Different length appointments WITH Multiple bookings per slot…
SCENARIO:
4 “meeting rooms” are available/bookable in hourly (variable) slots throughout the day. (available for 1, 2, 4 or 8 hrs. with default being 2 hours.) Also: Most bookings are for 2 hrs. each. (But some much shorter and some are for the entire day.) (min=1, def=2, max=8)
QUESTION:
Does system try to maximize availability of consecutive time slots (maintain/maximize “all-day available” meeting rooms) by filling the first “meeting room” before “partial booking” a second, third or 4’th room? (Or does it just randomly find a free slot and fill it.)
SIGNIFICANCE:
If the first 4 (separate) “2 hour” variable bookings never overlap, this could/would/should only occupy one of the 4 rooms. And all the other (3 rooms) could still be available for full 8 hrs. bookings. OTHERWISE: after the first 4 bookings, none of the rooms could end up still available for all day booking.
RELATED GUI QUESTION:
I saw a brief video somewhere of the default quantity (of 2 slots) being highlighting with a pc mouse as user hovered over the available slots. How would this work with smartphone where there’s no mouse to “hover?” As a client trying to book who has no knowledge of the default setting (2 hrs. in the example above): I find this methodology elusive! (Almost suggests that ONLY the highlighted slots are actually available.) As a result, it seems tome that the only viable default setting should be 1 hour in the hourly example above. (OR, the ability to turn off and not display any grouped hours might be a “safe” & smart option/enhancement.)
Sorry on the delay with getting back to you. The units feature essentially allows up to a maximum number of busy events for a time period. This means that you can have up to 4 bookings per time slot. The system will not ensure that all times are filled before offering more times for folks. The best option would be to setup different calendars for each room so their availability is independent. Then the duration will be established. Meaning if someone books eight hours in one room it is blocked off only for that room. To do this use the teams feature: https://support.youcanbook.me/article/513-using-teams-to-schedule-multiple-resources
The highlighted hours is based off of our default time. When using flexible duration, allowing someone to choose, this is done on the booking form if Duration question is asked. We understand the issue with the logic here and in the future we will add this duration question to a step before we display the times available. This type of change won’t be something that will happen in the near term.
Bummer, because that option won’t work either & here’s why:
In this instance we have multiple PC’s. (bookable for variable time slots, essentially a “cyber-cafe”)
Customers can book several PC’s at a time for either 1 or 2 or possibly more hours.
It’s not feasible for users to first have to “pick machine #X” (multiple times) for a group booking.
And without a “defrag option” (an option to keep available systems as available for the longest times possible)… We’d be left with a bunch of small open time slots (highly fragmented bookable times across all the systems) AS OPPOSED TO some “all day available” systems with the other ones fully booked.
Would think that providing “the requested quantity/group size” was first selected, it would be relatively easy from a coding standpoint (and common sense) to provide a “DEFRAG OPTION” to optionally/sequentially fill slots on partially booked “assets” prior to/as opposed to to randomly spreading bookings across all/additional available assets.
Without a “DEFRAG” option, it largely defeats the advantage of offering variable time/slot bookings! (Leads to a lot of wasted/unusable time slots on partially booked assets!)
Thank you for your feedback with this. I will take it back to the team. As I mentioned in the future we will be adjusting the booking flow to ask for units and duration before choosing a time. This will then update the grid to accommodate the requirements.
Sounds great Ben & thanks for getting back to me. Your variable time option is very uncommon/unique! After the 1’st of the year we’ll become a paid user. Presently using a different booking system which actually works extremely well for one venue, but not for the other one which needs variable time AND group booking together.
Spent months evaluating booking services last year. (Then spent a ton of time chasing & reporting bugs/issues.) The one we’re presently using (after the crippling bugs were “cleaned up”) was chosen due to ONE PARTICULAR/UNIQUE FEATURE: We use what is referred to as a “daily classes timeline.” (Group quantity gets entered right on the slot availability display screen AND the system dynamically [in real-time] regenerates/re-displays the available slots as user changes group booking quantity!) A FANTASTIC feature for our “fixed time” venues where one person typically books for an entire group… But this service does NOT support variable time booking, something we need for a different venue. (Hence we’ll most likely be multiple booking services, yours and theirs.)
PS: Not posting the link here, but if you want to see what/how we’re using our present booking service (the dynamic timeline explained above), feel free to respond via a private message.
Had a thought regarding “group booking” due to an issue we’re experiencing with our current booking service: DEFAULT QUANTITIES… When group booking is active, the default slot quantity should NEVER be set to 1. (Quantity 1 is as dangerous as quantity 0. Because people booking tend to forget to set this field during the booking process.) Ultimately, this facilitates/encourages unintentional client booking mistakes. And the unpleasant end result is: Patrons show up thinking they booked everything correctly, only to find they made a mistake and we’re overbooked on inventory… (Client only booked for 1 person instead of the group.)
The easiest fix (for most booking services) is to set/allow either a default quantity of “0” OR “-”. (Never let the user get to the final booking review screen without actively selecting the correct # of participants first just.)
