In WooCommerce Bookings, the “Priority” setting allows you to establish a priority order for determining the availability rules of your bookable products or services. It helps manage situations where multiple availability rules may apply, ensuring that the correct rules are enforced.
The priority determines which availability rule takes precedence when there are conflicting rules. For example, if you have a global availability rule set for your entire store but also specific availability rules set at the product or resource level, the priority determines which rule will be followed.
Before we start, please note that, by default, the global availability rules (store availability) take precedence over the availability rules set at the product level, and the product availability rules take precedence over the resource-priority rules.
To make it simple, you can remember this as Store Availability Rules > Product Availability Rules > Resource Availability Rules.
- The priority numbers can be adjusted to modify this order. When determining availability, a lower priority number will always override a higher priority number, regardless of the context. For instance, even if a rule with a priority of 10 exists at the global level (store level), a rule with a priority of 9 at the product level will take precedence over it.
- Understanding the priority system allows you to fine-tune and control the availability of your resources and ensure that the desired rules are applied accurately based on their priority levels.
- WooCommerce Bookings offers a flexible system to define availability rules for your products, resources, and the entire store. Let’s delve into each of these levels and how they influence your booking availability.
Store Availability Rules
↑ Back to topStore Availability Rules set the global availability restrictions for your entire WooCommerce store. They are applied to all bookable products unless overridden by more specific rules. These rules are configured in the Bookings > Settings > Store Availability and allow you to define general availability restrictions such as closed days or other constraints that apply across your entire store.
Store Availability Rules act as the baseline availability restrictions that can be further overridden at the product and resource levels.
Product Availability Rules
↑ Back to topProduct Availability Rules provide specific availability constraints for individual bookable products in your WooCommerce store. These rules allow you to define unique availability settings for each product, enabling you to tailor availability based on product-specific requirements.
By setting product-level availability rules, you can override the global store availability restrictions using the priority setting. For example, if your store is closed on Mondays (as per the store availability rules), you can still make a specific product available on Mondays by configuring the product availability rules and assigning a lower number to the priority setting than what is set at the Store level.
Resource Availability Rules
↑ Back to top- Resource Availability Rules come into play when you have resources associated with your bookable products. Resources can represent staff members, rooms, equipment, or any other entity that contributes to the booking process.
- Resource availability rules allow you to define the specific availability constraints for each resource. These rules further refine the availability settings for a particular bookable product and can override both the store and product-level availability rules.
- For instance, if a staff member is not available on a specific day, you can configure the resource availability rules to reflect that unavailability by assigning a lower number to the priority setting than what is set at the Store and Product level.
Note: Events created in the connected Google calendar are pulled into the store’s Store Availability rules, where they will block the availability of all bookable products for the duration of the events. These events created within Google Calendar are synched to the Store Availability with a priority of 10.
Summing up
↑ Back to top- By following this availability priority hierarchy (Store > Product > Resource), WooCommerce Bookings ensures that you have granular control over your booking availability. This enables you to create complex booking scenarios and manage different availability constraints for various aspects of your online store.
- By utilizing the flexibility of availability rules at each level, you can tailor your bookings to match your specific business requirements and provide a seamless booking experience for your customers.
- Hope this explanation clarifies the importance of availability priority in WooCommerce Bookings. Feel free to explore the various availability rule settings within the extension to optimize your booking management process. Happy selling and happy booking!
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