Make a product bookable

A product only becomes bookable when the relevant availability conditions in Viking are met.

For most course products, Viking needs to know when the product can be offered, which instructors can teach it, and when those instructors are available.

Different product types can use different availability conditions. Rental and Camp products, for example, do not depend on Instructor Availability.

1. Create start times

Viking needs a set of possible start times that can be used for bookings and scheduling.

Go to Settings → Planning and scroll to the bottom of the page to create the start times you want to use.

These start times are shared across Viking. You normally create them once, and then use Product Availability Rules to decide which of those times are available for specific products.

Keep the list as simple as possible. Using a limited number of start times usually makes planning and grouping customers easier.

The duration of a product is configured separately in the product settings.

2. Set Product Availability

Product Availability is the first availability layer in Viking.

Product Availability Rules determine when products can be booked and scheduled, and let you set different availability for different products or product categories.

You can use rules to define:

days;
times;
date ranges;
locations;
and other availability criteria.

A product needs matching Product Availability for the date and time you want to offer it.

For the full setup, see Set product availability.

3. Set up instructors for the product and location

For products that require an instructor, Viking also needs to know which instructors are allowed to teach that product and at which locations.

Go to Settings → Team, select the instructor, and click Edit to open their profile.

Make sure the instructor is assigned to:

the product they are allowed to teach; and
the location where that product is offered.

Both conditions need to match.

If you add a new product later, remember to update the relevant instructor profiles as well.

Rental and Camp products do not require an instructor to be bookable.

4. Set Instructor Availability

For products that require instructors, Viking also checks Instructor Availability.

Viking uses the availability of eligible instructors to determine whether there is actual booking capacity at a given date and time.

Instructor Availability is normally entered by the instructors themselves through their Instructor Dashboard.

Planners can also view, add, or adjust instructor availability from the Availability page in the main menu.

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

Rental and Camp products do not use Instructor Availability.

For the full setup, see Set instructor availability.

Allow bookings regardless of instructor availability

Businesses often know their product schedule further into the future than their instructors know their personal availability.

The Allow bookings regardless of availability after setting lets Viking accept bookings after a configured period even when no instructors have been marked as available yet.

For example, you might set this to:

2 weeks;
1 month.

Before that point, availability is determined using the available instructors.

After that point, customers can book based on the times defined by your Product Availability Rules, even if Instructor Availability has not yet been entered.

This is useful if you want customers to book further into the season without planning your full instructor schedule in advance.

Optional: Use the Product Availability Schedule

For products with start times that change frequently from day to day — for example because they depend on the tide — you can use the Product Availability Schedule as an additional availability layer.

You still need a normal Product Availability Rule for the product. The Availability Schedule then lets you select the specific start times that should be available on individual dates.

This is mainly intended for products without a useful repeating schedule. If your product follows a regular pattern, use normal Product Availability Rules instead.

For the full setup, see Set tide-based availability.

Optional: Inventory Tracking

If Inventory Tracking is enabled for your account, inventory can add another availability condition.

For example, a product may have valid Product Availability and an available instructor, but still become unavailable when there is not enough inventory for the booking.

Inventory Tracking is optional and is not used by most accounts.

For the full setup, see Set up inventory tracking.

Check whether a product is bookable

The easiest first check is the booking form itself.

If a product does not show the availability you expect, use the Availability Tester to check which availability conditions are being met and which are preventing the booking.

For the full process, see Test product availability.

Set product availability
Set instructor availability
Test product availability
Set up inventory tracking
Set up products and variants

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