Adding photos and video to items using the Item Builder (Classic Items)

Enhance your items by adding photos, a YouTube video, and an optional location map. Media helps your customers visualize your offerings and improves the booking experience.

Learn how to add photos or a video to your item, including editing, rotating, reordering, or deleting photos, and adding an item location.

New to the Item Builder? You can read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Item Builder.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Inventory > Items > Add New Item (or Edit Item) > Media
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions or restricted permissions to View items, products, and assets and Manage items, products, and assets.
   

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. 

From the Media step of the Item Builder, you can:

• Add up to 5 photos (JPG, PNG, or GIF).
• Add 1 YouTube video.
• Include a location map (if Maps integration is activated).

Image Guidelines

• Landscape orientation recommended.
• Minimum size 480 X 360 pixels.
• File size under 8MB (compress large images before upload).
• Images are automatically resized after upload.

Compressing large images Compressing large images improves the Guest experience when booking. Slower or older devices perform better with smaller images. We recommend reducing the image's resolution or file size in your photo editing software before uploading it to Checkfront.

Learn more For a detailed look at adding media to Products instead, check out the following articles: Adding photos to your product Adding videos to your product details

1. Click + Add Photo and select an image from your computer.
2. Add an optional caption once the photo uploads.
3. Repeat for up to 5 photos per item.

Once the upload is complete, you can enter a brief caption for the photo, although this is optional.  

Add additional photos by clicking on the + Add Photo button again. Remember, you can add up to 5 photos per item.

If you wish to crop your image after upload, use the Image Thumbnail Editor. Hover your mouse over the image you want to edit and click the Edit Photo button.

From there, you can drag out the selection box to crop the image to your liking. When finished, you can click Save.  

Rotate Images Are your images rotated incorrectly? This issue may be due to the image information stored with your photo (metadata), which communicates how to correctly display the image to the software, regardless of how your camera was oriented when taking the photo. This metadata is not accessible to the browser when you upload an image online, so you won't notice the issue until you upload it to Checkfront or other websites. You should be able to work around this by editing the image before uploading it. 1. Open the image in an image editor. 2. Rotate the image so it is no longer upright (e.g., sideways). 3. Save the rotated image. 4. Rotate the image so it is upright again. 5. Save the upright image. 6. Upload the image to Checkfront. The image should now save using the needed orientation and no longer rely on hidden metadata.

To reorder an image, hold down the mouse button and drag it to the desired location. Release the mouse button to complete the repositioning.

To delete an image, hover your mouse over it again and click the trash can icon in the top-right corner.  

To complete the deletion, click the Yes, Delete button when prompted. However, if you change your mind, click the Cancel link to close the delete feature.

Upload a YouTube video by inserting the video URL directly into the YouTube Video field. An example of a YouTube video URL is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ok035fXdhAh.

Alternatively, you can enter the video ID: 1Ok035fXdhAh.

Once you enter the URL or video ID, a field labeled Start Time appears. Entering a value here begins the video at the specified time marker rather than at the beginning.

Enter the number of seconds you want the video to begin once a Customer clicks on it in the booking portal. For example, to start your clip two minutes in, you must enter 120 in this field (120 seconds).  

A thumbnail-size version of the video displays directly below the time field. You can click on this to ensure the starting point is where you expect it to be. So, when Customers click your item in the booking portal, they see two tabs for viewing the photos and video!

If you activate the Maps integration, you can include a location map for each inventory item. This option is useful for tour operators and accommodation providers who wish to display an exact location or meeting point for their business.

In the Location field, enter either:

• A civic address (e.g., 100 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA) 
• GPS coordinates (e.g., 49.7576566, -123.1431165 ).

Finding Location Coordinates If the item doesn't have a physical address, you can enter its geographical coordinates instead, for example, 49.7576566, -123.1431165. A great website to use for this is https://latlong.net. Here, you can drop a pin on a map to display the coordinates, which you can add to the Location field.

Once you enter the location, a button labelled Create Map displays. Click Create Map to generate the map based on the location specified.

When a Customer clicks on the map pin, an information box opens. The details you provide in the following fields determine the content of that box.

Adding marker titles

This value is the title of the map marker and the header of the information box. It could be the name of your business or something more specific, such as a meeting place.

Adding marker descriptions

Descriptive content for the map pin information box. Keep it brief, but include any relevant details here.

Specifying map zoom numbers

Change this value to determine how close you would like the default map zoom to be. The higher the number, the more zoomed in the map. Enter a number between 0-18.

To preview your changes, click on the Refresh Map button and then click on the map pin.

Removing maps

To remove the map, remove the location from the field and click the Remove Map button located below the map.

Next Steps

To move on to the Attributes tab, click Next in the bottom right corner of the screen.

You can continue to the next article in this series to learn how to configure item inventory and parameters.

< Adding descriptions to items     |     Configuring inventory and parameters for items >