Booking System: Check to see if resource is available

[Keren_Aarons]

Hi all

I’ve got a base that records the bookings of meeting rooms. It’ll be used to schedule bookings across all the rooms available.

So I’ve got something like this:

{Room} - e.g Room 1 (This is a linked field)
{Start Date}
{End Date}

I need to be able to check whether a {Room} is available when making a booking. I don’t want a room to be available as an option if it’s been booked. If there’s a clash of dates, then a room can’t be selected.

What would be the best way of achieving this?

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

Hi @Keren_Aarons,

@Kamille_Parks has built a Custom App for exactly this purpose:

Custom Block: Check In/Out System Show and tell

Now that the submission period for the Custom Blocks contest is over, I’d like to share my custom block for check-out/check-in systems! [Screen Shot 2020-07-03 at 1.54.29 AM] This block is a customizable wizard which, in its most basic form, allows users to select a Unit record and create a new linked record in a Log table detailing when that record was “checked out” with relevant fields pre-filled to save time. The wizard just as easily allows users to check that unit back in to close ou…

You’ll have to check with her about how/if she is distributing it.

[Kamille_Parks]

This seems more directly applicable to one of my other projects, Scheduler:

Airtable

Scheduler - Apps - Airtable Marketplace

Schedule reservations for people, rooms, or equipment on Airtable with the Scheduler app.

Or one of Scheduler’s four predecessor scripts. All of which are available on my GitHub (as well as the Check In/Out app’s code). https://github.com/thekamillionaire/airtableScripts

I’d say use the app if you want to select the Room, then the available dates. Use one of the scripts if you want to select the dates, then an available room.

[Keren_Aarons]

Hi Kamille

Thanks so much for your response - your scripting skills are well beyonmd mine and you’ve created some amazing tools. I haven’t yet ventured into the scripting blocks at all, so will have to do some reading on exactly how I get this work. But it seems your “Create No-Conflict Asset Reservations” script is what I’m looking for. Much appreciated!

[Keren_Aarons]

Hi Jeremy

Kamille’s blocks and scripts look amazing, but was wondering if you knew of a way to do this without using scripts or apps?

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

I do know of a way to accomplish this without scripting or apps, but it is quite complex, and by no means easy to explain in the text of a forum post.

I don’t really have the time to explain it, but I’ve crafted an example in this base:

Airtable

Campground Booking - Airtable

### Instructions The names of Views for each table indicate the purpose the View was built for. Beginning symbols are used to indicate Categories of Views: * ➡️ Workflow Views: "➡️ Workflow Needing To Be Done" _these views should be named to...

The tables you are concerned with are:

• ❓Availability
• ⛱ Sites
  and
• 📚 Bookings

You will find that they are related in such a way that the ❓Availability table is used as a querying table where a Site Type and desired dates can be entered to surface Available Sites in the “Availability Check” view of the ⛱ Sites table.

Frankly, my honest suggestion is to use Kamille’s excellent Marketplace App. Since it’s in the Marketplace, installation and setup should be a breeze, and you won’t have to do any scripting.

Alternatively, I have a much simpler Custom App than Kamille’s that only watches your table and detects scheduling conflicts, making them apparent and easily accessible in from the App. I’d be happy to provision this app into your base, if desired – but you’ll find Kamille’s is much more fully featured.

Here’s a little gif of that App in action:
https://github.com/jmoglesby/airtable-blocks-schedule-conflicts/blob/master/media/sched_conflict_blo...

[Keren_Aarons]

Thanks so much for this Jeremy and I really appreicate your time and patience. I will work my way through your example - love learning new things!