Products define the activities and services customers can book in Viking Bookings. Each product belongs to a product category and contains one or more variants that define its pricing strategy and booking options.
This guide explains how product categories, products, variants, and product types work together, and how to configure pricing, booking rules, and availability for a product.
On this page
- Understand product categories, products, and variants
- Create the product
- Configure the product
- Add variants and pricing
- Configure advanced variant settings
- Configure product availability
- Test the product
Understand product categories, products, and variants
Viking Bookings organizes bookable activities and services in three levels: Product category → Product → Variants. A category groups related products, a product defines the activity or service, and variants define its pricing and booking options.
Product categories
A product category groups related products in Viking Bookings. Each category has its own email templates and its own place in the booking form. Products linked to that category use those email templates and appear under that category in the booking flow.
Products
A product represents the activity or service customers can book. Product-level settings define how that activity works, including its duration and booking rules.
A product can only have one duration. If you want to offer the same activity with different durations, such as a 1-hour and 2-hour rental, create separate products.
Variants
A product variant defines pricing and booking options within a product. Each variant combines minimum and maximum numbers of students, minimum and maximum numbers of courses, and a price. Together, the variants determine which combinations customers can book and which price applies.
Product types
Viking Bookings has four product types: Course, Rental, Camp, and Bundle. Choose the type that matches what you want to offer:
- Course — The standard product type. Course availability can depend on both product availability and instructor availability.
- Rental — Use for rental products. Instructor availability is not used when determining rental availability. Rental capacity is configured through the Product Availability Rules.
- Camp — Use for camps. Camps have their own setup. See Set up a camp product.
- Bundle — Use when you want to combine multiple existing products into one offer. A bundle uses Included products together with a variant. See Set up a bundle product.
Create the product
Go to Products and add a new product.
Internal product name
Enter the name used to identify the product inside Viking Bookings.
Public product name
Enter the customer-facing name of the product.
Category
Select the product category the product belongs to. The category determines where the product appears in the booking form and which category-specific email templates are used.
Product type
Select Course, Rental, Camp, or Bundle. For Camp and Bundle products, continue with their dedicated setup guides.
Color label
Choose the color used for this product in the planning views. Using different colors makes products easier to identify when quickly scanning the planning.
Configure the product
Course or rental duration
Set how long the product lasts. Duration is defined at product level. Variants do not define different durations. Create separate products when you need different durations.
Allow scheduling
Choose how long before the start of a course customers are allowed to book the product through a booking form. For example, select At least 2 hours before the course if online bookings should close two hours before the course starts.
Allow rescheduling
Choose how long before the course customers are allowed to reschedule an existing booking themselves in their customer account.
- Allow scheduling controls the deadline for making a new booking.
- Allow rescheduling controls the deadline for customers rescheduling an existing booking themselves.
Group size
For Course products, Group size sets the maximum number of students allowed in one group or with one instructor.
Group size and Maximum number of students are different settings. Maximum number of students in a variant determines which student quantities that pricing variant applies to. Group size controls the operational group size for instructors.
Group size does not affect Rental products. Rental capacity is configured through the Product Availability Rules.
Allow bookings regardless of instructor availability
For products that use instructor availability, a time is normally available in the booking form when both the product and an instructor are available. Use Allow bookings regardless of instructor availability if you want customers to book even when no instructor is currently available. You can then accept the booking first and arrange an instructor afterwards.
Rental products do not use instructor availability when determining availability.
Availability schedule
Enable Availability schedule when the product needs an additional availability layer on top of the regular Product Availability Rules. This is useful for highly irregular availability, such as tide-dependent activities. See Set tide-based availability.
Deposit percentage
Use Deposit percentage only when you want customers to pay part of the total amount upfront as a deposit.
Viking Bookings calculates the deposit in increments of 5 in your configured currency. For example, if a product costs 10 and the deposit percentage is set to 40%, the calculated deposit is 5. This works the same way for different currencies, such as EUR, USD, and GBP.
Important: If you want customers to pay the full amount upfront, set Deposit percentage to 0%. Do not set it to 100%. The deposit setting is intended for partial deposits, and setting it to 100% can produce an unintended result.
Whether customers can pay a deposit or the full amount online also depends on your payment settings.
Filter tag
Add a short filter tag to make the product easier to find in the daily overview and planning tools.
Waiver
Select the waiver that applies to this product. See Set up digital waivers.
Milestone plan
Select the milestone plan associated with the product. See Set up milestones.
Instructors
Select the instructors who can teach or run products that use instructors. Instructor availability can affect whether a Course is available to book. Rental products do not use instructor availability.
Product code for accounting
Add a product code when you need to identify the product in your accounting or invoicing setup.
Translations
Add translations for the product when you offer your booking flow in multiple languages.
Add variants and pricing
Product variants are used to build the pricing strategy for a product. For each variant, configure Name, Minimum number of students, Maximum number of students, Minimum number of courses, Maximum number of courses, and Price.
Name
The variant name is visible in Viking Bookings and is also visible in customer accounts.
Build the pricing strategy
The student and course ranges determine when a variant applies. The Price determines the price used for that combination.
Example variant 1:
- Students: 1–3
- Courses: 1–1
- Price: €20
This results in €20 for 1 student, €40 for 2 students, and €60 for 3 students.
Example variant 2:
- Students: 1–3
- Courses: 2–6
- Price: €10
For example, 1 student × 2 courses = €20 and 2 students × 6 courses = €120.
Together, the variants form the product's pricing strategy. Viking Bookings uses the applicable variant to calculate the resulting price based on the selected number of students and courses.
Create group or course discounts with variants
There are no separate group discount or course discount settings. Create variants with different student ranges, course ranges, and prices to build these pricing structures.
Show different variant options in the booking form
If two variants have exactly the same student and course ranges but different prices, use Title on booking form to distinguish them. For example: Surf lesson without theory book and Surf lesson with theory book.
Configure advanced variant settings
Course grouping
One Course Per Person: Each student fills out their own details.
One Course Per Group: Only the head booker fills out the details for the group.
One Slot Per Group: Use this for exclusive group bookings, such as family outings.
Default expiration for new bookings
Select a date after which the course can no longer be booked.
Multi-day course
Each Course is Scheduled Independently: Customers select the date and time for each course separately.
Daily Repetition: The customer chooses the first date and time. Viking Bookings schedules the remaining courses on consecutive days.
Weekly Repetition: The customer chooses the first date and time. Viking Bookings schedules the remaining courses weekly.
Daily Repetition, Only Use Product Availability for the First Day: Remaining courses are scheduled daily. Product and instructor availability only need to match the first day.
Weekly Repetition, Only Use Product Availability for the First Day: Remaining courses are scheduled weekly. Product and instructor availability only need to match the first day.
Bookable by
Use Bookable by to control which Viking Bookings user roles are allowed to book this variant. Select the user roles that should be able to book the variant. For more information about the available roles, see Assign user roles.
Payment required
- Use Site Default follows the site payment setting.
- Yes requires payment before scheduling.
- No makes payment optional.
Product code for accounting
Add an additional accounting code to the variant when needed. The variant-level code is additional to the product-level code; it does not replace it.
Save and duplicate variants
After configuring a variant, save your changes. Use Save changes and duplicate this variant when you need another variant with similar settings.
Configure product availability
Product configuration and product availability are separate in Viking Bookings. Configure regular availability and capacity through the Product Availability Rules.
For Course products, bookable times can depend on both product availability and instructor availability. Allow bookings regardless of instructor availability can be used when you want to accept a booking without an available instructor and arrange the instructor afterwards.
For Rental products, instructor availability is not used. Rental availability and capacity are determined through the Product Availability Rules.
See Set product availability for the full setup.
Test the product
After setup, test the product through the booking form. Check the category, product type, public information, student and course combinations, prices, separate options for identical ranges, scheduling cut-off, and availability. For Course products, also check instructor availability. Test several combinations when a product uses multiple variants.
Related articles
- Set up a camp product
- Set up a bundle product
- Set up multi-person rental products
- Create an upsell product option
- Set product availability