Locations and Shared Resources

A second branch brings two new ways to get bookings wrong. A customer books the right person at the wrong address, or two therapists book the only treatment room for the same hour. Locations handles the first: branches with their own address, hours and staff. Shared resources handles the second: rooms and equipment that can’t be double-booked, whoever is hosting.

They’re two modules. Turn on Locations and Shared resources in Bookings → Settings → Modules; use either one alone or both together.

Add Your Locations

1. Go to Bookings → Staff → Locations and click Add location.
2. Fill Name, Address, Timezone, Phone, Map link (https://) and Display order. Keep Open for new bookings ticked.
3. Under Opening hours, type each day’s hours in the location’s timezone, such as 09:00-13:00, 14:00-18:00. Leave a day blank when the branch is closed. Click Save location.
4. In Bookings → Staff, open each person and tick their Locations.
5. In each service, tick the Locations where it’s offered.

A location with no hours on any day doesn’t limit times. Staff working hours always apply on top of location hours, and location hours ignore buffers, since preparation can happen anywhere.

What Customers See

• Several open locations: the form asks for the Location first and then shows only the staff who work there.
• One location: the form shows its address and asks nothing.
• No open location with staff: the service is hidden from the booking form.

The location’s name and address replace the service’s own location text in emails, calendar files and Google or Outlook events. A video meeting link still wins when the service has one. The customer’s booking page shows the location phone and a Directions link, and emails can use {location_phone} and {location_map}. Try it on the Strategy Session demo.

Location Rules

• Only staff assigned to a location can serve it. A manager can move an appointment only to someone assigned to its booked location, even with an override.
• A group session is held at one location. Once it has attendees at one branch, it isn’t offered at another.
• Every booking keeps a copy of its location details. Editing a location never rewrites past appointments.
• To stop new bookings, untick Open for new bookings. Existing bookings stay. You can delete a location only when no service lists it.
• The appointment list has no location filter. Open a location to see Appointments at this location for any date range, or use the Location column in the bookings CSV.

Add Shared Rooms and Equipment

1. Go to Bookings → Staff → Resources and click Add resource.
2. Enter a Name, pick a Type (Room or Equipment) and set the Quantity of identical units, from 1 to 1,000. Three massage beds is a quantity of 3; a single room is 1.
3. Optionally tie it to a Location (or leave Any location) and add Notes. Click Save resource.
4. In each service, under Shared resources, enter the units each booking needs. Leave 0 when a resource isn’t needed. A service can need up to ten resources.

For group sessions, Group sessions use decides the count: These units for each seat booked (a mat per attendee) or These units once per session (one studio for the whole class).

How Resources Affect Times

• A time is offered only when a staff member is free and every needed unit is free, counted across all services and staff.
• Buffers count, so cleaning time keeps the room busy. A booking ending at 10:00 doesn’t clash with one starting at 10:00.
• With Locations on, a resource tied to a branch is only needed by bookings at that branch. One service can name the treatment room of each branch.
• The Resource schedule on the Resources screen shows who holds each resource for One day or Seven days, with links to each appointment.

Good to Know

• Untick Available for bookings to take a resource out of service. Services that need it offer no times; existing appointments are kept.
• You can’t lower a quantity below what upcoming appointments use at once, or delete a resource that a service needs or an upcoming appointment holds.
• Switching the module on, or adding a requirement to a service, records units for upcoming bookings. Nothing is cancelled. If they already use more units than exist, a warning such as “Room (2 of 1 units at once)” stays until you move or cancel some of them.
• Turning either module off keeps each service’s location and resource settings, so you can turn it back on safely.
• Need different people sharing one booking instead? See Round Robin, Collective Meetings and Routing Forms.