Set up and manage Resources

What Resources do

Resources allow you to tie the availability of the variants you sell (and their dates and times) to the physical things your experience relies on, such as tables, lanes, reserved areas and rooms. Set them up once in Easol and link them to your variants; a slot is then only if the underlying resources can fit the group that's booking.

Example

Take a laser tag venue that sells three packages:

1. Tag and Tonic: Laser tag + drink tokens

2. Arcade Assault: Laser tag + arcade access + food tokens with reserved seating + drink tokens

3. Tactical Team Takeover: Private laser games + arcade access + food + unlimited drinks in a reserved area

The layout of the venue is 6 laser tag arenas that each hold 24 players, the arcade area, 20 tables in the food court, and 2 reserved areas.

How you'd set this up in Easol

Three things connect: a resource is one physical item, a resource group holds resources of the same kind, and a variant or extra can use one or more groups as its stock. Packages can contain many variants and extras.

You would set this up as 4 resource groups: Arenas holding 6 arenas, Food court holding 20 tables, Arcade holding the arcade space and Reserved areas holding 2 areas.

You then link the variants inside the packages to the resources they need, and configure the rules for how the resources are booked:

• Laser tag variant in package 1 and 2 uses the Arenas resource group, set to "Sharing" so groups from different bookings can play in the same arena at the same time. The Private laser game variant in package 3 uses the same Arenas resource group, but is set to "Private hire" so a booking gets an arena to themselves

• Arcade access variant in package 2 and 3 uses the Arcade resource, also shared

• The Reserved seating variant in package 2 uses the Food court group, again shared. Whereas the Reserved area variant in package 3 privately hires the Reserved areas resource group.

How this plays out in practice

• A group of 10 books Tag and Tonic for 7pm. They take 10 of the 24 places in an arena. A separate group of 8 can still book that same arena at 7pm, because the Laser tag variant is shared.

• A group of 6 books Arcade Assault for 7pm. They take 6 places in an arena, arcade access, and a table in the food court. If the arcade is full at 7pm, the package cannot be booked, even though the laser arena has room.

• A party of 20 books Tactical Team Takeover for 7pm. The Private laser game variant takes a whole arena, so nobody else can join that game, and the Reserved area variant takes one of the 2 areas for the evening. The other 5 arenas stay on sale to everyone else.

• An arena held from 7pm to 8pm is unavailable to a 7:30pm game in that arena. You can offer overlapping sessions with no risk of overselling.

Day to day, that means:

• No double bookings. Every booking holds a named arena, table or area, so the same space cannot be sold twice, however many packages it appears in.

• Less wasted space. Minimum occupancy stops a pair taking your largest table on a Saturday night. Sharing lets another group take the seats they would have left empty.

• Less work after the booking. Your team opens the Resources calendar to see who is where, and moves a booking by dragging it, instead of keeping a seating plan alongside Easol.

When to use Resources instead of fixed stock

A variant is the thing the customer adds to their cart. It carries the price, the name and the merchandising. Every variant has a stock type, which decides what stops it being sold.

You do not need Resources just to cap numbers. One room that holds 40, sold through one variant, is simpler as an inventory count of 40.

Create a resource group

Go to Resources > Settings and click Create, then Continue. A four-step wizard opens.

Group resources of the same kind together: Arenas, Food court, Arcade, Reserved areas. Build a separate group for each kind, because the rules you set apply to the whole group.

You may also want to split resources into >1 group based on where they're placed in the venue, for example: two ping pong tables at one end and two at the other end of a long top floor - splitting them into two groups will stop a party of 6 being placed on tables at opposite ends.

Step 1: Basic details

1. Enter a Resource group name, such as "Tables".

2. Enter a Default resource name, such as "Table".

3. Enter a Default resource capacity, which is the number of guests each one holds. This is optional and you can change it per resource in the next step.

4. Enter how many resources to create. The limit is 200 at once.

5. Click Continue.

Easol numbers them from the default name: Table 1, Table 2, Table 3. Rename them next.

Step 2: Edit the resources and set their order

Work through each resource:

• Name. Use the name your team says out loud, such as "Window table" or "Lane 3".

• Capacity. The largest number of guests the resource takes.

• Order. Drag the resources into the order you want to see them. This order sets how they show in the calendar, and the order your team sees when they pick a resource by hand. Automatic allocation uses the best fit, not this order.

• Operating hours. Resources are open all day, every day until you change this. Click Limit opening hours, then Add different hours, to set times.

• Minimum occupancy. The smallest party allowed to take the resource. The default is 1. Click Add schedule to lower the number as the date gets closer.

Click Add resource to add another one. Click Next when the group is right.

Step 3: Rules

Set Resource sharing, Prevent booking splits, Buffer before and Buffer afterwards, then click Next. Each one is explained under The four rules.

These rules apply to every resource in the group. You can override them for a single product later.

Step 4: Review and finish

Check the details, rules and resources. Click Edit beside anything you want to change, then Save & finish.

The group now exists but sells nothing. Connect it to a product next.

Connect a group to a product

Nothing happens until a variant points at the group.

1. Open the experience or extra you want to sell.

2. Open the variant's Stock settings.

3. Change the stock type to Resource.

4. Select the group or groups the variant uses.

5. Save.

Change the rules for one product

On the variant's Stock tab, each linked group has two choices: Use default rules or Set custom.

Use default rules shows the group's settings, greyed out, so you can see what you inherit.

Set custom lets you change four things for this variant alone:

• Resource sharing

• Prevent booking splits

• Buffer before

• Buffer afterwards

The same tables can be shared for walk-in dining and reserved whole for a party package, with a longer buffer on the party. A Custom rules badge marks any group you have changed.

This saves you building near-identical groups for every product.

The four rules

Resource sharing

Sharing is off until you turn it on.

On: guests from different bookings can use the same resource at the same time, up to its capacity. A table of 8 takes a party of 5 and a party of 3.

Off: the first booking takes the whole resource. A party of 5 on a table of 8 leaves 3 seats unsold for that session.

Turn it on for communal tables, bar areas and lanes where groups who booked separately can play side by side. Turn it off for reserved areas, private rooms and anywhere strangers should not be put together.

Prevent booking splits

On: every guest in one booking goes on one resource. A party of 12 is turned away unless a single resource holds 12.

Off: the party can be seated across more than one resource.

This only matters for parties bigger than your largest resource. Leave it off and you sell more. Turn it on when splitting a group would ruin the experience.

Buffer before and buffer afterwards

A buffer is time either side of a booking when the resource counts as occupied and nobody else can book it. Use before for setup and after for cleaning or turnaround.

Buffers add up between back-to-back bookings. 15 minutes before plus 15 minutes afterwards leaves a 30 minute gap between one booking and the next.

Minimum occupancy

The smallest party allowed on that resource. It stops a pair taking a table of 28 on a Saturday night.

Click Add schedule to relax the number as the date approaches, because an empty table earns nothing. You might require 8 guests when the booking is made more than 2 days out, and drop to 4 within an hour of the session.

Set this too high and sessions look sold out to small parties. Check it first when availability is missing.

What happens when a customer books

When a customer picks a date or date and time, either for a variant or for a package, the system checks for availability for their group size. The following things happen:

1. Resource groups that are too small are removed. A group is not considered if its resources could not hold the party even when every one of them is empty.

2. The remaining resource groups are tried in your order. Drag and drop the groups within the variant settings to configure this order. The top group is tried first, and the first group that can hold everyone is the one used.

3. Within the first suitable resource group, individual resources that cannot fit the booking are removed. A resource is unavailable if it is closed, blocked, already reserved, or ruled out by the rules you set on the group: sharing, buffers and minimum occupancy.

4. The resources that are left are filled. The smallest resource that holds the whole party is used. If no single resource holds them, the emptiest resource is used, and then the next, until every guest has a place.

If there are no groups that can hold the party, the slot shows as sold out.

The same check runs wherever the customer books: searching products, picking a date on an experience calendar, going through a package journey, or adding something to a booking they already hold.

Bookings your team makes in the admin use the same resources, with two differences. Your team can book outside a resource's opening hours, and they can choose to go over capacity on a resource when moving bookings in the Resources Calendar.

Capacity is counted in guests

A resource holds a number of guests, not a number of bookings. A party of 6 on a table of 8 leaves 2 places free. Whether anyone else can take those 2 places depends on resource sharing, covered below.

One booking can use several resources, but only one resource group for the same variant

For a "Reserved table" variant, a party of 12 can take a table of 8 and a table of 4 if both are free. Turn on Prevent booking splits to stop this. The booking then takes only one resource.

When a variant is linked to several resource groups, they will be allocated resources from one. For example, your "Reserved area" is linked to two resource groups: The Booth at the top of the list, then the The Garden. A booking for 10 guests does not take a section of The Booth and The Garden. The Booth is tried first. If it can hold all 10, the booking goes there. If it cannot, the whole booking moves to The Garden instead.

What the customer sees

Customers never see your resource names, your order, your rules or the calendar. Your setup changes two things in the booking journey:

1. Whether a session is available. Easol checks capacities, operating hours, minimum occupancy, sharing, splits, buffers and blocks. If nothing suitable is free, the session shows as sold out.

2. How many places they can select. The quantity on offer is what is left across the resources that could take them.

So you can run complicated physical inventory without asking the customer to understand any of it.

Private hire

Private hire is exclusive use. The customer buys the space itself rather than places inside it, and nobody else can book it for that period.

This is the same physical thing sold under different rules. Your standard variant shares a reserved area between groups who booked separately. Your private party variant takes the whole area for the evening. One set of resources, two variants, different behaviour.

Set up private hire

1. Open the variant and go to its Stock tab.

2. Set the stock type to Resource.

3. Add at least one resource group.

4. In the Resource stock rules card, turn on Private hire.

5. Choose one of the two options below.

6. Save.

The option shows only on variants that take a guest count. It does not show on accommodation variants.

The two options

Reserve all resource groups. The booking takes every resource in every group linked to the variant. Use this for a whole venue or a whole floor. The variant is only bookable when all of those resources are free and open.

Reserve a single resource. The booking takes one whole resource. The customer does not choose which one; the allocation happens automatically.

What private hire does to capacity

A private hire booking takes the full capacity of the resources, whatever the guest count. A party of 4 in a room for 30 uses all 30 places. While the hire runs, nothing else can book those resources.

Running the day from the Resources calendar

Go to Resources > Calendar. The calendar shows each resource grouped by its group, the bookings sitting on it, full and partial blocks and calendar notes.

Across the top you can jump to Today, pick another date, change the zoom to Minute / Hour / Day, filter with the All resource groups dropdown, and search for a resource or a booking. Click a booking to see its details, add a note or move it.

Move a booking to another resource

1. Open the calendar on the right date.

2. Click Edit allocations to switch to Editing resource allocations mode.

3. Drag the reservation onto the new resource.

4. Assign anyone left in the Unallocated bookings sidebar. You cannot save while guests are unallocated.

5. Click Apply changes.

Easol warns you if the new resource is over capacity. Changes take effect straight away and need no approval. You can only move a booking to a resource group that's linked to that variant, and within the same time slot. If you want to change the time or date, you need to go to the booking and edit it there.

Block a resource

A block stops a resource from being booked by customers or your team for a period; usually for things like maintenance, a deep clean or an emergency.

1. Open Resources > Calendar, or Resource blocks in the sidebar.

2. Click Add a block.

3. Under Title & description, name it.

4. Under Dates & times, set when it starts and ends.

5. Under Resources, click Add resource and pick the ones affected.

6. Choose Fully blocked to take the whole resource out, or Partially blocked to remove a set number of places from a shared resource and leave the rest on sale.

7. Add a category such as Maintenance if you want to report on it later.

8. Click Save.

Turn on Split block up into intervals and set a duration if you expect to release parts of the block later.

Change resource operating hours for one date

1. Open the calendar and find the resource.

2. Click Edit opening hours.

3. Pick the date.

4. Choose Open, Limited open hours or Closed, and enter times if you need them.

5. Click Save changes.

An override beats the weekly schedule for that date. Use it for bank holidays, one-off closures and private events.

Overbook a resource

If you move a booking onto a resource that is already full, Easol shows a Resources over capacity warning. You can click Proceed anyway.

Easol records who approved the overbooking. This is the only way to put a booking past a resource's capacity.

Use this for exceptions you have decided to make, such as an extra chair at a table. Do not use it to work around a setup problem.

Delete a resource

You cannot delete a resource that still has reservations on it. Move or cancel every booking on it first, then delete it from Resources > Settings.

When availability looks off

Permissions

To manage resources, a team member needs Manage experiences or Manage accommodations.

To edit operating hours, a team member also needs Manage resource operating hours.

Account administrators set these in team settings.