Managing upcoming inventory settings for booking layouts

Help Customers avoid frustration when inventory is unavailable. Upcoming inventory settings let you control how your booking page responds when items/products aren’t available, automatically showing future availability or listing the next available date for each item.

Learn about the upcoming inventory settings, including not showing upcoming inventory, automatically advancing to the next date, and listing the next date and information on the upcoming window setting.

New to the Booking Page? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Booking Page.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Manage > Layout > Booking Page
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions to configure Booking Page options.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• This feature is available in both our classic items version, using classic items (Inventory > Items), and our classic products version, using classic products (Inventory > Products).  → Learn more about products

The Upcoming setting determines how the system behaves when a Customer searches for an item/product or selects a calendar date without available inventory. Choose from the following settings:

You can select the Do not show upcoming items/products option from the Upcoming setting to hide upcoming items/products from the Customer.

If a Customer clicks on a day in the calendar that doesn't have any items/products available for booking, they receive a message confirming this. 

When the Automatically advance to the next available date option of the Upcoming setting is selected, and a Customer searches for an item/product, the booking calendar automatically opens at the next available date for that item/product. This option saves the Customer the need to manually review the calendar for availability.

We recommend this option for individually listed items through a booking link or the Booking widgets.

Select the List the next available date for each item option of the Upcoming setting if you want your Customers to be shown items/products on their next available date. If left unchecked, the system displays the current date or the selected date, even if no information is available.  

By default, this option displays upcoming items/products only on calendar days when no other options are available.

This option is recommended for listing multiple items/products at a time, as it shows the availability of each item/product and when it is next available.

Alternatively, you can set up upcoming items/products to show when other items/products are available by enabling the Show unavailable items/products or Show sold-out items/products options described in the last article.

The Upcoming Window option displays when you have selected the List the next available date for each item/product option under the Upcoming setting.

With this setting, you can determine how far in the future your calendar looks to show the next available date.

The system defaults the upcoming window to the recommended 30 days.

 

Upcoming window maximum You can set this window to a maximum of 180 days. Configuring the window above the recommended value of 30 days may impact page performance due to the system resources needed to fulfill the request.

1. Go to Manage > Layout > Booking Page.
2. Scroll to the Upcoming settings section.
3. Check the boxes for the settings you want to turn on:
   • Do Not Show Upcoming Items/Products
   • Automatically Advance to the Next Available Date
   • List the Next Available Date for Each Item/Product
4. If using List the Next Available Date for each item/product, set your Upcoming Window (e.g., 30 days).
5. Click the Save button to apply your changes.
6. Test on your booking page:
7. Select a date with no availability → Does the calendar advance or list the next available dates?
8. Confirm performance and layout across desktop and mobile.

Next Steps

The following article explains how to manage sort order settings for booking page layouts.

<  Managing inventory display settings for booking page layouts     |     Managing sort order settings for booking page layouts >