind window for all three spots without opening three separate browser tabs. The product already knows the coordinates. You just tell it which location to load.
For more on using weather data to decide whether a lesson runs, see How the Weather Forecast Screen Helps Outdoor Schools Decide Whether to Run a Lesson. That article walks through thresholds, advisories, and the forecast overlay on the schedule.
Link Instructors to Locations They Cover
Instructor availability can be set at the organization level, meaning the instructor is available for any location, or at a specific location, meaning the instructor only teaches there. When you create an availability rule, you choose whether to leave the location blank or pick one.
A blank location means the instructor is available everywhere. If your school has three beaches and one instructor covers all of them, set availability with no location. If an instructor only teaches at the lagoon on Wednesdays, create a Wednesday rule and pick the lagoon location.
When you assign an instructor to a lesson, the product checks availability for the lesson's date, time, and location. An instructor who is marked available at Location A and unavailable at Location B will show as available for lessons at A and unavailable for lessons at B. The assignment screen separates available instructors from unavailable ones, and location is part of that check.
This is also how schools handle instructors who live near one teaching spot but not another. If you have an instructor who only works the north trailhead, set availability at that location. Lessons at the south trailhead will not show that instructor as available, even if the time slot is open.
For more on instructor scheduling and availability, see How to Assign Instructors to Outdoor Lessons Without Guessing Who's Free. That piece covers availability rules, time-off, and how the assignment view scores instructors for a given lesson slot.
How the Booking Widget Handles Multiple Locations
The booking widget can show one location for all lessons, or it can let customers choose which spot they want. How it works depends on your catalog setup and your widget settings.
If every lesson type runs at the same location, the widget uses the default location for every booking. The customer does not see a location picker. The confirmation email tells them where to meet, and the lesson is created with that location already set.
If lesson types run at different locations, you can configure the widget to show a location dropdown. The customer picks the spot, then picks a time. The widget only shows instructor availability for that location. A lesson booked at Location A only offers instructors who are available at A, even if an instructor at Location B has the same time slot open.
For schools that let customers choose, make sure each location has clear, recognizable names and addresses. The widget does not show a map. It shows the location name and the address you entered. If the address is blank or confusing, the customer will not know where to go.
The booking widget article walks through the whole public booking flow, including how locations filter instructor availability. See How the Booking Widget Lets Customers Choose a Lesson, Instructor, and Time Without Calling the School.
Keep Archived Spots From Showing Up on New Lessons
When a school stops using a teaching spot, archive the location instead of deleting it. Archiving keeps the location out of new lesson forms and the booking widget, but existing lessons at that spot stay intact.
Deleting a location breaks the historical record. Lessons that ran at that spot lose the location reference. The forecast data disappears. Instructor availability rules tied to that location stop working. If you ever need to pull a report or look back at what happened during a season, the archived location is still there.
Archived locations do not show up in the location picker on new lessons, on the booking widget, or in instructor availability forms. They still show up on the Locations screen with an archived label. You can unarchive a location if the school starts using it again.
This is also how schools handle seasonal spots. A surf school might use a winter break location for three months, then archive it for the rest of the year. The location is still in the system. The historical lessons are still there. It just does not clutter the active location list during the off-season.
What a Multi-Spot Schedule Actually Looks Like
A school that teaches at three locations uses location as part of the schedule, not a note stuck onto it. When you open the calendar, each lesson shows the instructor, the time, the customer, and the location. The forecast overlay pulls conditions for each spot. When you move a lesson from one location to another, the weather updates automatically.
The daily schedule view groups lessons by location. If you have five lessons at the main beach and two at the lagoon, the schedule shows that split. Instructors see which spot they are teaching at without clicking into every lesson. The schedule export includes location as a column. The offline download includes location and forecast for each session.
When a lesson runs at Location A and the instructor is only available at Location B, the assignment screen surfaces that conflict before you book the lesson. When a customer books through the widget at a location with no instructor availability, the booking either fails or goes into a request queue, depending on your settings.
For more on how the schedule handles changes across instructors, locations, and times, see How the Schedule Screen Keeps Lessons, Instructors, and Locations Together When Things Change. That article covers calendar drag, conflicts, and how the product keeps everything lined up when a lesson moves.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Creating a new location for every minor variation. You do not need a separate location for the north end of the beach versus the south end unless the weather or the instructor pool is actually different. If it is the same teaching spot with two parking lots, use one location and put the parking detail in the lesson notes or confirmation email.
Leaving coordinates blank and wondering why the forecast does not load. Weather requires latitude and longitude. If the location has no coordinates, the forecast will not pull. Google Maps gives you the exact numbers. Paste them into the location form, and the forecast works.
Forgetting to set a default location. If no default is set, every new lesson opens with the location blank. The widget works, but staff-created lessons require an extra click every time. Pick a default, even if you change it later.
Deleting a location instead of archiving it. Deleting a location removes it from historical lessons. Archive it instead. Archived locations stay out of the way but do not break past records.
Using the address field as a note instead of an address. The address shows up on confirmation emails and the instructor schedule. If you put "check the group text for exact spot" in the address field, that is what the customer sees. Keep the address recognizable. Put instructions in the lesson notes.
FAQ
Does every location need an address? No. The address is optional. Coordinates are what matter for weather. A lot of outdoor teaching spots do not have street addresses. A landmark or intersection works fine as long as your team and your customers know where it is.
Can I change the coordinates after lessons are already scheduled? Yes. Changing the coordinates updates the forecast for future and past lessons at that location. Historical weather snapshots are not rewritten, but the live overlay will pull from the new coordinates.
What happens if I delete a location that has lessons? Lessons at that location lose the location reference. The forecast stops loading. Instructor availability tied to that location stops working. Archive the location instead of deleting it.
Can I set different default locations for different lesson types? No. The default location is organization-wide. If you want a lesson type to always use a specific location, you have to set it manually when you create the lesson or configure the booking widget to filter lesson types by location.
Do customers see all locations in the booking widget? Only if you configure the widget to show a location picker. If the widget is set to use the default location for everything, customers do not see a location dropdown. The lesson is created with the default location already set.
Can I track travel time between locations? Not directly. The product does not calculate drive time. If you need buffer time between lessons at different locations, add it manually to the instructor's availability or set a longer buffer in the booking rules.
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