Want to automatically turn your lights on and off with each booking?
If so, you've come to the right place. AllBooked integrates with smart lights, which can be connected through IFTTT to automatically turn your lights on at the start of each booking, and turn them off when the booking ends.
Why set this up?
Helps you save on energy costs when no one's using the facility.
It can also open the door to more revenue by powering a 24/7, 365 operating model—without extra overhead from onsite staff.
Follow this step-by-step guide to set up an IFTTT connection with the Philips Hue smart lighting system to turn your lights on when a booking begins, and turn them off when it's over.
What's Philips Hue?
Philips Hue is a leading provider of smart lights and home security, and the company you'll be buying your smart lighting system from.
What is IFTTT?
IFTTT is a platform that helps you automate smart devices—like lights, thermostats, and security systems—so everyday tasks are handled for you. It's a simple way to cut down on energy costs and run your venue 24/7. You can think of IFTTT as a middle man that lets two platforms exchange data.
Before starting:
Connect your AllBooked account with Google Calendar to have bookings automatically show up in your Google calendar.
By default, your calendar link includes bookings from all spaces in your AllBooked account—unless you uncheck them. Each room needs its own calendar link, so be sure to create a separate link for every room and add each one to your Google Calendar.
Important: Bookings can take a while to show up in Google Calendar because of how Google handles syncing. Follow the instructions in this video to run a quick script to speed things up. Here is the code referenced in the video.
Purchase the Philips Hue Get Started with smart lighting kit and set it up. As part of installation instructions, you'll be prompted to set up a Philips Hue account and register your devices with it.
Note: This kit includes everything you need to get started—2 lightbulbs, the Hue Bridge, and an ethernet cable—all of which are essential for the IFTTT integration. As you build out your smart lighting system, you’ll need to purchase a smart bulb for every area where you want automated lighting.
Download the Philips Hue app to your smartphone by visiting the App Store or Google Play.
Set up your ‘Rooms’ in the app: Since each room in your venue will likely have multiple smart lights, create a ‘Room’ in the Philips Hue app and add all the lights for that space.
Note: Do not opt for the free version because automations can take an hour to process.
Required connections for every ‘room’
As noted above, each ‘Room’ requires it's own integrations. Create the following two integrations for each ‘Room’ so that lights are turned on and off with the start and end of each booking.
Connection #1: Turn light on when booking starts
Trigger
Login to IFTTT.
Click Create in upper right hand corner of screen.
Click Add and search for Google Calendar.
Select Any event starts.
Click Connect and login to the Google account that your Google Calendar is associated with.
Under Which Calendar?, choose the applicable calendar.
Set Time before event starts to 0 minutes.
Select Create Trigger.
Delay
Add a short 1-minute delay to your workflow to give your integrations time to trigger. This is important with back-to-back bookings to give your lighting system time to set, reset, and turn on exactly as intended.
Click the plus sign and select Delay.
Set the delay to 1 minute and click Apply.
You can further test to see if a shorter duration will work for your facility.
Action
Next to Then That, select Add.
Search for Philips Hue.
Select Turn on lights.
Click Connect and login to your Philips Hue account.
Under Which lights?, select your ‘room.’
Select Create Action.
Connection #2: Turn light off when booking ends
Trigger
Click Create in upper right hand corner of screen.
Click Add and search for Google Calendar.
Select Any event end.
Select the Google account that your Google Calendar is associated with (it may already be pre-populated).
Under Which Calendar?, choose the applicable calendar.
Select Create Trigger.
Action
Next to Then That, select Add.
Search for Philips Hue.
Select Turn off lights.
Select your Hue account (it may already be pre-populated).
Under Which lights?, select your ‘room.’
Select Create Action.
You've successfully configured your Philips Hue lighting system to turn lights on and off with bookings! Should you have any questions along the way, don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@allbooked.com—we're more than happy to help.
FAQs
Can I do this with a Microsoft Outlook calendar or do I have to use Google Calendar?
While you can set up this integration the same exact way with your Microsoft Outlook Calendar, it's common to experience a slow sync time with Outlook—bookings generally take about 24 hours to populate. This unfortunately can’t be changed with a script, like it can with Google Calendar.
We recommend testing out how long it takes for bookings to sync with your own Microsoft account and determine a lock-in period to ensure bookings are in Outlook when the workflow is triggered.
What else can I automate with AllBooked?
The possibilities are endless. With AllBooked's integrations feature, you can connect with thousands of popular apps through Zapier—a tool that works like IFTTT to automate your workflows.
Can I send data into AllBooked from other apps?
Not at this moment. AllBooked's integrations are one-way only (from AllBooked to the outside app).