Resources, capacity, and bookability
Last updated: May 25, 2022
Sometimes, when resource requirements are combined with other restrictions like customer type capacity or minimum party sizes, users may experience unexpected capacity counts or online bookability behavior. Here you’ll find important notes about how these factors work together and various scenarios that may result in unexpected behavior.
Note: Some results will differ depending on whether the Dashboard is using the simple/smart capacity display vs. the original capacity display. Be sure to check which one the Dashboard is using (go to advanced company settings and search for “simple capacity”) and refer to the relevant section below.
Factors that determine an availability’s bookability
There are many factors that contribute to capacity counts and bookability. If you run into unexpected behavior, look for the following settings and experiment with removing/changing them one at a time to identify what’s causing the unexpected behavior:
Basic settings
First, try to rule out any obvious changes to these basic settings:
Is there an availability capacity set?
What are the item’s online bookability settings?
- Are availabilities set to display a “Call to book” message when full or overbooked (bottom right checkbox is checked), or should they be hidden (bottom right checkbox is unchecked)?
- Are there min/max party sizes or online booking cutoffs?
Are there any affiliate blocks set up on the availability?
- A known issue: affiliates can’t book into their assigned block if the rest of the availability is full.
Has the availability’s online booking status been manually changed?
What permissions does the Dashboard user trying to make the booking have? Do they have permission to overbook availabilities?
Customer types
Are there any customer type restrictions (min/max booking party size, per-availability capacity)? Check both the item settings and availability settings (Advanced > Prices).
Are any of the customer types hidden on a specific price sheet?
- Remember: customer type visibility may only be applied on certain price sheets, which can account for different behavior for online customers vs. Dashboard users.
Are any of the customer types exclusive in the item’s settings?
Resources
Are there overlapping resource uses?
- Check all related resources’ Detailed Uses (not just the overview page) and the resource timeline to get a better visualization of resource uses during that time.
What are the related resource requirements?
- From the availability’s settings, click the blue arrow next to the Requirements dropdown. Find the related resource requirement group and check the settings: Is use for capacity enabled? Are split parties allowed? What is the resource use length? Are there custom use creation or custom restriction settings?
What are the related resource settings?
- From the resource requirements, click the blue arrow next to each resource name to view its settings. What are the max uses? Are there any overrides for that day? Is a less common use creation or restrict to setting being used?
Seating
In addition to the resource checks above, are there seating-specific resource requirements like exclusive groups, split party rules, or zone restrictions?
In the resource’s settings, is auto-assignment enabled? If not, estimated capacity calculations won’t take seat map capacity, zones, or exclusive groups into account. Learn more about auto-assignment.
Go to the related seat map and review the number of bookable seats.
- If there are fewer seats available than resources (and auto-assignment is enabled), then the seat map capacity will take precedence.
- If there are more seats available than resources, then the resource capacity will take precedence.
How we calculate capacity
There are two main methods of capacity calculation:
Estimated capacity doesn’t account for certain things like customer type visibility, min/max party size, seating zone restrictions, etc. Calculating these things across many availabilities at once can slow things down, which is why estimated capacity is used on calendar views and places where multiple availabilities are shown.
Live capacity does take customer type visibility, min/max party size, and seating zone restrictions into account. Once the book form has loaded and we are drilled down into a specific availability, we are able to calculate capacity for each customer type more precisely.
Below is a breakdown of which type of capacity calculation is used in which views. The price sheet used in these views varies as well.
| Description | Image | Sheet | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online calendars |  |
online | estimated |
| Online book form dropdowns |  |
online | live |
| Dashboard calendars |  |
online | estimated |
| Dashboard capacity summaries (availability overview, manifest, and book form) |  |
online | estimated |
| Dashboard availability book button |  |
online | estimated |
| Dashboard capacity flyout with customer types |  |
direct | live |
| Dashboard direct book form dropdowns |  |
direct | live |
In the Dashboard views where capacity numbers reflect the online sheet instead of the direct sheet, the intention is to help clients understand what is available online, while still allowing them to book based on the direct sheet as needed.
Other important notes
When multiple capacities are being used and they are not equal (for example, availability capacity is 10 but resource capacity is 5), the more restrictive capacity will be enforced.
- We generally discourage using multiple types of capacity unless it’s necessary. For example, if the company relies on resource capacity, then usually it’s not necessary to set availability capacity on top of that. This can add confusion when troubleshooting.
Whether or not a Dashboard user can overbook an availability also depends on their permissions. By default, all company users (except guides) will still be able to make bookings even when capacity or resources are full, and will be notified that they are overbooking.
Affiliates and online users will never be able to overbook.
Simple/smart capacity display
Resources + full customer type capacity
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to Call to book when full or overbooked
- Resource A has max uses of 30
- Availability has one customer type (Adults) which has per-availability capacity of 10
- Each Adult uses 1 of Resource A
- Adults are fully booked
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Call to book
- Not bookable online reason: Full for all customer types
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified they are overbooking Adults
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable (Call to book)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable (Call to book)
Explanation:
In this case, the customer type capacity for Adults is what’s determining the online booking status.
If the client is still expecting to be able to book, then there’s a chance they may have set customer type capacity accidentally or incorrectly. Check with the client to see if they really need customer type capacity. Sometimes people are paranoid about overbooking so they set extra restrictions when they don’t need them.
Notes:
If the customer type capacity is removed, the availability becomes bookable again, until either resources or total capacity are full.
If the checkbox in the bottom right corner of the item’s Booking Restrictions isn’t checked, the availability will be hidden from online calendars instead.
Resources + customer type capacity of 0
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to Call to book when full or overbooked
- Resource A has max uses of 100
- One customer type, “Private charter”, with capacity of 0
- Each Private Charter uses 100 of Resource A
- No bookings
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Call to book
- Not bookable online reason: Full for all customer types
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified they are overbooking Private charters
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable (Call to book)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable (Call to book)
Explanation:
This is similar to the example above, but we called it out separately because there are no bookings in this case. Due to the Private Charter customer type capacity being 0, customer type capacity is still considered “full,” even with no bookings.
In this case, because the customer type capacity for Private Charters is 0, all customer type capacities are considered full. That is what’s determining the “Call to book” status online.
Work with the client to see if they can avoid having a customer type capacity of 0.
Notes:
Even if a custom message is set in the item bookability settings, affiliates and online customers will still see “Call to book.”
If the customer type capacity is removed, the availability becomes bookable again, until resource capacity is full.
If the checkbox in the bottom right corner of the item’s Booking Restrictions isn’t checked, the availability will be hidden from online calendars instead.
Resources + mix of full and hidden customer types
Resources + minimum party size
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to Call to book when full or overbooked
- Item bookability also has a minimum party size of 5 for every booking
- One customer type on the availability: Adults
- Resource A has max uses of 9
- Each Adult uses 1 of Resource A
- One booking with 5 Adults
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Bookable online
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified if booking more than 4 people that they are overusing resources
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable once they enter the book form (dropdown doesn’t appear disabled, yet no dropdown value can be selected)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable once they enter the book form (dropdown doesn’t appear disabled, yet no dropdown value can be selected)
Explanation:
We don’t account for minimum party size until the user opens the book form (see: How we calculate capacity), so company users may not understand why customers can enter the book form but then can’t select from the dropdown. They might also wonder why online customers don’t see a “Call to book” message.
Customers aren’t able to book online because there is a minimum party size of 5 people, and only 4 resources are left.
If the company is flexible when it comes to the minimum party size, we’d suggest removing the minimum party size restriction for 1+ bookings, so they can still receive online bookings until the availability is full.
Notes:
The same behavior can be triggered if the customer type has a minimum party size set in the availability’s advanced settings.
Using the same original conditions as above but with multiple customer types, the behavior for online booking differs slightly. When there are multiple customer types, online users can select from the dropdowns, but will be told they need to add X more people. However, due to resource limitations, they will not be able to meet the minimum party size and will therefore be unable to book.
If there are two items sharing a resource, and one of them has a minimum party size that is greater than the number of resources left, that item will not be bookable to affiliates or online customers. The first item, however, will still be bookable up until all resources are being used.
Old capacity display
Full resources
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to Call to book when full or overbooked
- Resource A has max uses of 8
- Each Adult uses 1 of Resource A
- 8 Adults booked
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Call to book
- Not bookable online reason: Resources are not available
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified they are overusing resources
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable (Call to book)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable (Call to book)
Explanation:
Clients sometimes want to know if they can instead show a custom message when resources are full. This answer is no: we currently don’t have the option to change the online display when resources are full. However, you’ll notice that when both resources and availability capacity are full, the online booking display changes. See the next section for more info.
Notes:
- If there are any overlapping availabilities sharing the same resource, they will also be closed, because all resources for that time are already in use.
Full resources + full capacity + custom message
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to custom message Sold Out when full or overbooked
- Total capacity of 8
- Resource A has max uses of 8
- Each Adult uses 1 of Resource A
- 8 Adults booked
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Call to book
- Not bookable online reason: Full
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified they are overbooking the availability and overusing resources
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable (Sold Out)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable (Sold Out)
Explanation:
The online booking status based on the availability capacity takes precedence in this case. Since this item is set up to display a Sold Out message when availabilities are full or overbooked, that is what’s being shown to online customers.
Notes:
In this example, we’re using a custom message (“Sold Out”) when full or overbooked. If no custom message is set but the box is still checked, the calendar will just say “Call to book.” How to customize this message.
If the checkbox in the bottom right corner of the item’s Booking Restrictions isn’t checked, the availability will be hidden from online customers and affiliates.
Resources + full customer type capacity
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to Call to book when full or overbooked
- Resource A has max uses of 30
- Availability capacity of 15
- Availability has one customer type (Adults) which has per-availability capacity of 10
- Each Adult uses 1 of Resource A
- Adults are fully booked
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Call to book
- Not bookable online reason: Full for all customer types
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified they are overbooking Adults
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable (Call to book)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable (Call to book)
Explanation:
Clients might be confused about a few different things: 1) The red lock appears in the Dashboard, even though resources are not full. 2) The bar at the bottom of the availability makes it look like it’s still bookable, but the flyout shows that all customer type capacities are full. 3) If the company has a custom message for full or overbooked availabilities set up in the item bookability settings, the custom message will not be used (online calendars will always say “Call to book” in this instance).
In this case, the customer type capacity for Adults is what’s determining the online booking status. Although there are more resources available, the red lock indicates that no more resources are available for that particular availability.
Check with the client to see if there’s a way for them to accomplish what they want by just using availability capacity or resources instead of customer type capacity. Sometimes people are paranoid about overbooking so they set extra restrictions when they don’t need them.
Notes:
If the customer type capacity is removed, the availability becomes bookable again, until either resources or availability capacity are full.
If the checkbox in the bottom right corner of the item’s Booking Restrictions isn’t checked, the availability will be “Online closed” (hidden from online calendars) instead.
We’ve seen a similar situation where a company had two Dashboards set up, and used customer type capacities on one Dashboard but not the other. They thought they’d set up both the same, and couldn’t figure out why one was showing “Call to book” online whereas the other was hidden online.
Resources + customer type capacity of 0
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to Call to book when full or overbooked
- Availability capacity of 100
- Resource A has max uses of 100
- One customer type, “Private charter”, with capacity of 0
- Each Private Charter uses 100 of Resource A
- No bookings
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Call to book
- Not bookable online reason: Full for all customer types
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified they are overbooking Private charters
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable (Call to book)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable (Call to book)
Explanation:
This is similar to the example above, but we called it out separately because there are no bookings in this case. Due to the Private Charter customer type capacity being 0, customer type capacity is still considered “full,” even with no bookings.
In this case, because the customer type capacity for Private Charters is 0, all customer type capacities are considered full. That is what’s determining the “Call to book” status online. Even though the resource is still available, the red lock indicates that it is not available for that particular availability.
Work with the client to see if they can avoid having a customer type capacity of 0.
Notes:
Even if a custom message is set in the item bookability settings, affiliates and online customers will still see “Call to book.”
If the customer type capacity is removed, the availability becomes bookable again, until either resources or total capacity are full.
If the checkbox in the bottom right corner of the item’s Booking Restrictions isn’t checked, the availability will be “Online closed” (hidden from online calendars) instead.
Resources + mix of full and hidden customer types
Resources + minimum party size
Conditions:
- Item bookability set to Call to book when full or overbooked
- Item bookability also has a minimum party size of 5 for every booking
- Availability capacity of 10
- Resource A has max uses of 9
- One booking with 5 people
Result:
- Availability’s online booking status: Bookable online
- Company users can make direct bookings, but will be notified if booking more than 4 people that they are overusing resources
- Visible to affiliates, but unbookable once they enter the book form (dropdown doesn’t appear disabled, yet no dropdown value can be selected)
- Visible to online customers, but unbookable once they enter the book form (dropdown doesn’t appear disabled, yet no dropdown value can be selected)
Explanation:
We don’t account for minimum party size until the user opens the book form (see: How we calculate capacity), so company users may not understand why customers can enter the book form but then can’t select from the dropdown. They might also wonder why online customers don’t see a “Call to book” message.
Customers aren’t able to book online because there is a minimum party size of 5 people, and only 4 resources are left.
If the company is flexible when it comes to the minimum party size, we’d suggest removing the minimum party size restriction for 1+ bookings, so they can still receive online bookings until the availability is full.
Notes:
The same behavior can be triggered if the customer type has a minimum party size set in the availability’s advanced settings.
Using the same original conditions as above but with multiple customer types, the behavior for online booking differs slightly. When there are multiple customer types, online users can select from the dropdowns, but will be told they need to add X more people. However, due to resource limitations, they will not be able to meet the minimum party size and will therefore be unable to book.
If there are two items sharing a resource, and one of them has a minimum party size that is greater than the number of resources left, that item will not be bookable to affiliates or online customers. The first item, however, will still be bookable up until all resources are being used.