Previewing your product from the Product Builder

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Learn how to preview your product from the Product Builder.

New to the Product Builder? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Product feature.

 

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Which plans include this feature?

Legacy:  Soho, Pro, Plus, Enterprise, Flex
New:  Growth (Subscription), Growth (Online Booking Fee), Managed
→ Learn more about our new plans or how to change your plan.

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

Inventory > Products > Products > Add Product/Add New Product/Edit Product > Preview

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions to manage inventory or restricted permissions to View products and assets and Manage products and assets.
  
  

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

• Your account must have access to products (Inventory > Products), a key feature of our new version of Checkfront. This feature is not available for use with items (Inventory > Items) in our classic version. → Learn more about products. 
   

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You can view your product from your Customer's perspective using the Product Builder's preview feature by following these steps.

 

1. Navigate to Inventory > Products.
2. Click the name of a product to open it within the Product Builder.
3. Click the Preview button in the footer menu of any tab.



4. You can then view the booking availability page for the product you are working on within the Product Preview drawer.

The preview is fully functional, and you can advance through the booking process as a Customer does for an available product by clicking Book Now, for example.

5. Click View Booking Page to open the full Customer-facing booking page, filtered to show only the product you're working with.
6. Click Close to close the preview window and go back to the Product Builder.

 

If the Hero booking page layout is selected, additional Currency, Language, and Log In buttons show in the Product Preview if the following features are enabled: Introduction to currency display Activating and editing Customer languages Introduction to managing Customer Accounts

 

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What you can see within the Product Preview depends on your product settings (e.g. guest type visibility, product booking visibility, product availability events), account settings (e.g. calendar) and inventory availability.

You may see one of the following messages or product statuses.

 

Status	Description	Additional Details
Available	The product can be booked. A green Available label displays along with the Book Now, Details, and Availability links.	What the product listing looks like depends on the booking page layout selected.
Unavailable	The product is not available and cannot be booked.	What the product listing looks like depends on the booking page layout selected.
Sold Out	The product is sold out and cannot be booked.	What the product listing looks like depends on the booking page layout selected.
Nothing available for the dates selected.	The product is not available and cannot be booked. This message shows in a blue bar at the top of the booking page.	If Upcoming setting for Booking Page layouts is enabled, the Upcoming label and date links show beside the product alongside the message.

 

Why is my product not available? If you are unable to book a product that you expect to be available, please check your product settings (e.g. guest type visibility, product booking visibility, product availability events), account settings (e.g. calendar), and inventory availability.

 

Learn more about how to adjust a product's availability here: Managing availability events for your product Introduction to the inventory calendar

 

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If Customer Accounts are set to required (Customers > Directory > Customer Settings > Customer Account Settings > Require customers), a login screen shows when previewing a product from the Product Builder, just as it does for a Customer. You need to be logged in as a Customer to view the product preview.

To view the product preview without logging in, the setting to require customers to use customer accounts needs to be deselected within Customer Account Settings. The option can be turned on again once you finish viewing the product preview. 

 

Learn more about setting up Customer Accounts here: Introduction to Customer accounts Introduction to managing Customer Accounts

 

 

In the next article in the series, we look at how to manage products from the Products list.

 

 

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< Step 5: Managing advanced settings for your product     |     Managing your products from the Products list >

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