Orioly features 7 – Resource Manager

If you are in the tour business, it’s very important that you have a system that helps you manage your resources, such as vehicles, equipment, or guides. Such a system not only gives you an overview of your resources’ availability but also important insights on how to allocate them more efficiently.

Without this control, you can end up missing the necessary resources to run a tour, which leads to unhappy guests. And you definitely don’t want that, do you?

For this reason, we introduce you to the Orioly Resource manager. This is one of the many useful features that Orioly offers, which makes your daily business easier.

Read below how the Resource manager can help you in your business.

Why do I need Orioly Resource Manager?

Let’s jump right into a concrete example: you are organizing a rafting tour. To successfully carry out the tour, you need equipment that includes boats, life belts, helmets, etc. You also need experienced and professional guides who will follow the tour from start to end.

And that’s where Orioly’s Resource manager comes into play. It helps you and your employees/guides to know at all times how much equipment and manpower you have available.

Let’s say that 35 guests signed up for your tour. You know how many boats, tour guides, and equipment you need for that number of guests, which must be enough for each registered guest.

Now that we have explained with a concrete example why you need a Resource manager, let’s see how it works in practice.

How does Orioly Resource Manager work?

In Orioly, you can define three different types of resources:

• Guide
• Vehicle
• Other (e.g. equipment)

For each of these segments, you must first add resources to the Orioly dashboard. First, you need to define exactly how many resources you have at your disposal.

So, if you have three guides available, enter the number 3, if you have four vehicles, enter that number, etc.

After you have entered the number of resources into the system and linked them to the activities, i.e. tours, when receiving reservations, Orioly will automatically update availability and show you how many resources you have at your disposal at any time.

You can monitor this via the dashboard by clicking on a specific departure for which you are interested in the capacity utilization, and then click the Resource link.

At that moment, a list of your resources related to the departure will be displayed on the right side of the screen, where you can see exactly how much occupancy there is on the connected guide, vehicle, or equipment.

How to import resources into Resource manager?

For each of the previously mentioned three groups, we will show you how to set up the amount of available resources and other details.

How to add a guide as a resource?

This type of resource is ideal for guided tours where you have one or more active tour guides and you want to know at any time how many guests they have on a particular departure that you have assigned to them.

1. Add a new guide

• Click on Resource Manager in the main navigation.
• Select the My Resources option.
• Click on the Add Resource button and Guide will be a pre-set option.
• Enter Resource Name – for internal use.
• Capacity – add the maximum number of guests that can be assigned to one guide.

Shared capacity – if you turn on this option, what you are defining is that the guide can handle different guest groups from activities whose departures overlap, or to be more specific, that the resource capacity can be shared in several activities with the same departures.

Important – If this option is turned off and you have departures of different activities that overlap and are connected to a resource, the activity whose departure is booked first will be available for booking, while other overlapping activities will no longer be available for booking.

Unavailable – with this option you can block dates in case the guide is unable to make the departure.

Guide Details – In this section, you can add information about your guide that will be shared with guests of the tour or activity to which the guide is assigned. The name and surname of the guide, the language in which they guide, email, and phone number will be visible to the guest on the confirmation email guests will receive after booking.

2. Allocate the resource

After you have created the Guide as a resource, it is necessary to connect it to one or more products for which it will be in charge. To do this, follow these steps:

• Switch from My Resources to Assign Resource.
• Click on the pencil icon next to the desired product.
• Click Assign Resource.
• Select the required resource from the drop-down menu.
• Link the resource to the departure. Note that you can associate the resource with all or individual departures and price categories.
• Click Apply to assign the resource.
• Repeat the steps above if you want to allocate resources to other products.

How to add other types of resources?

To add other types of resources, like gear and equipment, follow the steps below:

1. Add a new resource (equipment)

• Click on Resource Manager in the main navigation
• Select the My Resources option
• Click on the Add Resource button and Guide will be a pre-set option
• Select Other as the resource type
• Enter Resource Name – for internal use
• Quantity – add the number of available resources, for example if you have 30 helmets, you should enter 30 under quantity

Capacity – add the maximum number of guests that can be assigned to the resource. Example: if you are using a helmet as a resource, you will set the capacity to as many guests as you plan to be able to use one helmet, in this case it is 1.

Shared capacity – if you turn on this option, you define that the helmet or other equipment can be used by guests from different activities whose departures overlap, that is, that the resource capacity can be shared among several activities with the same departures.

Important – If this option is turned off and you have departures of different activities that overlap and are connected to a resource, the activity whose departure is booked first will be available for booking, while other overlapping activities will no longer be available for booking.

Unavailable – with this option you can block dates in case the resource or specific equipment is not available for the assigned departure.

2. Allocate the resource

After you have created a resource, you need to associate it with one or more products for which it will be used. To do this, follow these steps:

• Switch from My Resources to Assign Resource
• Click on the pencil icon next to the desired product
• Click Assign Resource
• Select the required resource from the drop-down menu
• Link the resource to the departure. Note that you can associate the resource with all or individual departures and price categories
• Click Apply to assign the resource
• Repeat the steps above if you want to allocate resources to other products

How to add a vehicle as a resource?

Another important resource that is often used in the organization of tours or activities, and for which it is important to monitor occupancy is the vehicle. With the Resource manager, you can monitor the use of bicycles on cycle tours, off-road vehicles on safari tours, rafting boats, and other types of vehicles.

1. Add a new vehicle

• Click on Resource Manager in the main navigation
• Select the My Resources option
• Click the Add Resource button
• From the drop-down menu, select Vehicle as the resource type
• Enter Resource Name – for internal use
• Quantity – add the number of available vehicles. If you have 4 boats, you should enter 4 under quantity

Capacity – add the maximum number of guests that can be assigned to one vehicle. If you use rafting boats as a resource and eight people fit in one boat, you will set the capacity to 8.

Shared capacity – if you turn on this option, what you are defining is that you can use the boat for different activities whose departures overlap, that is, that the resource capacity can be shared in several activities with the same departures.

Important – If this option is turned off and you have departures of different activities that overlap and are connected to a resource, the activity whose departure is booked first will be available for booking, while other overlapping activities will no longer be available for booking.

Unavailable – with this option you can block dates in case the vehicle or boat is not available for departure.

2. Allocate the resource

After you have created a Vehicle as a resource, you need to associate it with one or more products for which it will be used. To do this, follow these steps:

• Switch from My Resources to Assign Resource
• Click on the pencil icon next to the desired product
• Click Assign Resource
• Select the required resource from the drop-down menu
• Link the resource to the departure. Note that you can associate the resource with all or individual departures and price categories
• Click Apply to assign the resource

Repeat the above steps if you want to allocate resources to other products

Conclusion

In this article, we gave you a few examples of how to monitor the usage and occupancy of your resources to prevent their over-occupancy or unavailability.

The Orioly Resource manager also allows you to see exactly which resource is assigned to which tour. Remember that there is no limit and you can add as many resources to as many products you want.

Better management of your guides, vehicles, and equipment is possible with the Orioly Resource manager. This not only saves you time but also improves guests’ experience since you gain control over the availability of your resources, avoiding a disruption of your services.

Note: Resource Manager is available in Growth and Business packages.

Also read our other Orioly features:

• Orioly features 1. – How to set occupancy percentage to allow online payment, how to set percentage for a deposit, what is cut off, how departure blocking works
• Orioly features 2. – How to automatically set documents that are sent with the confirmation email, how to add cancellation policy and logo to documents, how to set GDPR consent
• Orioly features 3. – Partnerships
• Orioly features 4. – Mobile application
• Orioly features 5. – Booking management
• Orioly features 6. – What are widgets and Product list widget

ORIOLY
on July 7, 2023

by Lidija Šomodi