Setting up Resources

Manage Resources inside your space so members can reserve them on an hourly basis in your Booking Calendar.

Amanda avatar
Written by Amanda
Updated over a week ago

You can use Cobot to manage your space's bookable resources. Resources are short-term rentable objects like meeting rooms, equipment, or desks. Once populated, you and your members can book them via your admin and member portals.

Once you or your member create bookings, they will be visible on your shared calendar. Cobot automatically charges members for resources on their monthly invoice.

If you want non-members/visitors (people who do not need to sign up for a membership plan) to make bookings in your space, activate the External Bookings portal. Once activated, you can customize individual resources to have different settings, prices, and descriptions than those visible to your members. Check out this guide to learn more.

This guide will cover the following topics:


Adding Resources

To add resources, click on Resources » Resources » Add Resource.

The form allows you to enter details such as a description, price per hour, cancellation notice, and more!

Basic Settings

  • No. of units refers to how many you have of each resource.

    • For example, if you have ten desks that are the same, add the number 10. Once ten people book that resource, no more will be bookable.

  • Capacity shows members how many people can fit in the room. This does not limit booking availability.

Availability

  • Minimum & maximum booking durations indicate the minimum and maximum amount of time a member can book a resource.

    • For example, if you wish members to book no more than eight hours in a resource, add 8 to the maximum booking duration field. If you do not want to apply restrictions, leave these fields blank.

  • Available Booking Times allow you to add days of the week and times of day your member can create bookings. They will not be able to book outside of those hours. They will see a prompt on their booking form of the requirements.

  • Booking Cutoff is the amount of time a member may make a booking before it starts.

    • For example, if you add '24' in this field, the member will not be able to create bookings less than 24 hours in advance.

Pricing

If you set an hourly rate for the resource, members are automatically invoiced for their use at the end of each month. Reduced rates and included hours can be set up in membership plans as booking credits.

Check out this guide to learn how to set up advanced resource pricing, such as price caps, discounts, or fixed rates. If these are not visible to you, contact support to activate them for you.

Cancelation

A member may cancel a booking until the number of hours you add here.

For example, if you add '24', your member will not be able to cancel their booking up to 24 hours before the start time.

Visibility & Permissions

Visible to members means all members can see the resource, but not book it.

Can be booked by members means members can also book the resource.

By default, members can see who booked what resource and all details related. To enable the privacy setting, go to Customize » Features » Hiding Features and activate "Hide booking details from other members."

Resources are added to the calendar in the order you enter them. If you would like them organized another way, you must add a letter or number before the Resource name.

  • For example

    • A. Meeting Room
      OR

    • 01. Meeting Room


Booking Resources

After you have added a resource, it can immediately be booked through the Calendar in both the admin and member portals. For more on this, see our guide on booking resources.

If you want non-members/visitors (people who do not need to sign up for a membership plan) to make bookings in your space, activate the External Bookings portal. Once activated, you can customize individual resources to have different settings, prices, and descriptions than those visible to your members. Check out this guide to learn more.

Restricting Member Access to Resources

You can restrict access to individual resources for members within their member profiles. This is helpful if you have equipment that only certain members are allowed to use or meeting rooms that only premium members pay for.

To set this up, go to Manage » Members » Click on the member name » Bookings » Manage Resource Access » Check 'Member only has access to selected resources.'

Once there, de-select all resources you do NOT want your member to be able to create bookings in. These will then be hidden from their booking options in their member portal.

  • You can override these restrictions and create bookings for all members in the admin portal under Calendar» Calendar. The booking will appear on the calendar, in the member's booking history, and charged when applicable.


Resource Categories

To make it easier to view the different resources in your space, you can organize them into categories. This will allow you and your members to toggle the views on and off, making the calendar visually simpler.

To add categories:

  1. Go to Resources » Resource Categories

  2. Click the Add Category button. These can be floors of your building, types of resources, or really anything!

  3. When you have all your categories, click on the name of one to fill it with resources. Note: You can add the same resources to multiple categories.

  4. Now go to Calendar » Calendar to make sure it displays how you want.

If you make new resources without assigning them to a category, they will be added to your calendar in a category called default.

Categories are organized alphabetically, regardless of what order you enter them. If you would like them organized another way, you must add a letter or number before the category name.

  • For example

    • A. Meeting Rooms
      OR

    • 1. Meeting Rooms


Importing Or Exporting The Calendar

It is not currently possible to embed your Cobot calendar outside of Cobot, but you can use our Google Calendar sync to show your Cobot bookings on your website.

You can also export the calendar using the feeds we provide. Check out this guide on how to accomplish this.


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