A resource blackout marks a guide, vehicle, or piece of equipment as unavailable during a specific period. When a resource is blacked out, it's removed from the available pool for new assignments. TripWorks won't offer it when assigning resources to upcoming activities during that window. You can also record an internal note explaining why you blocked it, so the reason is still there when someone reviews the blackout weeks later.

A blackout prevents new assignments only — it does not cancel or modify existing bookings where the resource is already assigned. If a guide is sick and already assigned to trips, you'll need to reassign those trips manually after creating the blackout.

Choose a method

There are two ways to create a blackout, depending on the period you need to block:

• Click and drag on the Timeline. Fastest for blocking a specific window you can see on screen, such as a three-hour maintenance slot. Good for same-day or next-day blocks.
• Blackouts panel. Use this when you need a precise date range, such as a week of vacation or a multi-day equipment service period.

Both methods let you add an internal note. The note is optional, holds up to 255 characters, and is only ever visible to your team; guests never see it.

What a useful note looks like. Write what the next person needs to know, not just the category. Engine service, back in the water Monday tells a dispatcher they can plan around it. Maintenance on its own doesn't. For a guide, Unpaid leave through the 14th, shifts already reassigned saves someone a phone call.

Block a single time window

1. Select Manifest from the main navigation, then select Timeline in the upper right.
2. Next to the resource you want to block, click and drag across the time window. On a tablet, hold and drag.
3. In Internal note (optional), type the reason you're blocking the time. For example, Engine service, back in the water Monday. You can skip this and add it later.
4. Select Create Blackout.

The blocked period appears grayed out on the Timeline. That resource won't be offered for new assignments during the blackout window.

The note field means two different things. It sits above both Create Blackout and Clear Blackout. On Create Blackout it becomes the blackout's note. On Clear Blackout it records why you removed the block. That reason goes to your account history, not onto a blackout, so don't use it to leave a note you expect to read back later.

Block multiple resources at once. Drag across multiple resource rows in a single motion to select the same window for all of them, then select Create Blackout. Use this for facility-wide closures or fleet maintenance days. A note you add applies to every blackout created in that motion.

Block a date range

1. In the Manifest Timeline view, click the white area next to the resource you want to block and choose Blackouts.
2. Use the date picker to set the start and end dates, then set the start and end times.
3. In Internal note (optional), type the reason for the block.
4. Select Apply Blackout.
5. The blackout appears in the Current Blackouts list on the right, with its note underneath. To add another blackout for the same resource, repeat from step 2. Select Done when finished.

Read and edit a note

Notes appear in two places, and you can change one at any time, including on a blackout somebody else created.

On the Timeline

A blacked-out block that carries a note shows a small dot in the top-right corner of each of its cells. Hover the block, or tap it on a tablet, to read the note. A blackout with no note shows no dot, so the marker tells you at a glance which blocks have an explanation attached.

In the Blackouts panel

1. Open the Blackouts panel for the resource, as in Block a date range above.
2. Under Current Blackouts, find the blackout you want. Its note appears below the date range, or Add internal note if it doesn't have one yet.
3. Select the note text — or Add internal note — to open it for editing.
4. Type your change and select Save.

Only future blackouts appear in this panel, so a note on a past blackout can't be edited here.

What happens when blackouts overlap

If a new blackout overlaps one that already exists, TripWorks merges them into a single continuous period. Which note survives depends on whether you typed one:

• You typed a note on the new blackout. Your note is used for the merged period.
• You left the note empty. The note from the oldest overlapping blackout carries forward, so an existing explanation isn't lost just because you extended the block.

When you merge two blackouts that both had notes, only one note can stay on the merged period. The other is recorded in your account history rather than kept on the blackout, so check the note after merging if both explanations mattered.

Clearing works the other way. If you clear time from the middle of a blackout, it splits into two shorter blackouts and both keep the original note.

See who changed a blackout

Creating, editing, and clearing a blackout are all recorded in your account history, along with who did it and when. Notes are recorded too, including a note that was replaced during a merge and the reason given when someone cleared a block.

To review it, search for Audit Log in the search bar at the top of TripWorks and open the page. The Audit Log is available to team members whose permissions include company setup.

Clear a blackout

Single time window

1. In the Manifest Timeline view, click and drag across the grayed-out area you want to remove.
2. Optionally, use Internal note (optional) to record why you're removing the block. This is kept in your account history.
3. Select Clear Blackout.

The resource becomes available for new assignments immediately.

Date range

1. In the Manifest Timeline view, click the grayed-out area and choose Blackouts.
2. Select the trash icon next to the blackout you want to remove, then select Done.

The resource becomes available again for the previously blocked period. Only future blackouts are shown in this panel; past blackout periods are not displayed.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Next steps

See Automatically Assign Resources to Trips for how TripWorks chooses which resource to assign once a blackout is in place. If you are still setting up the resources themselves, start with Resources & resource groups, and see Capacity: by resources for how resource counts drive what you can sell.