Resource categories and resources

Resources are used by Aionic to automatically assess and display availability for bookings. Resources can be spaces/rooms, equipment, people, a type of offering or simply anything that you require to be bookable for a service. Here are some examples:

How do resources work?

• Resource Categories and Resources are required for each service. 
• The resource configuration is critical to ensuring that the correct spaces/equipment/people etc. are allocated to the service and are booked out to minimise the risk of double booking.
• When the required resources are not available, the system will prevent the customer from making a booking and only provide the available time slots. 
• The customer won't see the resources when booking, they will only see the service name and description.
• Aionic simplifies the process of allocating and limiting resources so it eliminates the need to manually manage resources. You can use the resources function to add equipment, rooms, seats or people that you require for any given service, and allows you to connect multiple resources to the same service.

You can find out more information on the relationship between resources, services and sequences here.

Let's take a look at some examples:

Example Same type of resource, with same facilities but different capacity.
A fitness studio at West End has two private weights rooms.  Each room can accommodate up to four people, meaning they can allow eight people to book a spot at any one time. Here is how the fitness studio would set this up as a resource:
Resource Category	Weights Room
Resource Name	Weights Room
Number of Seats	4
Location	West End
Total Quantity	2

Example Same type of resource, with same facilities but different capacity.
The fitness studio at West End increased their capacity in one of the private weights rooms to accommodate six people, meaning they can allow ten people to book a spot at any one time. Here's how the fitness studio would set up these resources:
Resource Category	Weights Room
Resource Name	Weights Room 4 pax
Number of Seats	4
Location	West End
Total Quantity	1
Resource Category	Weights Room
Resource Name	Weights Room 6 pax
Number of Seats	6
Location	West End
Quantity	1

Example Different type of resource, with different facilities and capacity.
The fitness studio at West End added another room with a focus on Pilates equipment, which can accommodate ten people. So they now have three different weights room, one with slightly different equipment and differences in the maximum number of people they can allow.  Here's how the fitness studio would set up these resources:
Resource Category	Weights Room
Resource Name	Weights Room 4 pax
Number of Seats	4
Location	West End
Quantity	1
Resource Category	Weights Room
Resource Name	Weights Room 6 pax
Number of Seats	6
Location	1
Quantity	1
Resource Category	Pilates Room
Resource Name	Pilates Room
Number of Seats	10
Location	West End
Quantity	1

If you are unsure how to set up your resources correctly, please contact the Aionic Support team.