How do I set up products to share assets?

With shared product assets, you can share individual assets across multiple products, improving resource management and making it easier to reach booking capacity and increase booking volume.

You can read further to learn how to

• assign assets by quantity or capacity
• understand shared assets through use cases
• set up shared product assets
• and report on shared product assets, including Asset Calendar and the Daily Manifest.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Products > Products > Add Product/Add New Product/Edit Product > Inventory tab

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 items, classic products, or both?

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

You can configure product inventory based on resources (assets) and determine how they are distributed and shared. 

Assets are assigned to products by quantity or capacity.
 

Assigning assets by quantity

Back to top

Quantity represents the base number of available assets, e.g., three buses in your fleet.
 

All products within a category inherit the category color All products under a category inherit the assigned category color unless a product has a specific color assigned directly.

 

Assigning assets by capacity

Back to top

Capacity represents the maximum number of items the asset can hold; e.g., each bus has 20 seats.

When assigning assets by capacity in a product, you can also share the asset(s) booked by a product with another product or products during the same period. This feature lets you personalize asset allocation according to your requirements and timeline.

 

Capacity assets are shared across bookings The system shares capacity assets across bookings, for example, a tour bus that seats 20 guests across multiple bookings.

 

Sharing best practices for assets Sharing an asset works best for activities within the same location at a specific time, such as bus tours with common stops. When sharing assets across products, you must review availability to prevent conflicts. It is impossible to share assets if they are in different locations at the same time.

 

---

Understanding shared assets through use cases

Back to top

 

Use case example #1: Multiple tours, overlapping locations

Quantity: 10 buses
Capacity: 20 seats

You can share a bus between multiple tours with overlapping locations.

The bus travels from Location A → Location B → Location C.

You can sell three products that share the bus:

• Product 1: 1-hour bus tour from Location A → Location B
• Product 2: 1-hour bus tour from Location B → Location C
• Product 3: 2-hour bus tour from Location A → Location C

Once guests have booked any of the three products and a 20-seat bus is reserved, any future bookings on the same day at matching times also reserve seats on the initially auto-assigned bus until the bus is full.

 

Use case example #2: Multiple activities, same locations

Quantity: 3 boats
Capacity: 50 people per boat

You can share a boat between multiple activities.

You offer a Party Boat Experience for $50 per person and a Deluxe Party and Snorkeling Experience for $75 per person.

You can offer these as separate public experiences to guests.

If a booking comes in for 10 people for the Party Boat Experience and 25 for the Deluxe Party and Snorkeling Experience on the same day, the system assigns both to a single boat.

As additional bookings come in for that day, the assigned boat should remain at capacity until it reaches 50 people.

 

Use case example #3: Multiple events, shared spaces

Quantity: 1 room
Capacity: 3 spaces

 

You can share a single space across multiple rentals by dividing it into smaller spaces. 

You can offer these small spaces to guests as independent offerings. For example, you can separate a gym into three spaces and rent it to three different parties.

 

---

Setting up products to share assets

Back to top

Follow these steps to set up a product to share assets:

1. Navigate to the Product Builder (Products > Products) to add a new product or edit an existing product
2. Select the Inventory tab for the product you want to work with.
   
   
    
3. Choose Assets from the Inventory Type dropdown menu to make your inventory dynamic based on the number of resources available.
   
   
    
4. Select + Create asset in the Assets section to create an asset category or choose a previously created asset category from the Select an Asset Category dropdown menu.
   
   
   
    
5. Choose the existing asset you want to share from the Select Asset(s) dropdown menu. You can add more assets with the + Add assets button as needed. Choose which guest type to allocate to an asset from the Guest Allocation menu if using guest types.
   
   
    
6. Choose Capacity from the asset dropdown menu. Capacity represents the total capacity of the asset selected in the previous step and activates the Shared Assets table in the next step.
   
   
    

7. In the Shared Assets table, select the asset to share. Specify if the same start and/or end times are required and should match. The checkbox options are Shared Asset, Same Start Time, and Same End Time.
   
   
    

   Product sharing rules Any other product(s) you want to share assets with must also allow asset sharing. You can share a shared product with any other product in your account. There is no way to restrict the availability of shared products.

   Capacity assets are shared across bookings Capacity assets are shared across bookings, for example, a tour bus that seats 20 guests across multiple bookings.

    

8. Click the Save button to save your product selections.

There are several calendar views you can use to keep track of shared product assets. 

The Assets Calendar (Calendar > Assets Calendar) lets you see which products share assets.

The Inventory Calendar (Calendar > Inventory Calendar) shows which products are sharing inventory on a per-date basis.

The Daily Manifest (Booking > Daily Manifest) allows you to assign assets, see which products share assets, and see what other inventory is available.

the |