Creating and Editing Hire Assets

An asset is anything in your group you can hire out — your Scout hut, a campsite, a minibus, a marquee, a single room. This article walks through adding new assets and configuring every part of one. For the one-time module setup, see Getting started with Hire.

Adding an asset#

From the Hire page, click Hire Actions in the top right and choose Add asset, or open the Assets tab and use the Add asset button. The four-step wizard covers everything you need to get an asset live; you can leave most fields blank and fill them in later.

Step 1 — Basics#

• Name (required) — the public-facing name (e.g. "Main Hall", "Lakeside Pitch")
• Type (required) — see the table below
• Capacity (optional) — how many people the asset comfortably fits
• Description (optional) — an internal description for your own reference
• Part of (optional) — if this is a sub-asset (e.g. a room inside a hall), pick the parent. Booking either then blocks the other.

Step 2 — Pricing#

Pick one pricing model — Per person, Per session, Per hour, Per day, or Per night — and set the rate. You can also set a minimum charge that acts as a floor (so a one-hour booking still costs at least, say, £30).

This sets the Standard tier — your default rate for everyone. The wizard deliberately keeps you to one rate. Named tiers (e.g. lower rates for Scout groups, full rates for commercial hirers), date-effective price changes, a combined day-and-night rate, and cheaper rates for longer hires all live on the asset's Pricing tab once the asset exists.

Step 3 — Approval#

Choose how new bookings on this asset are handled:

Manual and nominated bookings sit as Pending until someone approves; payment is only taken after that. See The public hire portal for what hirers see in each mode.

Step 4 — Details#

Two collapsible sections, both optional — you can save now and fill them in later:

• {Type} details — type-specific fields. Halls collect floor area, parking, kitchen details, available layouts. Minibuses collect seats, MOT, fuel type, D1 licence requirement. Campsites collect pitch counts, hookups, showers. The wizard only shows fields that apply to your type.
• Public listing — the longer text shown on your portal: short description, full description, what's included, arrival and access instructions, and terms and conditions.

Click Save asset to finish.

Editing an asset#

Click any asset in the list to open its detail page. The top of the page has three controls:

• Public / Not listed toggle — switches the asset on or off for the public portal
• Edit — opens a side sheet for the core details (name, type, capacity, descriptions, approval mode, parent asset, type-specific fields)
• Archive — removes the asset from the list without deleting historical bookings

Below those, the asset has four tabs.

The Details tab#

Everything that describes the asset:

• Cover photo — upload, replace, or remove
• Overview — capacity, parent asset, internal description
• Approval — current mode, plus the nominated approver if set
• Description, What's included, Arrival and access, Terms and conditions — the same fields as the wizard
• Risk assessment — link the assessment that covers this space or vehicle (see below)
• Type-specific details — collapsible card with type-specific fields
• Custom questions — see "Custom questions" below

Linking a risk assessment#

Hirers and inspectors often ask for the risk assessment that covers the space they are booking. Keep it with the asset instead of in a folder somewhere.

Write the assessment in Risk Management exactly as you would any other — it does not need to be attached to an event. Then, on the asset's Details tab, find the Risk assessment card and click Link assessment. Pick it from the list and you are done.

Once it is linked you can:

• Open the assessment in place, without leaving the hire admin.
• Download it as a PDF to send to a hirer.
• Change or unlink it from the card's menu.

The card shows the assessment's status and its review date, so an assessment that is overdue for review shows up red on the asset itself. One assessment can cover several assets — link the same hall assessment to the main hall and the committee room.

Deleting the assessment in Risk Management simply empties the card. Nothing else about the asset changes.

The Pricing tab#

Where the real flexibility lives. Each row of pricing is per tier and date-effective, so you can build up complex pricing without disrupting existing bookings. Click Add pricing to open the pricing sheet.

Pricing rows are listed by tier with the active row marked Active in green. Older rows stay around as history; future rows appear underneath with their start date.

Pricing models#

A row charges one model. Day + night is the only combination allowed — Scoutworks won't let you put an hourly rate and a daily rate on the same row, because that would charge the same time twice.

Day and night rates on one row#

Choose Day + night and the sheet asks for both Rate per day and Rate per night. Use it for a hall that takes daytime bookings and sleepovers at different prices. Entering one rate used to clear the other; it no longer does.

The two rates are alternatives, not extras:

• A booking that starts and finishes on the same day is a day hire, and pays the day rate.
• A booking that runs past midnight is an overnight stay, and pays the night rate for each night.

A hirer is never charged both on the same booking.

How days and nights are counted#

• Nights are the calendar nights the booking runs through. Friday 18:00 to Saturday 10:00 is one night.
• Days are the calendar days the booking touches. Friday evening to Sunday morning is three days — Friday, Saturday and Sunday — so a Per day rate charges for three. A booking that starts and ends the same day is one day.

On a Day + night row, that same Friday-to-Sunday hire is charged as two nights instead. The night rate takes over as soon as the booking runs past midnight.

A Per night asset can't take a same-day booking, because there is no night to charge for. The booking page tells the hirer and asks for a later check-out. If you want to sell daytime use of an overnight asset, use Day + night.

Duration pricing bands#

On Per day, Per night and Day + night you can charge less for longer hires. Click Add duration bands under the rate. Day bands and night bands are separate lists, headed Duration pricing per day and Duration pricing per night.

A worked example on a hall priced per day:

The whole hire is priced on the one band its total length falls into. A six-day hire is 6 × £24 = £144 — not four days at £30 plus two at £24. A band replaces the standard rate above it for the lengths it covers.

Bands sit on the pricing row, so every tier keeps its own set — you can give Scout groups a steeper weekly discount than commercial hirers. In the pricing list, a row that carries bands says so beside its rates, e.g. "3 duration bands".

The Availability tab#

Five sections of booking rules, each in a collapsible card:

Blocked dates — pick a start and end date and an optional reason. Use this for maintenance windows, group events, or seasonal closures. Blocks show in the public availability calendar as unavailable.

Length and notice

• Minimum and maximum stay length (in hours)
• Minimum notice required before a stay
• Maximum advance booking window

Participants

• Minimum and maximum participants
• Site capacity — caps the total participants across all overlapping bookings

When can it be booked

• Allowed days of the week — seven toggle buttons plus quick links for Weekdays, Weekends, All days, Clear
• Allowed time of day for start and end
• Forced start day plus forced duration in days — pair these for Saturday-to-Saturday hires

Sessions and buffers

• Flexible mode — hirers pick any start and end inside your allowed window
• Fixed sessions — pick from a list of predefined slots (great for activity centres with morning and afternoon sessions)
• Buffer minutes before and after each booking — useful when you need time to clean up

Who can book

• An allow-list and a block-list of organisation tiers — leave both empty for "anyone can book"

Click Save booking rules at the bottom. The button stays grey until you've made a change.

The Calendar tab#

A read-only view of confirmed and pending bookings against this asset, with a list view and a calendar view. Use it to spot-check the picture before promoting a hire on social media or telling a parent you've got their dates penciled in.

Custom questions#

At the bottom of the Details tab, you can add questions that hirers answer during the booking flow. These are per-asset, so you can ask a campsite about adult-to-child ratios without bothering hall hirers with the same question.

Each question can be marked Required. You can re-order them by dragging the handle on the left. Deleting a question only affects future bookings — answers on existing bookings are preserved.

Parent and child assets#

If your hall has separate rooms that can be booked independently, set the hall up as the top-level asset and each room as a child. Use the Part of field on each room to point at the parent. Booking the whole hall then automatically blocks all its rooms; booking a single room only blocks that room.

What's next#

• Getting started with Hire — the one-time module setup.
• The public hire portal — how hirers actually book what you've set up here.
• Managing hirers — the people and organisations on the other end of every booking.