You only ever pay your own share. If the amount on your card looks bigger than your share, that's a hold covering the whole court — and the difference comes back to you after the session.
Why the full court is held
When you book the court, we don't yet know who will join or what rate they'll pay. So we hold your own share plus 3 more shares priced at the highest a single share can cost at your club.
Example: your share is £9 and the highest share price is £12. We hold £9 + £36 = £45.
What happens after you play
4 hours after your session's end time, we work out exactly who joined and paid their share. You're charged only your own share — £9 in this example — and the remaining £36 comes back to you.
How that £36 reaches you depends on timing:
Session within 6 days of booking: the hold is simply reduced. You're charged £9, the rest is released, and no refund is needed.
Session more than 6 days away: card rules don't allow a hold to last that long, so the full £45 is charged on day 6. After your session, the £36 is refunded to you.
If nobody joins, you pay for the whole court — the amount that was held.
The amount held never goes down as players join. It's adjusted once, 4 hours after the session ends.