Social Distancing Features in Booked
Slowing the spread of COVID-19 is about the most important thing we can do as a society right now. I know that Booked is heavily used in laboratories and other organizations where working remotely may not be possible. I want to highlight a few features that can help reinforce social distancing in your lab or organization.
Capacity
The most obvious one is capacity limits for resources. For any resource that is designed for a group of people (conference room, lab bench) you can set the maximum capacity to something small. This prevents more than a set number of people from participating in that reservation.
Buffer Times
Buffer times are perfect for enforcing time between reservations. This can assist with cleaning and disinfecting or simply help space people out and prevent unintended contact.
Maximum Reservation Duration
This is a simple rule that will prevent reservations over a certain duration. Combining this with capacity constraints can help limit people’s interactions.
Quotas
Quotas are typically used to prevent over-booking by a single individual, but they can also be used to keep resources under-booked, reducing the sanitation burden.
You can also use quotas to ensure that resources are available to as many people as possible. For example, many people use Booked for appointment scheduling. If you have a COVID-19 response team or internal health team, this could be a way to make sure they’re available to as many people as possible.
Hosting and Support
Booked continues to be open source and completely free to anyone that wants it. You can download it here.
I have been offering hosting services for many years, which completely removes the burden of installation and support from your internal team. The first 30 days of hosting are free, with no absolutely no obligation or commitment of any kind.
I know that business is unpredictable right now and placing orders for new services is far down the list of priorities. I’m happy to work with your team on free trial extensions and flexible billing terms until things are back to normal.