Creating an Item Event (Classic Items)

Item Events let you adjust availability and pricing for your items on specific dates, times, or conditions. You can make items available only during a season, apply special rates on long weekends, or enforce booking rules on certain days.

This guide walks through creating an Item Event and configuring its settings.

Learn how to create an Item Event, including setting the status, type, name, price, recurrence, dates, times, rules, and applicable inventory.

New to Item Rules?  Read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Item Rules feature.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Inventory > Item Events
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin or restricted permissions to View events and rules and Manage events and rules.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - Classic Items, Classic Products, or both?

• Your account must have access to classic items (Inventory > Items), a key feature of our Classic Items version of Checkfront. 

Before creating Item Events, make sure you have created some inventory items and set their base price point. 

1. Go to Inventory > Item Events.
2. Click the + New Item Event button.
3. Configure the settings as described below.

Order of application The system applies Item Events in ascending ID order (lowest to highest). Seasonal events apply first, then Special events. If prices don’t calculate as expected, you may need to recreate events so the system uses them in the correct sequence. Please contact Technical Support if you need help ensuring Item Events are in the correct order.

Using the Inventory Status setting, you can change the status of your inventory for the event period:

• Unavailable - Closes items so that no one can book them. This option is the default value of item events.
• Available - Opens items so anyone can book them.

Allowing Staff to overbook If you would like to restrict item booking to Staff only, consider using an overbooking rule instead of a closure event. Learn more here: Introduction to Item Rules (Classic Items)

• Seasonal: Seasonal events are generally used to set pricing or availability based on the time of year (e.g., peak, low, closed). Seasonal Item Events should not overlap one another. Seasonal events, enforce rules, and availability of items. 

• Special: Special events float on top of seasonal item events. These typically override seasonal pricing, such as setting a long weekend special. Special events do not enforce rules or availability. They only apply if a booking meets the rules. 

Give your event a name that makes sense to Staff and Customers. The Name field captures the name of your item event.

The name displays on invoices, so give it a name that makes sense to your Customers (e.g., Shoulder Season).

• Base price: Leaves price unchanged.

• Create new price point: Sets a new fixed price for the item event.

You can edit the new price point in the item's Pricing tab.  

• Dynamic: A dynamic price allows you to adjust the pricing of your inventory by varying amounts.

For example, you can increase the price by 25% on a specific date, or decrease it by 25% instead. If you decrease the price, include the minus (-) sign. You can adjust based on a percentage of the total or a fixed amount.

It is important to note that dynamic pricing adjusts based on your current event price, not the base rate. If you have a seasonal price adjustment, the dynamic price uses this, not your base price.

• Yield: The yield price lets you adjust the price of your inventory based on availability.

Yield pricing example

For example, if you have 10 bus seats available, you may charge the item's base price as usual. However, as seats sell, you can adjust the price based on the number of seats available.  

In the example above, the price decreases by 10% once there are only 5 spots left. With 2 spots left, the base price is reduced by 15%, increasing to 20% once the inventory is down to one seat. To add more pricing thresholds, click on the blue additional threshold buttons.

Yield pricing is not cumulative

Remember that each price change is based on the base price and is not cumulative.  Threshold pricing does not build on top of each other, for example:

• If the base price is $10 with a threshold of 3 and a discount of -10%, the price is $9 ($10-10%)

• If the base price is $10 with a threshold of 2 and a discount of -20%, the price is $8 ($10-20%)

• If the base price is $10 with a threshold of 1 and a discount of -50%, the price is $5 ($10-50%)

Removing yield pricing thresholds

To remove a threshold, click the Trashcan button to the right of the setting.

The Recurrence setting determines whether the event is a one-time event or repeats on a schedule. You can use the drop-down menu to make your choice.  

Choose how often the event applies:

• One time event: A one-off event active only between the start and end dates you define.
• Always: Ongoing, with no defined dates. 
• Weekly: Repeats within the defined date range on specific dates of the week.

   

   

  

These settings capture the start and end dates of this event. You can remove the end date if it is not required.

 

Force item length to the above start and end dates

A checkbox labeled Force item length to the above start and end dates displays under the date settings. If selected, all bookings on items attached to the event must begin and end on the chosen dates.

Item event recurrence and unavailable fields The Date fields are unavailable for selection if you select Always for your item event recurrence.

If your items use timeslots, you can specify which timeslots the event should apply to. 

Use the + Add Specific Timeslots option to select, include, or exclude slots as needed.

Attach a rule set to this event. Combining rule sets with Item Events allows you to create powerful inventory adjustments and specials, as well as enforce booking policies.  

By default, Item Events apply to all items in your inventory. You can refine the application here if you only want the event to affect a specific category or item.

1. Uncheck All Items and Categories to view all your categories and items.
2. Check the items you wish to use.

Close off a date or series of dates You can quickly close off a specific date or a small series of dates in your inventory calendar and adjust inventory.

Next Steps

You can learn how to sort item events by status with the next article in this series.

< Introduction to Item Events     |     Sorting Item Events by status >