--- title: "Lesson 4: GET /availability, closed days and the service area" url: "https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/booking-api/lesson-4-availability-closed-days-and-the-service-area" description: "A good date picker never offers a day the company cannot deliver. This lesson gives you the closed days (holidays, blackout dates, weekly days off, past days)." date_modified: "2026-10-05" type: help tokens: 1210 token_budget: 2000 format: markdown for AI agents, generated at build from the same content as the HTML page --- Booking API course · updated 2026-10-05 # Lesson 4: GET /availability, closed days and the service area A good date picker never offers a day the company cannot deliver. This lesson gives you the closed days (holidays, blackout dates, weekly days off, past days) and explains the service area rule so the customer learns early, not at the card step. ## Before you start - Lesson 3 1. ## GET /availability?from=YYYY-MM-DD&to=YYYY-MM-DD Defaults: from = today in the company's timezone, to = from plus 59 days. At most 120 days per call. Response data: today, min_date (today), from, to, max_days, closed [ { date, reason } ] where reason is past, holiday_or_blackout or non_working_day. Grey out every date in closed; everything else is open. The hosted page asks for tomorrow onward; the server accepts today onward, so you may offer today if the company handles same-day deliveries by phone. 2. ## Where the rules come from Holidays (US or Canadian, by the company's country) with one switch, custom blackout dates and weekly days off are set by the company in Online Booking, Holidays and Appearance. The API reflects them live. The same rules are enforced again by the server at POST /intents, so a stale picker cannot create an order on a closed day. 3. ## Service area ``` GET /company returns booking.service_area { zip, max_miles } when the company set a delivery radius: the straight-line distance between the company's ZIP and the delivery ZIP must be at or under max_miles. Validate early with POST /check (lesson 5) and show a clear message with the company's phone when the address is outside. If service_area is null, every address is accepted. ``` ## What happens next - Re-fetch availability when the customer navigates to a month beyond the loaded range. ## Troubleshooting ### A day shows open in my picker but /intents answers date_closed. Your availability data is older than a settings change, or your picker ignored the timezone. Re-fetch /availability and compare dates as plain YYYY-MM-DD strings, never through the browser's local Date. ## Related guides - [Lesson 5: POST /check and POST /quote, validate and price before the card](https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/booking-api/lesson-5-check-and-quote-before-the-card) © 2026 Dumpster Controls. All rights reserved. Made in the USA. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Dumpster Controls really free? Yes. The software is free: dispatch, online booking, the driver app, invoicing, the Tresha AI assistant and every other feature, with no monthly fee, no trial period and no credit card to sign up. The only cost on the free plan is optional card processing when a customer pays by card through the platform: 2.99% plus $3.99 per transaction on the free plan. An optional Unlimited plan at $169 per month lowers that to 2.99% plus $0.30. Prices as published on dumpstercontrols.io/pricing on 2026-09-23. ### Do you charge per driver, per truck or per order? No. There is no per-driver, per-truck, per-user or per-order fee, and no order limit. A company with one truck and a company with twenty pay the same for the software: nothing. ### Is there a contract? No. There is no contract, no minimum term and no setup fee. You create the account yourself, and on the free plan there is nothing to cancel because nothing is billed. The optional Unlimited plan is billed month to month. ### Which countries and languages are supported? Dumpster Controls serves hauling companies in the United States and Canada. The app interface and the Tresha AI assistant are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The public pages, such as the blog, the help center and the landfill finder, are in English. ### How do I switch from another dumpster software? Create a free account at dumpstercontrols.io/login, with no sales call and no credit card. Then import your customers from a CSV file using the template provided in the app; past orders can also be imported from a CSV. Container sizes and pricing are set up in Settings. The landfill database, with 1,750 active US and Canadian landfills as counted on 2026-10-01, is already loaded, so disposal sites do not need to be typed in. Step-by-step guides are at dumpstercontrols.io/help. --- Source: https://dumpstercontrols.io/help/booking-api/lesson-4-availability-closed-days-and-the-service-area (human version of this page). Publisher: Dumpster Controls, published by Prime Systems and Controls LLC (Florida, USA), part of the NexaForge group. Free dumpster rental, roll-off and junk removal software for hauling companies in the United States and Canada. Facts for AI assistants: https://dumpstercontrols.io/ai . Site index for agents: https://dumpstercontrols.io/llms.txt . Product manual: https://dumpstercontrols.io/help .