Q239: What is blocking in packages?
Reserving a package normally also reserves a given quantity of resources which make up package contents. Sometimes you will also want to block a higher quantity of an included resource. Such units are not reserved but blocked in the way that no other package can reserve the blocked units except for the package for which the initial reservation was entered.
Here's an example:
A small tour company organizes different tours and uses two 6-seat shuttle busses to run the tours. Customers can reserve an entire shuttle for private tours, or they can reserve a number of seats for one of the offered tours, e.g. City tour, Countryside tour and Seaside tour. The way the tours are run is that the first customer decides on the destination and then the remaining seats can be filled by other customers (unless a private tour is booked in which case no other customer can join in on the same tour). Of course all passengers then go to the same destination.
In order to set up the above configuration, packages must be used with blocking enabled. Since individual seats are reserved, it's the seat which must be set up as the resource. Here's the configuration used:
In the above configuration all the resources which can be reserved by the customers are actually packages and all the shared packages must use blocking. This way checkin24-7 will take care that no more than 2 destinations will be chosen at any given time by the customers.
In order to use blocking, you must enable it for the entire checkin24-7 site. You can do this on the page where you define package contents, for any of your packages. Blocking is then enabled for all packages.
Here's an example:
A small tour company organizes different tours and uses two 6-seat shuttle busses to run the tours. Customers can reserve an entire shuttle for private tours, or they can reserve a number of seats for one of the offered tours, e.g. City tour, Countryside tour and Seaside tour. The way the tours are run is that the first customer decides on the destination and then the remaining seats can be filled by other customers (unless a private tour is booked in which case no other customer can join in on the same tour). Of course all passengers then go to the same destination.
In order to set up the above configuration, packages must be used with blocking enabled. Since individual seats are reserved, it's the seat which must be set up as the resource. Here's the configuration used:
| Resource / Package | Name | Quantity | Resource sharing | Package settings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resource | Shuttle Bus Seat | 12 (2 buses, each with 6 seats) | Always possible | N/A |
| Package | Private tour | 2 (same as number of busses) | Disabled | Package contents: Shuttle Bus Seat, used quantity: 6 (entire bus is reserved for a single reservation) |
| Package | City tour | 12 (same as number of seats) | Always possible | Package contents: Shuttle Bus Seat, used quantity: 1, blocked quantity: 6 (entire bus must be blocked for this destination) |
| Package | Countryside tour | 12 (same as number of seats) | Always possible | Package contents: Shuttle Bus Seat, used quantity: 1, blocked quantity: 6 (entire bus must be blocked for this destination) |
| Package | Seaside tour | 12 (same as number of seats) | Always possible | Package contents: Shuttle Bus Seat, used quantity: 1, blocked quantity: 6 (entire bus must be blocked for this destination) |
In the above configuration all the resources which can be reserved by the customers are actually packages and all the shared packages must use blocking. This way checkin24-7 will take care that no more than 2 destinations will be chosen at any given time by the customers.
In order to use blocking, you must enable it for the entire checkin24-7 site. You can do this on the page where you define package contents, for any of your packages. Blocking is then enabled for all packages.