Use teams to schedule multiple resources

The teams feature can help you schedule bookings for resources like meeting rooms or equipment. Your clients can book the resource they need when they need it. 

This feature is available on the Teams plan.

In this article:

Create or connect the resource booking calendars

Each resource will need to be linked to it's own individual calendar for bookings. You can accomplish this in two different ways: 

  1. Create a sub-calendar in your Google or Microsoft account for each resource to be booked. (Directions from Google) (Directions from Microsoft)
  2. Integrate each resources' separate calendar account with YouCanBook.me

YouCanBook.me pricing is based on the number of linked calendars, so your subscription price will be based on the number of resources that will be booked in your account. 

Activate the Teams feature on your booking page 

Enable the team feature in the "Who" section for Calendar & teams on the booking page you are setting up for booking resources.

Each resource will be its own "team member" linking to its own individual calendar from bookings. Once this is set up, adjust your subscription to accommodate the correct number of linked calendars.

Optional: fill in a team member email address if a colleague should be notified about that particular resource being booked.

 

Configure settings on team page

Once you've connect each resource to the booking page as a team member, you'll need to configure the rest of the team page.

Include no preference option

This adds a "no preference" link at the bottom of the team booking page which allows the booker to see the combined availability of all resources. They can then select a time based on first available, and will see which resource they've selected after the time has been booked. 

Assume "no preference"

This setting allows you to show the pooled availability of all resources without the booker seeing which resource they are booking. This option works well when the time of the appointment is more important than the resource being booked.  It shows the widest range of possible start times. With the no preference option, if two resources are available at the same time the booking is assigned at random.

Team page intro text

This will be the first text your booker sees if "assume no preference" is not turned on. You can make this your introductory text and include up to 220 characters for instruction about booking.

Customize notifications based on resource booked

Notifications to booker can be customized based on the resource they have booked using Conditional statements.

The format for a conditional statement based on "team member" is:

{IF}{TEAM-NAME}{EQUALS}xxx{THEN} information about booking resource xxx {ENDIF}

{IF}{TEAM-NAME}{EQUALS}yyy{THEN} information about booking resource yyy {ENDIF}

Set up individual conditional statements for each resource and include the corresponding text in the confirmation and reminder emails sent to the booker in the Notifications section.

Booking resources FAQ

How does Group Bookings work with the teams feature?

If you are allowing multiple bookings in each available time slot, that means each resource can take multiple bookings. So if you set each time slot to be able to take 2 bookings, and you have 3 resources available Tuesday at 2pm, you will be able to take 6 bookings in that available slot. 

Can I create a direct link to a single resources availability?

Yes you can directly link to each resource.

Alternatives to managing resources

The benefit of using the Teams feature is that you get a single booking link and you can use the 'no preference' option to pool availability. But there are other ways to manage resources. For example, using  multiple booking pages and our Group Bookings feature. 

Multiple booking pages

Each resource can have their own booking page. In this case, each resource would have their own booking link to give out to clients as required.

Each resource would still need to link to its own calendar so that its availability is not affected by bookings for other resources.

Group Bookings

If all the resources you are allocating are identical (i.e. it doesn't matter which resource a booker gets) then consider using the Group Bookings feature. All the bookings will live together on one calendar. As you receive multiple bookings in the same timeslot, you can manually assign out the bookings to a resource from your linked calendar. 

If the resources are in some way different (e.g. meeting rooms which each have different facilities) consider creating a separate calendar for each bookable resource and then offer them side-by-side using the teams feature.

 For further questions, contact our team at support@youcanbook.me.
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