What can I hire out using Scoutworks Hire?

Halls, rooms, the whole site, pitches, equipment, minibuses, day passes, or anything else you want to describe. Each asset has its own photos, pricing, rules, deposits and questions. Book the hall and the rooms inside become unavailable.

Does it integrate with my existing payments and accounting?

Yes. Hire payments use your existing GoCardless connection. Every deposit, balance and damage deposit lands in your accounting ledger, labelled and linked to the booking.

Can I charge different prices for Scout groups versus commercial hirers?

Yes. Set up pricing tiers, starting from Scouts, Guides, Schools, Charity and Commercial, and add your own. Each tier has its own rates. You can also allow or block tiers per asset, so commercial bookings could be allowed for the site but not the hall.

Can I charge a day rate and a night rate?

Yes. Choose day + night pricing and set a day rate for day hires and a night rate for stays. Add duration bands to give longer hires a lower rate, or a flat price. A minimum charge can apply on top.

By instant bank transfer through GoCardless, approved in their banking app. No card details and no Direct Debit mandate. Scoutworks adds no platform fee.

Can I take a refundable damage deposit?

Yes. Set a damage deposit per asset. The booking waits in Awaiting inspection after the stay. When all is well, refund the deposit in full through GoCardless, or mark it as refunded if you paid it back another way. The refund is recorded in your ledger.

Do hirers need a Scoutworks account?

No. Hirers book through your public hire portal without an account. They get a private link to pay the deposit and the balance. Their details are saved and reused the next time they book with the same email.

Can I take a weekly booking?

Yes. In the booking wizard, repeat a booking every week, 2 weeks or 4 weeks up to an end date. You see every date and any clashes before you save. Each confirmation email carries a calendar invite.

Can I embed the hire portal on my own website?

Yes. Embed the portal on your group website from /embed/hire/ , or link straight to your public hire page.

What booking rules can I configure?

Blocked dates, minimum and maximum length, minimum notice, how far ahead people can book, allowed days and times, a fixed start day and length for weekend bookings, set sessions or flexible times, buffer time between bookings, and minimum and maximum participants. You can also allow or block tiers per asset.

What happens when a booking goes unpaid?

Set how many days a booking can wait for its deposit. If it's still unpaid after that, Scoutworks cancels it, frees the slot and emails the hirer.

Hire & Bookings for Scout groups

Multi-Asset Hire Catalogue

Build a catalogue of everything your group hires out: halls, rooms, the whole site, pitches, equipment, minibuses, day passes, or anything else. Parent-child links keep it sensible: book the hall and Scoutworks blocks the rooms inside it. Add up to 20 photos per asset and set the focal point once, so every crop frames the right part of the picture. Each type has the details hirers ask about, from step-free access and a kitchen to minibus seats and MOT.

Eight asset types: hall, room, whole site, pitch, equipment, minibus, day pass, or other
Parent-child assets: book a hall and the rooms inside become unavailable
Up to 20 photos per asset, in the order you choose, with any one as the cover
Set a focal point once and preview how it frames on the portal and in the app
Details for each type: accessibility, kitchen, stage, parking, campsite facilities, minibus seats and MOT
Short and long descriptions, what's included, and capacity per asset
Site-wide capacity limits across overlapping bookings

Tiered Pricing & Deposits

Set different prices for different hirers without juggling spreadsheets. Start with tiers such as Scouts, Guides, Schools, Charity and Commercial, and add your own. Charge per person, per session, per hour, per day or per night, or day and night together: a day rate for day hires and a night rate for stays. Duration bands give longer stays a better rate. Publish future price rises ahead of time. Deposits can be fixed, a percentage, or whichever is higher.

Pricing tiers per asset: Standard plus tiers you define, starting from Scouts, Guides, Schools, Charity and Commercial
Six ways to charge: per person, per session, per hour, per day, per night, or day + night
Duration bands: a cheaper rate, or a flat price, for longer hires
Future price rows marked 'Future' until they take effect
Deposits: none, a fixed amount, a percentage, or whichever is higher
Minimum charges so small bookings still cover your costs
Refundable damage deposits, returned in full through GoCardless or marked as refunded by hand
A clear quote showing the rate, the band used and any minimum charge

Booking rules you set once

Decide exactly how each asset can be booked. Block dates for one asset or the whole site. Set the minimum and maximum length, how much notice you need, how far ahead people can book, and which days and times are allowed. Fix a start day and length for weekend camps, choose set sessions or flexible times, and leave buffer time between bookings. Allow or block specific hirer tiers. Ask your own questions and make them required.

Blocked dates for one asset or the whole site
Minimum and maximum length, minimum notice, how far ahead, allowed days and times
Fixed start day and length for weekend-only camp bookings
Set sessions or flexible bookings, per asset
Buffer time before and after each booking for cleaning and turnaround
Minimum and maximum participants
Allow or block tiers per asset: keep commercial bookings off your hall, for example
Your own questions per asset (short or long text, number, choice, tick box, date), with a required flag

Public Hire Portal & Embeddable Widget

Every group gets a public hire portal at my.scoutworks.app/hire/<your-group>, showing each asset with its photos, prices and rules. Hirers pick an asset, then book in three steps: choose dates and check availability, add their details and answers, then review and confirm. Embed the same portal on your own website at /embed/hire/<your-group>. Set a welcome message and contact email, and switch the portal off whenever you like.

Public hire portal at my.scoutworks.app/hire/<your-group>
Embed it on your own group website at /embed/hire/<your-group>
Three steps: dates and availability, details, review and confirm
Booked or blocked dates greyed out on the booking calendar
Welcome message and public contact email
Switch the portal on or off in one click
A private link for each hirer to pay the deposit and the balance, with no account needed

Manual & Repeat Bookings

Not every booking comes through the portal. The booking wizard walks a leader through it in five steps: hirer and asset, when, pricing, notes and confirm. Add a new hirer as you go, and see the quote from your tier pricing. For a weekly club or a regular class, repeat the booking every week, 2 weeks or 4 weeks up to an end date. Preview every date first, see which clash and why, and untick them before anything is saved.

Five-step booking wizard, with a new hirer added on the way
Quote worked out from your tier pricing
Save as pending, or as already paid
Repeat weekly, every 2 weeks or every 4 weeks, up to 60 bookings
Preview every date, see clashes and why, and untick them before saving
Times stay the same when the clocks change
A calendar invite (.ics) with every confirmation, updated rather than duplicated

Terms & Premises Risk Assessment

Keep the paperwork with the hall. Upload your terms and conditions as a PDF for each asset. Hirers can download it, and must tick to accept it before they book. Scoutworks records which version they accepted and when, so replacing the PDF later never changes what an old booking agreed to. Link the premises risk assessment to the asset too: a structured one from Risk Management, with its review date, or your own PDF, Word file or Google Drive document.

A terms and conditions PDF per asset, alongside short inline terms
Hirers tick to accept before booking; bookings without it are refused
The accepted version and time recorded on each booking
Link a premises risk assessment from Risk Management, with its review date
Or attach a PDF, Word file or Google Drive document
One assessment can cover several assets

Approvals, Statuses & Hirer Directory

Choose how each asset is approved: automatic, any leader, or a named approver. Bookings that need approval wait as Pending, and the approver gets an email. Once the deposit is paid, the booking is confirmed. Bookings then move through Confirmed, Awaiting inspection (if you hold a damage deposit), and Completed or Cancelled, with the right email at each step. Hirers are saved in a directory by type and recognised by email on their next booking.

Three approval modes per asset: Auto, Manual, or a named approver
An email to the approver when a new request arrives
Statuses: Pending → Confirmed → Awaiting inspection → Completed, or Cancelled
Hirer emails: hold the date, confirmed, paid in full, balance due, reminder, access details, after the stay, cancelled, refunded
Private access details, such as key safe codes, sent the day before and never shown publicly
Hirer directory by type: Scout group, Community, Private, Corporate, Other
Unpaid bookings cancelled after the number of days you set, with the hirer told

Hire on Your Calendars & Asset Timeline

Hire bookings sit alongside everything else your group does. Leaders see confirmed hires on the group calendar and in the staff calendar feed. Your embeddable public calendar can show them too, as '<asset> — booked', with no hirer names. The asset timeline shows equipment requests, kit checkouts, hire bookings and events on one chart, so you spot a clash between a letting and a camp before it happens.

Hire bookings as a layer on the group calendar
In the staff calendar feed for leaders
Optional hire layer on the embeddable public calendar, showing booked time only
Asset timeline (beta): equipment, lettings and events on one chart
Clashes ringed in red, with a count
Week, month or quarter view, with filters, search and CSV export

Payments & Accounting Integration

Hirers pay by instant bank transfer through your GoCardless account, with no card details and no Direct Debit mandate. Deposits, balances and damage deposits post to your accounting ledger, labelled, with the booking linked. Hirers get an invoice PDF when the booking is confirmed and a receipt PDF when it's paid in full. For fees, reconciliation and everything else about money, see Finance & Payments.

Instant bank transfer through your own GoCardless account
Deposit, balance and damage deposit posted to your ledger, labelled
Every ledger entry linked back to its booking
Invoice PDF on confirmation, receipt PDF on payment
Damage deposit refunds recorded in the ledger

Hire & Bookings

Multi-Asset Hire Catalogue

Tiered Pricing & Deposits

Booking rules you set once

Public Hire Portal & Embeddable Widget

Manual & Repeat Bookings

Terms & Premises Risk Assessment

Approvals, Statuses & Hirer Directory

Hire on Your Calendars & Asset Timeline

Payments & Accounting Integration

Frequently asked questions

More features to discover

AI Assistance

Members & People

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Hire & Bookings

Multi-Asset Hire Catalogue

Tiered Pricing & Deposits

Booking rules you set once

Public Hire Portal & Embeddable Widget

Manual & Repeat Bookings

Terms & Premises Risk Assessment

Approvals, Statuses & Hirer Directory

Hire on Your Calendars & Asset Timeline

Payments & Accounting Integration

Frequently asked questions

What can I hire out using Scoutworks Hire?

Does it integrate with my existing payments and accounting?

Can I charge different prices for Scout groups versus commercial hirers?

Can I charge a day rate and a night rate?

How do hirers pay?

Can I take a refundable damage deposit?

Do hirers need a Scoutworks account?

Can I take a weekly booking?

Can I embed the hire portal on my own website?

What booking rules can I configure?

What happens when a booking goes unpaid?

More features to discover

AI Assistance

Members & People

Badges & Awards

Start your free trial today