Do you have a Zoo Resource Example?

Zoos often offer a wide variety of experiences—animal encounters, meet‑and‑greets, behind‑the‑scenes tours, camps, classes, field trips, and special events. Each of these offerings has real‑world limits: the number of guests allowed the number of keepers available, the number of strollers or wheelchairs to rent, or the number of pavilions or classrooms that can be booked at once.To manage these limits accurately, zoos must create resources before creating the actual products. Resources define the maximum capacity or availability of each experience or asset. When a product is later built (such as a Capybara Encounter or a Summer Camp session), the product is linked to the appropriate resource so the system can automatically control availability, enforce waivers, and prevent overbooking.
This tutorial walks zoo operators through creating these resources—starting with animal encounter capacities—and explains how to apply them to products.

For a video walk through please visit: Video Training

Problem Being Addressed

1. Preventing Overbookings for Animal Encounters and Experiences

Animal encounters and meet‑and‑greets have strict capacity limits for safety, animal welfare, and guest experience.
Without resources:

1. Too many guests could be booked into a session
2. Staff and animals could be overwhelmed
3. Guest experience quality declines

By creating a resource (e.g., Capybara Encounter Capacity: 6), the system automatically stops sales once the limit is reached.

2. Enforcing Waivers for High‑Risk or Hands‑On Experiences

Many animal interactions require digital waivers.
Without resources:

1. Waivers cannot be required
2. Staff must manually verify waivers
3. Liability risk increases

Setting the resource type to Check‑In – Waiver Required ensures every guest completes a waiver before participating.

3. Managing Keeper Availability

Zoos often have more experiences than available keepers.
Without resource controls:

1. Multiple encounters could be booked at the same time
2. Keepers could be double‑scheduled
3. Sessions may need to be canceled or rushed

Zoos can solve this by:

1. Scheduling experiences to spread out workload
2. OR creating a Keeper Resource and attaching it to each encounter product

If keeper resources are fully consumed, no additional encounters can be booked during that time.

4. Managing Limited Rental Inventory

Zoos frequently rent items such as:

1. Strollers
2. Wheelchairs
3. Umbrellas
4. GoPros

Without resources:

1. Rentals can be oversold
2. Guests may arrive expecting equipment that isn’t available

Creating a Generic – Per Quantity resource ensures rental inventory is accurately tracked.

5. Controlling Capacity for Camps, Classes, Tours, and Field Trips

Educational programs and tours have strict limits for safety and staffing.
Without resources:

1. Too many students or groups could be booked
2. Staff may be unable to supervise safely
3. Program quality suffers

Resources allow zoos to:

1. Cap total student attendance
2. Limit the number of school groups per time slot
3. Manage class or camp enrollment

6. Managing After‑Hours and Seasonal EventsZoos often host special events such as:

1. Halloween nights
2. Valentine’s events
3. Christmas lights
4. Private after‑hours parties

Without resources:

1. Attendance may exceed safe limits
2. Staff may be overwhelmed
3. Event flow becomes unpredictable

Creating an After Hours Event resource ensures these events stay within capacity.

7. Managing Pavilion, Classroom, Cabana, and Covered Area RentalsThese spaces can only be booked once at a time.
Without resources:

1. Double‑bookings can occur
2. Guests may arrive to find their space occupied

A Generic – Per Line Item resource ensures only one reservation is allowed per time slot.

8. Forecasting Attendance for Gate Admission

Zoos can choose whether gate admission requires a resource.

1. If guests can arrive anytime: No resource is needed.
2. If guests must choose a date: A resource helps limit daily attendance and forecast staffing needs.

Without a gate admission resource:

1. Attendance becomes unpredictable
2. Staffing and animal care planning becomes harder

Summary

Creating resources before building products allows zoos to:

1. Prevent overbookings
2. Enforce waivers automatically
3. Protect animal welfare and staff workload
4. Manage limited equipment and rental inventory
5. Control capacities for camps, tours, and field trips
6. Avoid double‑booking spaces
7. Forecast daily attendance
8. Deliver a safe, smooth, and enjoyable guest experience

This foundational setup ensures that every product behaves correctly and that your zoo’s operations run efficiently and safely.