The Availability Schedule is intended for products whose start times change frequently from one day to another.
This is commonly used for tide-based activities, where the ideal start time can shift every day, but it can also be useful for other products with irregular schedules.
For products with a normal repeating schedule, use regular Product Availability Rules instead.
On this page
- Enable the Availability Schedule
- Create the required start times
- Set Product Availability
- Set times in the Schedule
- Copy availability to another product
- Instructor Availability still applies
- Test the result
Enable the Availability Schedule
The Availability Schedule is enabled per product.
Open the product settings and turn on the Availability Schedule toggle for the product you want to manage this way.
Once enabled, that product can be managed through Settings → Product Availability → Schedule.
Only enable this for products that actually need day-by-day availability. Products with a regular weekly or seasonal pattern are usually easier to manage with Product Availability Rules alone.
Create the required start times
The Schedule uses the start times that already exist in Viking.
Go to Settings → Planning and make sure all start times you may need are available.
For irregular or tide-based schedules, you may need more start times than for your regular products. For example, you might need intervals of 30 minutes.
Try to keep the number of start times as limited as practical. A very large list makes planning harder to manage.
Be careful when adding new start times: they become available throughout Viking. If another product has a Product Availability Rule that allows all start times, the newly added times may also become available for that product.
After adding start times, check your existing Product Availability Rules and restrict the time slots where needed.
Set Product Availability
The Availability Schedule does not replace Product Availability Rules.
A product still needs matching Product Availability before a date and time can become available.
In practice, many businesses using the Schedule create one broad Product Availability Rule for that product without additional restrictions, and then manage the actual day-to-day availability in the Schedule.
You can also use Product Availability Rules to limit the overall period, days, locations, or start times within which the Schedule may be used.
A time that is not allowed by the Product Availability Rules cannot be made available through the Schedule.
For more information, see Set product availability.
Set times in the Schedule
Go to Settings → Product Availability → Schedule.
The Schedule shows the available start times by date.
Select the product and set which start times should be available on each individual day.
You can also manage availability per location.
For example, you can make a start time available for all locations and then remove it for one specific location. It remains available for the other locations.
This makes it possible to manage detailed day-by-day availability without creating a separate Product Availability Rule for every date.
Copy availability to another product
If multiple products use the same irregular or tide-based start times, you do not need to configure the Schedule separately for each product.
For example, you may have already entered all tide-based start times for a Group lesson and want to use the same times for a Private lesson.
From Settings → Product Availability → Schedule, click Copy product availability.
Choose:
- the product and location you want to copy from;
- the start and end date you want to copy;
- the product and location you want to copy to.
Then click Copy product availability.
The copy window also includes Remove existing availability, which you can use when you want to remove existing availability at the destination as part of the copy.
This is useful when several products follow the same day-by-day schedule and saves you from selecting the same start times again.
Instructor Availability still applies
For products that require an instructor, Instructor Availability continues to apply normally.
This means a time can be enabled in the Availability Schedule but still not be bookable if no suitable instructor is available.
Viking therefore still combines:
- Product Availability;
- the Availability Schedule;
- instructor eligibility for the product and location;
- Instructor Availability.
Other availability conditions can also apply depending on the product setup.
Rental and Camp products do not depend on Instructor Availability.
Test the result
After setting the Schedule, check the booking form to confirm that the correct times appear for each date.
If the result is different from what you expect, use the Availability Tester to identify which availability condition is affecting the result.
For the full process, see Test product availability.