With Resources on, a departure can only sell what the vehicles, boats, rooms and gear its trip needs can carry at that time. Samba works this out live, from the other departures using the same resource, your downtime, and booking requests waiting on a card. Travelers never see a resource: they see fewer seats, or a date they can't pick.
How a resource caps a departure
Each resource is a pool of identical units: a resource "Minibus" with 2 units and 8 seats per unit. An experience uses a resource for every booking, or only for the travelers who pick one package, participant type or add-on:
Used | What it does to a departure |
Per participant | Each traveler (or each traveler on the option) takes one seat of a unit. The departure can sell as many seats as the free units carry: 1 free Minibus means 8 seats, even if the departure's capacity is 16. |
Units per participant / Per unit picked | Each traveler of the type, each room of the package or each unit of the add-on takes a set number of units: 1 kids' bike per Child. When the pool runs out, that option reads sold out while the rest of the departure keeps selling. |
For the whole departure | The departure takes a set number of units as soon as it has a booking or a seat hold (for a linked option, as soon as any booking picks it), and frees them if it ends up empty. When no unit is free, the departure can't be booked at all, however many seats it has. |
A unit is busy from the departure's start until its end plus the resource's turnaround, so two departures of different trips that overlap in that window compete for it. A departure of a trip sold Date only has no start time, so it keeps its units for the whole day, and its turnaround runs into the next morning. A Room on a multi-day trip is busy for its nights only and is free again from the last day, so one group can arrive the day the last one leaves. Canceling a departure frees everything it held at once. Canceling a booking frees its units on a per-participant or per-unit resource right away; a whole-departure resource stays taken until the departure is empty.
Where you see it
Team members who can see resources (every default role except Field staff) see the resource status in these places.
On the departure
Open a departure from Calendar & Scheduling. Its Resources section has a row for each way the trip uses a resource (a resource linked to an option reads "for Child" under its name), with what this departure takes, Free for this departure, and who else is using it: other departures, downtime, and booking requests holding it while their card is charged. A room on a multi-day trip reads "Booked 7 nights from Sun 4 Oct". Until the first booking arrives the section reads Nothing claimed yet.
The badge in the section header is the departure's resource status:
Badge | Meaning |
Within capacity | The resources don't limit this departure. |
Limits to N seats | Seats are left, but the resources leave only N of them sellable. |
Not bookable | Seats are left, but a resource is taken, has no seat left or has every unit in use, so travelers can't book this departure. The status badge still says Scheduled. |
Over capacity | This departure uses more than the resource has, for example after you booked over it or recorded downtime. A departure that uses none of an overdrawn resource is not flagged; it reads Not bookable. |
On the departures list and calendar
The Resources column names the resource that caps a departure below its seat count: Minibus taken, Minibus full or Minibus limits to 3 seats. It shows a dash when nothing limits the departure, or once it has started or been canceled.
A departure that is over capacity gets a red flag in the Attention column and a red chip on its calendar day. The Resource conflicts filter above the table shows only those departures.
An amber calendar chip counts the day's departures travelers can't book because a resource is taken or full. Departures a resource only limits get no chip.
When a change to a resource, or a save of an experience's Resources tab, leaves upcoming departures over capacity that weren't before, you get a notification in the bell: "2 upcoming departures now exceed Minibus", with Open calendar. Each team member can switch Resource conflicts off in their own notification settings.
Nothing is canceled or resized for you. Overbooking on purpose doesn't clear the flag: the departure stays over capacity until you free up the resource (end a downtime, add units, move a booking or the other departure).
What travelers see
Where | What happens |
A date on your trip page or widget | Shows the seats the resources leave sellable. When they leave none, the trip page lists the date as Sold out with nothing to click, and widgets hide it like a sold-out date. |
Checkout | A ticket type, package or add-on whose own resource is used up reads Sold out, Only N left or "N available on this date", while the other options keep selling. If a resource goes while they are paying, they are told the seats were just taken, with a Choose another date link. Nothing is charged. |
A private-tour date picker | Dates on which the resources can't host your minimum party are grayed out, like fully booked dates. The traveler stepper stops at what fits: "Only 4 travelers fit on this date". |
A trip with no bookable date left | The booking buttons lead to the private-tour request form if the trip has one, and otherwise read No dates available. |
You can overbook a resource; travelers can't
Like seats, package units and add-on stock, a resource is something you may knowingly go past. See How overbooking works.
The booking wizard, Edit booking and Change departure warn you first, naming the resource and what is short: "The Minibus is already taken at this time", or "Only 1 unit of the Kids bike is free at this time, and this booking needs 2". Edit booking warns when the edit needs more seats or takes something the booking doesn't hold yet, such as a traveler moved to a ticket type with its own resource, and repeats the warning when you confirm. The departure pickers also tag the options that will warn: Minibus taken, Minibus limits to 3 seats. Save to go ahead. If the resource was taken after your page loaded, the save is refused once with "Availability changed since this page loaded"; save again to overbook on purpose.
Each overbook is recorded in the booking's History: "Booked over resource capacity · Minibus was already taken · Change departure", or "Kids bike for Child" when the resource belongs to one option.
A booking request whose resources are gone can still be accepted with Accept anyway. See Accept a booking request when a resource is unavailable.
Example. Your Minibus has 1 unit with 8 seats and a 30-minute turnaround. The Sintra tour (capacity 16) uses it per participant, so its 09:00 departure shows Limits to 8 seats and sells 8 online. The Belém half-day takes the whole Minibus. Its 10:00 departure overlaps the Sintra window, so as soon as Sintra has a booking, Belém shows Not bookable, the list reads Minibus taken, and travelers can't pick that Belém date. You can still book a Belém customer yourself: the wizard warns, you create the booking, and both departures now show Over capacity until you move one of them.
The badge says Scheduled with seats left, but nobody can book. Why?
The badge says Scheduled with seats left, but nobody can book. Why?
A resource the trip needs is taken or full at that time. The departure's Resources section reads Not bookable and names the resource and who holds it. Free it, move the other departure, or shorten the downtime, and the date opens again on its own.
Does a sold-out departure still hold its van?
Does a sold-out departure still hold its van?
Yes. A departure keeps what it claimed until it is canceled, whatever its remaining seat count.