Count capacity by departure, not just by day

A day marked available can hide several different capacities. A morning departure may have space while the afternoon service is full. Before designing an availability screen, identify the thing a customer is actually reserving.

Define the unit

A hypothetical Costa Rican tour operator might sell seats on a departure, a private vehicle or a guide's time. These need different records. A general daily number cannot safely represent every resource if several bookings can compete for the same vehicle or person.

Work through a small example

Suppose a group requests four places on one departure and another asks for a private service at the same time. Staff need to know whether they share a constrained resource. The system should not assume that different product names mean independent availability.

Show the customer a useful answer

When immediate confirmation is not reliable, a clearly described request process can be better than an inaccurate green calendar. Explain when staff will check and which details may change. Let the business decide its capacity and overbooking rules.

Prepare an anonymized schedule with overlapping services and a cancellation. The Costa Rican Tourism Institute is an official starting point for tourism-sector information; it does not define your individual operating capacity. Use the example to scope availability and staff-review work before choosing a booking interface.