Booking Calendar Capacity

The Capacity feature in Booking Calendar Business Large / MultiUser versions provide for you ability to set and manage the capacity for specific resources: properties or services.
Booking Calendar  Capacity - Multiple bookings per same date or timeslot

Resource-Specific Capacity:
Define the maximum number of bookings or appointments that a specific resource or service can handle simultaneously. For example, if you manage a hotel with a particular number of room types or a meeting room, set its capacity to, say, 10, indicating it can accommodate up to 10 bookings simultaneously. This feature works for full dates or time slots on selected dates.

Real-time Availability Updates and Efficient Resource Management:
As bookings are made, the system automatically updates the available capacity in real-time. If the maximum capacity is reached, the system prevents additional bookings for that resource during the specified date(s) or time slot.
This feature enhances resource management by preventing overbooking and ensuring that each resource operates within its defined capacity limits.

Useful for Various Scenarios:
Ideal for businesses or services with limited capacity for specific resources, such as hotel rooms, specific property types, meeting rooms, tours, classes, or any other bookable items.

Improved User Experience:
Users can quickly see the remaining capacity for a resource when making a booking. You can display available slots in mouse-over tooltips when hovering over a specific date or use [capacity_hint] in the booking form to show available slots on selected dates in real-time.

Example Scenario:
Imagine running a workshop space with a capacity for 20 people. With the capacity feature, you can ensure that once 20 bookings are made for a particular time slot, additional bookings for that time will be prevented.
Alternatively, if you have 10 standard rooms and 5 double rooms in your hotel, you can display two separate booking forms—one for "standard rooms" with a capacity of 10 and another for "double rooms" with a capacity of 5.

How to Use:
Configure the capacity feature in the admin panel at the Booking > Resources page. Set the capacity for each resource individually by specifying the maximum number of bookings it can handle.

1. Parent booking resource.
Add new booking resource
Open the Booking > Resources page.
Find the booking resource you want to increase the capacity for or create a new booking resource (e.g., "Resource A").
To create a new booking resource, enter the "Name of booking resource" in the top toolbar at the Booking > Resources page and click the "Add New" button.

2. Increasing Capacity:
Set capacity for Booking Calendar
- Click the "Expand advanced toolbar" arrow button at the bottom left side of the toolbar to reveal additional options.
- Enter the name of the child booking resource (e.g., "Child Resource A").
- Select the number of child booking resources to create (e.g., 5) to set the capacity of the original "parent booking resource" ("Resource A") to 6.
- For the option "Parent" select our parent booking resource - "Resource A".
- Click the "Add new" button in the toolbar to add 5 child booking resources to our parent booking resource "Resource A," resulting in a total capacity of 6 (including the parent booking resource itself and 5 child booking resources).

3. Structure of Booking Resources:
Properties of booking resources in Booking Calendar
The structure of booking resources will look like this:

Resource A | Capacity = 6 | Priority = 0
        -  Child Resource A - 1
        -  Child Resource A - 2
        -  Child Resource A - 3
        -  Child Resource A - 4
        -  Child Resource A - 5

In other words, there are 6 available slots for each dates (or time-sltos, if in booking form exist time fields) for meeting rooms, etc.

4. Publish Booking Form
Publish booking form - Embed booking form into post or page. Booking Calendar.
Let's say each booking resource has an ID like this:

[ID=218] - Resource A | Capacity = 6 | Priority = 0
      [ID=219]  -  Child Resource A - 1
      [ID=220]  -  Child Resource A - 2
      [ID=221]  -  Child Resource A - 3
      [ID=222]  -  Child Resource A - 4
      [ID=223]  -  Child Resource A - 5

To insert your booking form into the page, use this shortcode:
[booking resource_id=218 nummonths=3]

Learn how to put the booking form or availability calendar on your pages using Booking Calendar blocks in the WordPress Block Editor or Classic Editor on this page .
Also, check the simple steps to add the Booking Form manually to your page with shortcode blocks, for example, in non-standard page editors like Elementor, Divi, or others on this page.

5. Preventing Overbookings:
When you make a booking for a specific date or time, the system will decrease the capacity of the booking resource. If the number of bookings reaches the capacity limit of the booking resource, the date or time slot on the specific date(s) will become unavailable

6. Capacity Control Field:
What if you need to book 2 or more slots on a specific date/time? Define the field that will identify how many slots will be booked during one booking process. Open the Booking > Settings General page in the "Capacity" section, enable the "Booking Quantity Control" option, and for the "Quantity field name" select one of the existing fields from your booking form. This field must be a select box with simple numbers as options. For example, configure the field at the Booking > Settings > Booking Form page like this: [select visitors "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6"]. In this case, for the "Quantity field name" select the "visitors" field. Save settings changes.

Now, when you select a date (and/or time) and choose the number of visitors as 3, the system will make a booking of 3 "child booking resources" (or parent and 2 child booking resources) and decrease capacity on the selected date/time by 3 items.

7. Disable Bookings in Different Booking Resources:
An additional option "Disable bookings in different booking resources" at the Booking > Settings General page in the "Capacity" section. This option disables reservations that can be stored in different booking resources. When checked and you select several dates to book, all reserved days must be in the same booking resource; otherwise, an error message will show. For example, if you make bookings for a specific property (room), it prevents changing these rooms during all selected dates. In other words, the system checks that all selected dates in child booking resource (or parent booking resource) have to be available and stores this sequence into the SAME booking resource. Otherwise (useful in some situations), the system can store a booking on DAY 1 in child booking resource A and on DAY 2 in child booking resource B (in case if DAY 2 for the booking resource A was already unavailable).

8. Priority Field:
At the Booking > Resources page, there is a "Priority field" for each of your booking resources. It is the order in which the system will check availability and save the booking into the available child booking resources.

7. Different Capacities for Different Resources:
In a scenario where some booking resources support a maximum of 2 visitors per resource and other booking resources support 4 visitors per resource, you can create 2 different custom booking forms at the Booking > Settings > Booking Form page.

In custom booking form for "Standard Rooms" (e.g., with the name "standard-rooms-form"), you can have these fields:

Visitors number: [select visitors "1" "2"]
Number of rooms to book: [select items_to_book "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6"]

In the custom booking form for "Family Rooms" (e.g., with the name "family-rooms-form"), you can have these fields:
Visitors number: [select visitors "1" "2" "3" "4"]
Number of rooms to book: [select items_to_book "1" "2" "3"]

The structure of booking resources at the Booking > Resources page can be like this:

Standard Rooms:

[ID=10] - Standard Room - 1 | Capacity = 6 | Priority = 0
      [ID=11]  -  Standard Room - 2
      [ID=12]  -  Standard Room - 3
      [ID=13]  -  Standard Room - 4
      [ID=14]  -  Standard Room - 5
      [ID=15]  -  Standard Room - 6

Family Rooms:

[ID=18] - Family Room - 1 | Capacity = 3 | Priority = 0
      [ID=19]  -  Family Room - 2
      [ID=20]  -  Family Room - 3

And at the Booking > Settings General page in the "Capacity" section, you can activate the "Booking Quantity Control" and for the option "Quantity field name," select the field "items_to_book."

In the page for booking Standard rooms, you can use this shortcode:

[booking resource_id=10 nummonths=2 form_type='standard-rooms-form']

In the page for booking Family rooms, you can use this shortcode:

[booking resource_id=18 nummonths=1 form_type='family-rooms-form']

Watch a legacy video guide on configuring capacity in old versions of Booking Calendar (older than 9.7.7 versions).

Check about configuration of capacity in previous versions of Booking Calendar (versions 9.7.7 or older) on this page.