Learn how resources works
1. Learn how to create a new resource
Resources are an advanced way to manage the availability of your products. It is a very useful feature for businesses that sell multiple different products sharing the same underlying capacity.
Resources change the availability of products that use one or more resources, for example, tours that use guides or a sauna that can be booked both for private groups at a certain price and as open access at another.
In this article, you will learn everything about how resources work, when they can be practical to use, and what to consider when setting up your first resource. Read through the entire article beefore you start setting up your resources.
2. What is a resource?
A resource can be, for example, a person (guide, instructor, chef), a venue (sauna, cabin, meeting room), or vehicle (bus, trailer, boat) used by one or more bookable products. By adjusting the setting for your resources, you can affect the availability of your products in various ways.
💡 All resources belong to a resource category, which is then linked to the product. A resource category can consists of multiple resources; for example, the resource category "Guides" can include the resources Pelle, Simon, and Josephine.
A resource category can also be limited to a single resource; for example the category "Bus" that might only include the resource "Bus to Storsjön".
3. When should I use resources?
When you create resources, it functions similarly to a more advanced version of the Alias feature. It is only when you deactivate any of the resource's sharing setting that it differs from an Alias.
You should use resources when...
You want to offer multiple activities/products at the same time, and as soon as one of the products is booked at a certain time, the ability to book the other i blocked.
You want to make a product "private", i.e., as soon as a booking has been made, regardless of the number, the product is blocked for further bookings during the same period.
You have "package products", i.e., products that depend on the availability of several other products to be bookable.
You want to share availability between both a main product and an add-on product.
4. How do I create a resource?
Note! You cannot use resources simultaneously with aliases for a product.
Go to Products > Resources and click "Create my first resource"
Name the resource and specify its capacity. In this case, we'll name the resource Pelle. Pelle is a guide at the facility who can take up to 10 participants on each tour at the same time, so we set the capacity to 10.
Create a new resource category for Pelle by clicking "+ new resource category". The resource category is what you will link to your product. All people (resources) you create that can conduct the tours should be placed in the resource category we name "Guides".
Choose whether the resource can be shared between different products, shared between different bookings, and/or shared. between bookings at different start times. These settings control the availability of the products linked to the resource category and are therefore important to set correctly. Read more about how these work under the section "Settings 'Can be shared between...'".
Don't forget to save!🔒 You have now created your first resource!
The next step is to link the products that will use the resource.
Go to the product's availability settings and enable Resources.
Select which resource category the product will use. We select our newly created resource category "Guides".
Allow splitting bookings across different resources? If you enable this setting, the capacity for a single booking will be limited by the sum of the capacities of the resources in the resource category.
If the setting is disabled, the booking is listed by the resource with the highest capacity, s the booking cannot be split across multiple resources.
Example
There are two guides with available capacities of 2 and 8 respectively. If this setting is enabled, the maximum capacity for the product will be the sum of all resources' capacities, i.e., 8 +2 = 10. If this setting is disabled, the maximum capacity will be the highest available capacity for a singe guide, i.e., 8.
4. Repeat for all products that will use the resource category.
Done!! 🙌 You have now created and linked your first resource. There are many ways to custimse your resource preferences. Continue reading to learn how the different settings works.
5. The "Can be shared between..." setting
The settings "Can be shared between different products", "can be shared between different bookings", and "Can be shared between bookings at different start times" are curcial to get right for the resources to behave as you want.
How do the different settings work?
↔️ Can be shared between different products: Enable this setting if you want to share the resource between two or more products at the same time.
For example, if you have a bus used for two different guided tours that start simultaneously. If you disable this setting, either one tour can be booked or the other but they cannot be booked at the same time.
🗓 Can be shared between bookings at different start times: If the setting is enabled, multiple bookings can use the same resource.
For example, if a guide can take multiple bookings during the same tour. If you disable this setting, the guide (resource) becomes private and completely reserved for the first booking that books the resource.
🕖 Can be shared between bookings at different start times: If the setting is enabled, overlapping bookings of the resource are allowed.
For example, if a resource called "mountain bike" has capacity of 20 and allows 10 mountain bikes to be booked from 09:00 to 14:00, and an additional 10 mountain bikes to be booked from 10:00 to 15:00. If this setting is disabled, bookings with start times occurring during an ongoing booking will become unavailable.
6. Example
Below are some examples of how the different settings work and how they affect the availability of products.
📖 Example 1: When multiple products depend on a resource's capacity
A facility organises three hiking tours with 10 spots each at three different locations. The tour includes a bus ride to the starting point of the different tours, but the facility only has one bus that needs to pass all locations during the same bus ride. The bus always leaves at 09:00..
Here, we create a new resource, "Bus" with a capacity of 25. "Bus" is placed in a the resource category, "Buses", which will later be linked to all three tours. Since the bus should be shared between all tours (products) and shared between bookings, we leave these two settings enabled. Since all tours start at the same time, it doesn't matter if we disable Can be shared between bookings at different start times", so we leave it enabled. The tours' availability will now be limited by the bus trip's capacity or the tour's own capacity, whichever is less. If tour 1 and tour 2 are fully book, it means that 20 out of 25 bus spots are booked. Tour 3 will then only have 5 spots left available, even if no one has booked the tour yet, as there are only 5 bus spots available.
📖 Example 2: When booking one product should make the other product unavailable
Stina runs a horse farm that offers two different tours, the bgeinner tour (2 hours) and the long tour (4 hours). The tours start at the same time because the stable is only open between 11:00-14:00. Since Stina cannot conduct both tours at the same time, one tour should become unavailable if the other tour is booked.
We start by creating a new resource, Stina. We set Stina's capacity to 8, create a new resource category "Guides," and disable can be shared between different products. Then, we link both tours to "Guides." This means that if the beginner tour (2 hours) is booked, it will still be possible to book that tour (provided it is not fully booked) but not the long tour (4 hours), and vice versa.
📖 📖 Example 3: When booking one product should make the other product unavailable
A facility rents out a sauna. The sauna has a capacity of 10 people and can be booked for one hour. The sauna can be rented privately or booked as a shared sauna where different people can book to use the sauna. If the sauna is booked privately, it should not be available for anyone else, and if the sauna is shared, it should not be booked privately.
We create two products, "Shared Sauna" and "Private Sauna." We set the capacity for the shared sauna to 10, where each booking books a seat in the sauna. For the private sauna, we set the capacity to 1, where each booking takes up the entire sauna (10 seats).
We then create a resource "Sauna." The resource has a capacity of 10. This resource will be linked to both "Shared Sauna" and "Private Sauna," but should not be used simultaneously by the products. Therefore, we disable can be shared between different products.
Link the resource to the products in the products' availability settings.
Done! 🙌
📖 Example 4: When a product should only be booked privately
A kayak facility organises three private guided tours that last two hours, starting at 10:00. The facility has one guide, Pelle, who conducts all tours and can only handle one tour at a time. Each tour has a capacity of 10, and Pelle can take a maximum of 10 participants at a time, so Pelle's capacity is 10.
Here, we choose to disable can be shared between bookings to make the resource private. This means that once the first booking has reserved Pelle, all tours become unavailable for booking.
📖 Example 5: When a start time should be unavailable because it overlaps with other booked start times
A facility has two products, "Bus Tour to the Mountain" and "Bus Tour to the Lake," which customers can book. The facility uses a bus that can start at 10:00, 10:30, and 11:00. The bus goes from the facility to the mountain, then to the lake, and then back to the facility. The bus trip takes exactly one hour from the time it leaves until it returns. If the bus is booked at 10:00, it cannot be booked at 10:30 since it has already left, but it can be booked at 11:00. If no one books at 10:00, the bus leaves at 10:30, but then not at 10:00 or 11:00.
Here, we choose to disable Can be shared between bookings at different start times to prevent a start time from being booked if it conflicts with another booked start time.
7. Managing resources and resource categories
You can create new, edit, and view your resources under the Resources tab.
To edit your resource categories, click on "Manage resource categories" and then click on the icon 
next to the category you want to edit. Here you can rename or delete the resource category.
Under "Manage resource categories", you can also manage the order in which the resources will be booked from each resource category by dragging the cross arrows. The resource at the top will be booked first.
To edit individual resources, click on the next to the resource you want to edit.
8. Linking Resources in the Same Resource Category to a Product
If you have a product that depends on a resource category but cannot use all the resources in the resource category, you can disable the setting "Allow all resources in the selected resource categories to be booked."
For example, this can be useful if you have guides as resources, and all guides can be linked to the product "Beginner Tour," but only certain guides can be linked to the "Advanced Tour."
To exclude resources from a product, start by placing all resources in the same resource category (e.g., "Guide").
Then go to the product settings and activate resources. Uncheck the setting "Allow all resources in the selected resource categories to be booked," and then select the resources that should be bookable from the dropdown list for "Allowed Resources."
In this case, only Pelle, Anna, and Karin can be booked for this product. This way, you avoid booking the wrong guide (in this case, Mikael) for this tour.
📖 Example: Rentals & Tours
You run a snowmobile rental with four different snowmobile models, where the same snowmobiles are also used for guided snowmobile tours. Therefore, the availability between rentals and tours needs to be connected to avoid overbooking the snowmobiles.
As a rental provider, you can create a resource category for "Snowmobiles" with the four different snowmobile models as resources.
Then link all the tours to all resources in the "Snowmobiles" resource category, as all snowmobile models should be bookable for the tours. For the rental product "Snowmobile Model #1," you only link the resource for that specific snowmobile model.
9. Testing Your Resource
Before finalising your resources, you should test that they work as you want. Here are some tips on how to do this.
Do not activate the resource for customers to book before you know it works. Make the product available for administrators but not for customers in the product settings under "Status."
Test by making a booking and see if the availability of the products behaves as you want. You can check this in...
The inventory view in the manifest.
Under "Availability" in the menu.
The calendar in the booking view.
