Bring your facility management online with Communal's Facilities module. In this article, you'll learn the definitions and configurational options for bookable spaces so you can start managing your entities in an efficient manner.

General Definitions:

• Entities/Facilities: A room, space, item, or area that is bookable and managed with a calendar.
• Bookings: An act of reserving a time in an entity.
• Organizations: A database of your clients or recurring renters that are tracked separately from your members and users. 
• Availabilities: How to set when your entity is open and the base hourly rate. Multiple availabilities can be created for each entity to accommodate daily, or monthly differences in opening times and booking rates.
• Items: A bookable asset such as a locker room, projector, or ball machine, that is associated with a booking. 

Types of Bookable Entities:

When adding an entity to the system, you will have the option to select the Booking Type. There are two types available: Instant and Request. The configuration options will change depending on which type you select. 

• Instant: This is an entity where the bookings submitted into the calendar do not require an admin to review/approve them before they are finalized. An example is a reservation for a tennis court.
• Request: This is an entity where the bookings submitted into the calendar do require an admin to review/approve them before they are finalized. An example is a request to book a banquet hall.

Types of Calendar Bookings:

When creating a booking in a calendar, you will be asked to to select one of the three options outlined below:

• Booking: This will likely be the main type of booking you'll use to create requests on behalf of users or organizations. It will prompt you to select if the booking is for one of the following:
  • Guest: Someone that is not in your database of organizations or members.
    
  • Member: A user that is in your membership database.
    
  • Organization: A group that is in your organization's database. If you don't have any organizations, click here to learn how to create one.
• Block Off Time: This section is used to close your calendar so no other bookings can take place during this time slot. You will be asked to provide a reason for the blocking this time which will be displayed to end-users (if your calendar is public).
• Drop-In: Used to create a slot in the calendar that end-users can sign up to attend. You'll be asked to provide the limit of how many people can sign up for each time slot. The description will also be displayed to users.
  
  
  This type of booking will take into account the rules of the general calendar. For example, if you require a membership to create a normal booking in this calendar, you'll also need the same membership to sign up for the drop-in time. 

Public and Private Calendars:

During the creation of an entity, the sections outlined below will help you set who has access to view and submit bookings in the calendar. By using a combination of these areas, you can configure if a calendar is only viewable to members, the public, or your admin team.

Organizations:

We know how important your recurring clients are to your association which is why we have designed a separate database to track their activity in the system. This should make your booking process easier as you won't need to fill out their contact information for each booking.