Understanding resources and availability

Modified on Thu, 4 Dec at 11:32 AM

Understanding resources and availability

Resources are at the core of how Hubhus calculates availability and manages bookings. A resource represents anything that can be scheduled — a person, a vehicle, a team, or a physical asset.

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Resources are at the core of how Hubhus calculates availability and manages bookings. A resource represents anything that can be scheduled — a person, a vehicle, a team, or a physical asset. This article explains how resources work, how they differ from users, and how availability is determined in a simplified Getting Started overview.


What are resources?

A resource is an entity that can be booked in the calendar.
Typical examples include:

  • A technician or consultant

  • A team assigned to a geographical area

  • A vehicle or piece of equipment

  • A meeting room or physical location

Every resource has its own:

  • Calendar

  • Availability

  • Working hours

  • Travel rules (if enabled)

  • External calendar sync configuration

Resources are responsible for performing the booking — not the campaign, not the lead.


Resource vs. user

It’s important to understand the difference:

User

A user is a person who logs into Hubhus.
Users control:

  • Access permissions

  • Editing options

  • Internal work

Resource

A resource is what the booking form uses to determine availability.

A user can also be a resource, but they don’t have to be.

Examples:

  • “Peter Hansen” is a user and a resource

  • “Team North” is a resource but not a user

  • “Measurement Van 3” is a resource but not a user

  • “Admin Support” is a user but not a resource

Bookings always attach to resources, not users.


Availability rules

Availability is determined by combining multiple conditions:

1. Busy vs. free events

  • Busy events block availability

  • Free events do not block availability

If an external calendar is connected, external busy events also block time.

2. Business hours

Bookings must fall within business hours unless the form overrides them.

3. Special dates

Special dates override business hours — useful for holidays or shortened workdays.

4. Travel / driving rules

If enabled, Hubhus checks:

  • Travel time before the first booking

  • Travel time between bookings

  • Travel time after the last booking

  • Distance to the customer

  • Whether gaps are too small for the booking duration

Driving rules are often the reason availability appears more limited than expected.

5. Booking duration & buffers

The service duration must fit cleanly between other events, including any required:

  • Pre-buffer

  • Post-buffer

6. External sync

Busy events from Google/Outlook/CalDAV calendars block time if the resource is syncing.


Resource tags and filtering

Resources can be organized using tags.
Tags allow you to group resources by characteristics such as:

  • Region

  • Skill

  • Vehicle type

  • Team

  • Specializations

Tags can be used to:

  • Filter which resources a booking form should include

  • Route bookings based on customer selections

  • Limit availability to a region or service type

Example:
A “Roofing Inspection” booking form may only show availability from resources tagged with roofing.


Multi-resource bookings

Some booking flows require multiple resources at the same time.
Examples:

  • A technician + a vehicle

  • A two-person team

  • Two specific roles (e.g., inspector + assistant)

Hubhus can check availability across multiple required resources and will only show times where all required resources are available simultaneously.

Multi-resource availability respects:

  • Business hours per resource

  • External calendar conflicts

  • Buffers and duration

  • Travel rules for each involved resource


About tags (Resource tags & User tags)

Tags in Hubhus are used to organize how resources and users behave across booking, availability, and internal workflow logic.


Resource tags

Resource tags are applied to resources (technicians, teams, vehicles, rooms, etc.) and determine:

  • which resources a booking form is allowed to use

  • which resources appear in availability

  • which resources can be matched to specific service types, regions, or skills

  • how multi-resource bookings are constrained

Booking forms often rely on resource tags to ensure that only relevant resources are considered when calculating times.


User tags

User tags are applied to users (internal staff) and are used for:

  • grouping users

  • access control

  • visibility rules

  • internal routing

User tags do not affect availability directly.


Linking user tags to resource tags

Hubhus allows you to link user tags to resource tags.
This controls which users are eligible to be assigned when a booking form requires a resource with a specific tag.

Important points:

  • A single resource tag can be linked to multiple user tags

  • Users inherit assignment eligibility through their user tag

  • This creates a clean permission model for who can be scheduled for which type of work


Example:
If a booking form requires the resource tag Inspection Technician, only users with user tags linked to this tag can be assigned.



Learning outcome

After reading this, you should understand:

  • What resources are and how they’re used in bookings

  • The difference between a user and a resource

  • How availability is calculated across calendars

  • How tags help organize and filter resources

  • How multi-resource bookings work in Hubhus

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