Items - Inventory Builder: Attributes

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Booking parameters determine how your inventory is booked, priced and allocated. You can add and remove parameters as needed, but remember, these options will impact your system globally. By default, you need a minimum of 1 booking parameter. Each parameter has several flags that determine how the parameter is used.

 

 

 

 

 

To create a new parameter, click on the + Create a Parameter button.

 

 

 

 

The options in the resulting popup window are described below:

 

Name:

Label to be displayed on your booking page, e.g. “Adults”. This is also shown in some of your reports.

 

Default Value:

Default parameter quantity when making a booking. If you enter 3 here, the booking quantity will be preset to 3 when a customer goes to book the item.

 

Pricing:

Enables a price to be set for the parameter when creating or editing an item.

 

Range:

If there are multiple price points for the item, show this value in a range (e.g. $99 Child – $189 Adult)

 

Controls Inventory:

If chosen during booking, the parameter will remove the selected value from the item’s inventory. So, if 2 adults are booked, your item’s inventory will be reduced by 2.

 

Required:

The minimum value of this parameter must be selected.

 

Visibility

Customers and Staff:

Parameter is visible to both customers and staff members.

 

Staff Only:

Parameter will not be visible in the public booking portals, but can be seen by a staff member when making a booking through the backend.

 

Hidden to All:

Don’t show this to either the customers or the staff when making a booking. It will enforce the default value provided. When you have finished choosing your parameter options, click the save button to complete. If the parameter you wish to use has already been created, click on the Attach an Existing Parameter button instead.

 

 

 

 

This will open a popup window of your available parameters.

 

 

 

 

Check the boxes next to the parameters you wish to use with your item, then click Attach. Once you’ve attached a parameter, you will see it listed above the create and attach buttons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can now go ahead and make further modifications to the parameter for this item only. You will be able to see the name of the parameter and whether or not it controls or doesn’t control inventory (global setting).

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll also see the current visibility of the parameter (global setting). The min/max per booking fields are not global settings and can be configured on a per item basis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These enable you to set minimum and maximum required quantities for the parameter. For example, you could say that there is a minimum of 1 adult required for the booking, but no minimum amount of children. This prevents children from booking on their own if an adult is actually required. The Details column enables you to edit the parameter, or detach it by choosing that option from the drop-down.

 

 

 

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Allocation

You may choose a per day, per night, per time or timeslot allocation for each of your items. This changes how the item is booked, priced and allocated in the system. This overrides the system default configured in your Checkfront dashboard at Manage > Setup > Configuration.

 

 

 

 

Per Day:

Used for both full-day bookings (such as a multi-day truck rental) and single instance bookings, like a full day bus tour. For example, Aug 1 - Aug 3. In this case, the booking would end on Aug 3.

 

Per Night:

Used most frequently by accommodation providers. This enables you to charge a per night rate. This differs slightly from the day rate in that the checkout date would be the day after the last booking date. For example, take a booking from Aug 1 - Aug 3. The checkout date would be Aug 4. This does not take away from your available Aug 4 inventory.

 

Per Time:

Enables you to charge by a particular amount of time. For example, a 2-hour kayak rental or a 20-minute salon visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you choose this option, a table of standard time units will appear below. You can make a selection from this table. So, if your appointments will be every 10 minutes, choose 10 Mins from the table. You can then specify multiples of this time from the Default Length box below, if the particular length you're looking for is not specified.

For example, in the screenshot above, you can see that the booking length for this item is 50 minutes. That's 10 minutes, multiplied by 5. When making a booking, the customer will see a default booking length of 50 minutes. However, they will be able to adjust this if they wish, up or down, in multiples of 10 minutes. If you wish to fix the length of a booking at 50 minutes, you would put a 5 in the Fixed Length box. This will remove the end time from the booking process so that it cannot be altered by the customer. All they will be able to do is select a start time. If you'd like to fix the start time for your item, maybe if you're offering a tour, enter that time in the Fixed Start Time box. This would enable you to offer a tour that starts at 9 am and is 50 minutes long.

 

Following on from a per time allocation, you also have the option to create specific timeslots for your items. This would be great if you were operating, for example, a tour that goes out multiple times in the same day.

 

 

 

To create the first timeslot for your item, select a start and end time, plus the day(s) of the week that particular timeslot is available. Using the drop-down menu, simply check the days for available and uncheck any days which are unavailable.

 

 

 

 

When ready, click on the blue + Add a Timeslot button. Based on the settings you created for the first timeslot, the second one will appear automatically, following on directly from the first one. As you can see in the example below, the first timeslot was configured from 9:00 am to 10:30 am. The system automatically created the second slot from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm.

 

 

 

 

In fact, if you were to continue clicking on the + Add a Timeslot button, the system would continue to create time slots with the same settings, directly following on from each other. Of course, you can change the settings for each one to leave a time gap between them, if necessary, or maybe the 12:00 pm tour only goes out on the weekend... To remove a timeslot, click on the trashcan button to its right.

 

 

 

 

Finally, if you remove a time slot from the list you have created, the other times will remain intact. This provides a quick way to offer, say, one-hour slots with an hour break in between. What you would do in this case is set up the first timeslot as one hour, click on the +Add a Timeslot button until you reach the last timeslot and then delete every second one in the list.

 

 

 

 

That would leave you with one hour tours going out at 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm.

 

 

 

The timeslot settings enable you to customize how the time slots will appear to your customers in the booking portal.

 

 

 

 

You can choose to list the timeslots as individual buttons (above), or as a drop-down menu (below).

 

 

 

 

Show or hide the end times by adjusting the slider button to on or off and show or hide the unavailable time slots in the same way. If you decide to show the unavailable time slots, which have probably been fully booked, they will simply appear in grey with strikethrough text.

Set the visibility of your item.  

 

 

 

 

Everyone: no restrictions. Visible to both staff and customers.

Staff Only: only visible and bookable internally.

In Packages Only: Only visible when part of a package.

Click the More options link to reveal additional details on your item.

 

 

 

 

These additional details are optional and not required to complete your item configuration.

This is the amount of time it takes to get your item ready for the next customer.

 

 

 

 

The time you add in this field will be automatically added to the end of a booking and cannot be booked by anybody else.

Aliasing enables you to link items together so that when one of them is booked, the availability of the other one is adjusted by the same amount. A great example of the need for aliasing would be a party room. You might only have one room available, but two different package options. If the first package option is booked, the inventory for the second will be reduced to zero also. This means that nobody else can book it during that same time-slot, thus no overbookings!

 

 

 

 

To alias your item to another, simply enter the name of the other item in the search field. When the item is found, click on it. If you then change your mind, click on the Remove Alias button to delete the connection.

 

 

If your item is a static good, such as a bottle of water and not a date based bookable item, turn on the Simple Item button.

 

 

 

 

Simple items do not have the ability to use parameters or seasonal and dynamic pricing.

 

 

 

 

You will be asked to confirm the activation of simple pricing before this state can be saved.

In order for your item to appear as booked on the calendar, this option must be checked (default setting). If it isn’t, you will not be able to check on item availability from the inventory calendar.

 

 

 

 

Once you’re happy with the details you have provided above, click the Next button in the bottom right of the screen to continue. You can also click on the Save button to record your progress and return later for completion.

 

 

 

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