The module “Resource Management” enables you to link particular resources, such as rooms or vehicles, to the availability of your experiences. In this guideline we would just like to explain again the way in which this module works in some detail, and give you a few examples from practice along the way.
Attention: this module is only available with the Business and Prokit rates.
In addition, resource rules are only ever assigned at the time of ordering. In this respect, it is technically not possible to store a resource only for a specific service period. (e.g. fewer guided tours should be bookable during the summer vacations than outside the vacations)
How can I manage the availability of the same resource in two bookingkit accounts at the same time?
Technically, it is not possible to link resource management between two accounts. The only workaround is to manually adjust the resources in the calendar directly after receiving an order.
What exactly are “Resources”?
You are completely free to define your resources as you wish in your bookingkit account, depending on your experiences. For instance, if you offer several Escape Rooms, one of your resources could be the room in which this is played. Perhaps you offers tours by quad bike or segway? Your vehicles would then be your resources, for instance. If you are an independent organizer of city tours, and offer several of these, you may logically only be able to conduct one tour at a time. Then you need this module!
Can I use the module?
Use of this module only makes sense if you fulfil various criteria. As already mentioned, you need several experiences which use the same resource - whether the resource is an Escape Room, a canoe or an aircraft. There are, however, also a few examples for which resource management does not work, or will not be useful:
suppose you have just one experience which uses a resource, and is not going to be offered in versus mode. In this case, you can manage your quota quite simply via the number of participants in your respective experience.
Your resources depend on various factors, such as the size or weight of your customers (e.g. paragliding). You can, of course, ask your customers for this information via the comments function in Check-Out, but you can’t link it to resources.
If you are running a hire service and hiring out a boat, for instance, and you show the hire duration via the price brackets, you can’t do so in this module. We would advise showing the relevant duration via the corresponding experiences, and then linking them via Resource Management.
Perhaps you would like to sell special products alongside your experiences, such as a seat directly next to the pilot? Then the best module to use for this is our cross-selling module.
I understand now what “resources” are - but how does it all work?
You can make your resources available for particular Experiences. You will find out below how to set up and insert a link to a “resource”.
The idea of this module is to link your resources in an optimum way to the availability of your Experiences.
If your Experiences are linked to a play area, for instance, but you offer several experiences, the other experience (not booked) will be automatically blocked when a booking is accepted. Or if, as a provider of Segway tours, you have 20 vehicles and offer various tours, available numbers and quotas will automatically be adjusted when a new booking is received (for example, because a maximum of 20 participants can do a tour at the same time.
You can configure your resources at participant and experience level, thus saving a lot of work and stress which would be created if you tried to work out availability figures manually.
How do I activate Resource Management?
In your bookingkit account, navigate to Settings and then to the Module tab.
With just one click you can then activate the Resource Management.
How do I create a “resource”?
Click on Experiences and open the Resource Management tab.
To create a new “resource”, click on “+ Add Resource”.
Give it a name, describe it and fix the number at participant or Experience level.
After this, you have to specify the Experiences with which your Resource is to be linked.
Finally, click on Add Resource and the interdependency of resources and the Experience will instantly become live in your bookingkit account and in the bookingkit integration on your website.
In your bookingkit Calendar view, you will see whether a date is linked to a resource, or is blocked due to a resource having already been booked for a different Experience.
At Experience level, you will also see whether an Experience is linked to a resource.
Practical examples: Versus Mode
You might, for instance, offer Escape Rooms, and would like to offer two rooms in battle mode (Team A against Team B).
Create a separate Experience for this, for example “Room A v. Room B”:
Now, of course, you also have to ensure that if Versus mode is booked, the other rooms are blocked (as they will be occupied by the Versus mode, of course).
Set up two “Resources” for this. Give the first resource a name, e.g. “Room 1” and link it to the Experience “Versus Mode” and the first room or Experience. Do exactly the same for the second resource. Please make sure you create the resource at Experience level, so that when a booking is received, the whole Experience is blocked.
Now your resources are organised in the most efficient way. As soon as Room 1 or Room 2 are booked, Versus Mode is blocked. As soon as Versus Mode was booked, Rooms 1 and 2 were also blocked for individual bookings.
Playing field
Perhaps you have a playing field on which you offer various experiences? Taking the example of a Bubble-Ball provider who sets up his experiences with different durations, we show you how you can easily leave management of your resources to bookingkit:
If you haven’t already done so, set up your experiences:
2. Now create a “Resource” (you could call it “playing field”, for instance) and link all the events associated with it. Please make sure you create the resource at experience level, so that when a booking is received, the whole experience is blocked.
Tours
Perhaps you offer various outdoor tours, for instance with Segways? Maybe you hire out boats or organise canoe trips? This example will show you how best to proceed:
If you haven’t already done so, set up your experiences:
2. Now set up a “Resource” for your Segways, for instance with the name “Segway fleet”, and describe this (A).
3. The next step is to specify the number of vehicles you have (B) and establish that the resource is used at participant level (C).
4. Now link your Experiences (D).
5. Now specify that one resource, i.e. one Segway, is used per participant (F).
For each Segway booked, the quota of respective Experiences linked to them will be adjusted accordingly.
Important Note on overbooking when creating a manual order
Within the scope of resource management, it is technically possible for you as a vendor to intentionally overbook by creating a manual order.
If a manual order results in an overbooking for the selected date, a warning message will be displayed.
