What is Smart Availability?
With the Smart Availability feature, you can make multiple resources dependent on each other without your customers having to select them separately in the booking process.
Use case: You have two small rooms - meeting room blue and meeting room yellow - which can be booked separately. If you remove the partition between the rooms, then a large room is created - meeting room green.
If you book the big meeting room green, both small rooms are automatically blocked in the system.
Activate the Feature
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How do I set up Smart Availability?
Go to the resource which should be linked to other resources and select the tab service/booking option. (In my example, the green meeting room)
Tap on the desired booking option/service on edit and select the 2. Tab Resources.
Connected resources: here you can find all the resources that are connected to the service / booking option.
Dependencies: Here you can connect additional resources either using drag & drop or by clicking the + Add button.
To be able to book resources dependent on each other, it is important that availability schedules and booking options match.
Always book: Linked resources must be available, otherwise no booking is possible. To allow bookings even without the dependent resources, the option Book if available can be stored.
Blind eye: Customers won't see the dependent resources in the booking process.
In our example, meeting room blue and meeting room yellow can be booked as one large meeting room green. Now I define the two smaller meeting rooms as meeting room green and select the option always book.
How does a Booking with Multiple Resources look like?
In your anny admin calendar, you will now find the connected blockers for each booking according to your settings. In this example, only the green meeting room was booked, and the two connected resources are automatically booked as well.
Smart Availability Groups
With Smart Availability Groups, you can extend the existing Smart Availability feature with grouped dependencies. This allows you to map complex setups where a booking requires not just one dependent resource, but several different resource types to be available at the same time. This is especially helpful for scenarios such as:
2 staff members + 1 room
1 device from a pool + 1 room
2 different staff members + 1 treatment room
What are Smart Availability Groups?
With Smart Availability Groups, you can organize resources within a booking option into groups. The following applies to each group:
At least one resource from this group must be available at the requested time
During booking, anny automatically reserves one suitable resource per group
The same resource is not assigned twice within the same booking
This allows you to model much more complex dependencies than with connected resources alone.
Where can you find this feature?
You can find this feature here: Service > Booking option > Resources > Dependencies. There, you can:
create groups
add resources to each group
model complex dependencies within a service
How does the logic work?
Smart Availability Groups check during booking whether the required resources are available on a group basis.
This means:
For each Smart Availability Group, at least one resource must be available
During booking, anny automatically reserves one resource per group
If additional connected resources are configured, these are also taken into account
anny prevents the same resource from being used twice within the same booking
It is important to note that resources can be configured both as connected resources on a service and additionally referenced within a group.
Typical use case: couples massage
Typical use case: couples massage
You create the Couples massage service and configure:
all qualified staff members as connected resources
one Smart Availability Group for the second staff member
another Smart Availability Group for rooms
Example groups
Group 1: Second staff member
Contains all qualified staff membersGroup 2: Rooms
Contains all suitable treatment rooms
Result
When a booking is made, anny checks at the same time whether:
two different staff members are available
one suitable room is available
If these conditions are met, anny automatically reserves:
two different staff members
one room
All reservations are then shown in the corresponding resource calendars.
What happens in the calendar?
Reserved resources are automatically blocked through sub-bookings.
This means:
the additionally reserved resources are visible in the corresponding resource calendars
occupied resources are blocked accordingly for other bookings
the actual utilization remains transparent in the system
Important notes and limitations
Please keep the following points in mind when using Smart Availability Groups:
Do not use the same resource in more than two groups: It is currently not supported to use the same resource in more than two groups at the same time.
Special case for admin bookings: If the Check availability option is disabled when creating a booking in the admin area, dependent resources are not automatically booked as well. The reason is that these resources would otherwise restrict availability, which is intentionally bypassed when availability checking is disabled.
Visibility in the calendars: Reserved dependent resources are automatically created as sub-bookings and are visible in the corresponding resource calendars.
Who is this feature especially useful for?
Smart Availability Groups are especially useful for companies with more complex resource logic, for example:
wellness and massage providers
studios with staff and room planning
services with equipment pools
services where several different resources are required at the same time
FAQ
What is a Smart Availability Group?
What is a Smart Availability Group?
A Smart Availability Group is a group of resources from which at least one resource must be available when a booking is made.
What happens during booking?
What happens during booking?
anny checks availability for each group and automatically reserves one suitable resource per group.
Can the same resource be used multiple times within the same booking?
Can the same resource be used multiple times within the same booking?
No. anny prevents the same resource from being assigned twice within the same booking.
Can resources be both connected and part of a group?
Can resources be both connected and part of a group?
Yes. Resources can be configured both as connected resources on the service and additionally used within a Smart Availability Group.
Why were no dependent resources booked automatically in an admin booking?
Why were no dependent resources booked automatically in an admin booking?
Check whether the Check availability option was disabled when the booking was created. In this case, dependent resources are not booked automatically.
Troubleshooting
“The booking is not possible even though resources are available.”
Check whether at least one resource is available in each Smart Availability Group for the requested time.
“A resource was not booked automatically.”
Check whether this is an admin booking where the Check availability option was disabled.
“I see additional blocked entries in the resource calendars.”
This is expected behavior. Dependent resources are automatically reserved through sub-bookings and shown in the corresponding calendars.
What is the difference compared to Smart Availability?
The existing Smart Availability feature is mainly useful when fixed dependent resources should always be booked together.
Smart Availability Groups go one step further:
Instead of only blocking fixed dependencies, you can define resource pools
anny automatically selects suitable available resources from these pools
this makes it possible to model more flexible setups with multiple roles or resource types