Equipment

Equipment Groups - Allocation and Keep-Together Rules

Emily Zhang

By Emily Zhang

August 9, 2026 · 2 min read

Use an equipment group when a class can use one of several grouped resources. Groups define who chooses the equipment, allocation order, and whether people in one booking must stay together.

#equipment groups#allocation#keep together

Build a Group

First create the equipment items and set each one to Part of Group. Then open Equipment → Groups, select New, and choose the member items. Their order is used as allocation priority for sequential allocation.

A group and its location-specific members must have compatible locations. After saving, link the group to the classes or appointment services that use it.

Automatic and Customer Choice

  • Automatic means OB assigns an available unit for the customer during booking — the customer never picks.
  • Customer Choice lets the customer choose the specific unit from the group, where the booking flow supports it. With Customer Choice the system does not auto-assign the unit, but the group's available capacity still decides whether the booking fits.

Set the group to Required when it must be available to book the class or appointment service, or Optional when it should not block the main booking.

Allocation Modes and Keep Together

  • Sequential fills items and units in their configured order.
  • Balanced spreads bookings across available resources.
  • Optimized currently starts with sequential assignment and fixes Keep Groups Together to Preferred. The system does not currently perform the previously described one-hour-before automatic reassignment.

Required keep-together rejects a multi-person booking if everyone cannot fit on one item. Preferred tries to keep the party together, then splits it if needed.

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