Set up locations

Viking always requires at least one location.

If your school operates from one location, this can simply be the name of your school. If you teach at multiple locations, you can either let customers choose their location when booking or keep additional locations for internal planning only.

Create a location

Go to Settings → Locations.

Click + New location.

For each location, set:

Name — shown to customers when the location is customer-bookable and used throughout Viking.
Description — used through the location description variable in email templates.
Bookable by customers? — determines whether customers can use this location in the booking form.

Viking always needs at least one location.

Use one location

If your school operates from one location, create a single location and use the school name.

For example:

Maui Surf School

Set Bookable by customers? to Yes.

When only one customer-bookable location is available, Viking does not show a location selector in the booking form because there is nothing for the customer to choose.

Let customers choose between multiple locations

Use this setup when customers know in advance where they want to take their lesson and should choose that location while booking.

Create each location under Settings → Locations and set Bookable by customers? to Yes for each location customers should be able to select.

The location selector appears in the booking form only when more than one customer-bookable location is actually available for the selected booking.

That availability is controlled by Product Availability Rules.

For example:

a rule limited to Location A only makes that booking available at Location A;
a rule limited to Location B only makes it available there;
a rule set to all locations applies to all relevant locations.

If a Product Availability Rule is set to all locations, a newly added customer-bookable location can automatically become available through that rule.

Use internal locations

Use this setup when customers do not need to choose their exact location while booking, but your team still needs several locations for planning and communication.

This is useful when the final lesson location is only decided later, for example based on conditions.

Set it up like this:

Create one customer-facing location, usually using the name of the school.
Set Bookable by customers? to Yes for this location.
Create the actual lesson locations as additional locations.
Set Bookable by customers? to No for those internal locations.

Because only one location is customer-bookable, the customer does not see a location selector in the booking form.

Later, the planner can change the booking to the actual location.

This is commonly done when approving the next day's lessons, but the location can also be changed at any time from the Daily Overview.

Changing the location updates the booking and the relevant location information throughout Viking.

The customer is informed when an approval email is triggered.

How availability affects locations

Product Availability Rules determine at which locations a product can be booked.

A rule can:

apply to a specific location; or
apply to all locations.

If a rule applies to all locations, it applies to every relevant customer-bookable location.

This means the combination of Bookable by customers? and Product Availability Rules determines which location choices customers actually see in the booking form.

How instructor availability affects locations

For Course products, the instructor must also be available for the relevant product and location.

Instructor Availability applies to all locations by default unless the instructor selects a specific location.

This means a product can have valid Product Availability at a location but still not be bookable if no suitable instructor is available there.

For the complete bookability setup, see Make a product bookable.

Use locations in email templates

Location information can be added to email templates with variables.

Use:

location — inserts the location name;
location description — inserts the location description.

The Description field is therefore useful for information such as:

meeting-point instructions;
address details;
a Google Maps link;
other location-specific information.

This is especially useful when the actual lesson location is assigned shortly before the lesson.

Change a location after booking

Planners can change the location of an existing booking.

This can be done during the approval flow or later from the Daily Overview.

The new location becomes the booking's actual location and is used in the relevant places throughout Viking.

If an approval email is then sent, the email uses the updated location information.

On this page