The Public Hire Portal

Your public hire page is where outside organisations find your halls, campsites, equipment, or minibus, pick their dates, and book. It's open to the public — no account, no login, no Scoutworks signup. This article walks through exactly what a hirer sees, in order, and how the three approval modes change the flow.

For the one-time setup, see Getting started with Hire.

Your public URL#

Your portal lives at my.scoutworks.app/hire/<your-group-slug> — the same slug used for your waiting-list page. The URL is generated automatically; there's nothing to configure or type. Once the portal is switched on, the URL appears with a copy button and an "open in new tab" link on the Settings tab of the Hire page.

You can:

• Link to it from your group's own website
• Share it directly with community contacts (schools, charities, local clubs)
• Embed it inside a page on your group's website (see "Embedding the portal" below)

What hirers see on the landing page#

The landing page shows three things:

1. A welcome message — whatever you typed during setup, plus a one-line intro under your group's name.
2. Trust pills — "No account needed", "Live availability check", "Secure online booking".
3. A grid of bookable assets — every asset that's switched on for public listing, with its cover photo, type, name, short description, and capacity.

Assets that aren't switched on for public listing don't appear — see Creating and editing hire assets for the toggle.

The asset page#

Clicking an asset opens its own page with everything a hirer needs to make a confident decision:

• Cover photo and type pill
• A summary line with starting price and minimum charge (e.g. "£12 per hour · min. £50")
• About — the full description you wrote
• What's included — bulleted list with green ticks
• Arrival and access — directions and any practical notes
• Terms and conditions — collapsible, so it doesn't clutter the page
• What we'll ask at booking — a preview of any custom questions you've added, with (required) tags where relevant

A green Check availability & book button starts the booking flow.

The three-step booking flow#

Once a hirer clicks through, the booking form is three steps with a progress indicator at the top: Pick dates → Your details → Confirm.

Step 1 — Pick dates#

A month-by-month calendar with dates in the past blocked out. Once the hirer chooses a start date, time pickers appear for start and end (defaulting to 09:00 and 17:00). Underneath, an availability banner checks live as they pick:

• "Checking availability…" — spinner while we ask the server
• "Those dates are available." — green tick
• "Sorry, those dates aren't available. Please try a different range." — amber alert

The Continue button stays disabled until the dates work.

Step 2 — Your details#

The hirer fills in:

• Full name (required)
• Email (required — confirmation and management links go here)
• Phone (optional)
• Organisation (optional)
• What's it for? (optional — e.g. "Birthday party", "Training course")
• Anything else we should know? (optional notes)

If you've set up organisation tiers with different pricing (e.g. lower rates for Scout groups, full rates for commercial hirers), the hirer picks which one applies to them. They self-select — Scoutworks doesn't try to guess.

Near the top of this step, a line tells the hirer how long their booking is and how it will be charged:

• "Your booking spans 6 hours — charged hourly."
• "Your booking spans 3 days — charged per calendar day."
• "Your booking covers 2 nights — charged per overnight stay."

Days are the calendar days the booking touches, so Friday evening to Sunday morning reads as three days. Nights are the nights the booking runs through, so the same dates are two nights.

If the asset carries both a day rate and a night rate, the line follows whichever applies: an overnight booking is "charged per overnight stay", and a same-day booking reads "Your booking is a daytime hire — charged at the day rate." The hirer is never charged both.

If the asset is priced per night only and the dates don't include a night, an amber notice appears instead — "This item is charged per overnight stay, but your dates don't include a night. Please choose a check-out on a later day." — and Continue stays disabled until the hirer changes the dates.

Any custom questions you've added to the asset appear in their own card at the end of this step, under the heading A few questions. Each one is rendered to match the type you chose — a text box, a number field, a date picker, a single-choice dropdown, or a Yes/No toggle.

Step 3 — Confirm#

A summary of the booking and an itemised quote:

• The hire total, itemised. Each line reads "£30.00 × 3 days", with its own subtotal on the right
• Where a duration band set the price, a smaller note under the line names the band — "1–4-day rate applied" — so the hirer can see which rate they got. A flat band reads "Flat rate for 7 days" on the line, with "7+-day rate — effective £21.43/day" underneath, so the total still works out to a per-day figure
• A "Minimum charge applied." note if one kicks in
• Deposit due now (if you've set one)
• Refundable damage deposit (if you've set one)
• A final emphasised line — Pay today, Pay in full today, or Due after approval, depending on your approval mode

A T&Cs checkbox sits above the submit button. The button label changes to match what's about to happen:

• "Confirm — pay £X today"
• "Submit booking request" (manual or nominated approval)
• "Redirecting to bank…" (while we hand off to GoCardless)

How the three approval modes differ#

What happens after the hirer hits Confirm depends entirely on the asset's approval mode:

Auto — Confirm instantly when available#

1. The hirer is redirected straight to GoCardless to authorise the payment with their bank.
2. Once the bank confirms (a few seconds usually), the booking flips to Confirmed automatically.
3. The hirer lands on the thank-you page, then receives a confirmation email with a management link.
4. The payment posts to your accounting ledger automatically.

No leader needs to lift a finger.

Manual — Any leader or admin reviews#

1. The booking is saved as Pending. No payment is taken yet.
2. Every group admin gets an enquiry email asking them to review the request.
3. The hirer waits — they get a friendly "We'll be in touch" message on the thank-you page.
4. Once a leader approves the booking, Scoutworks emails the hirer a payment link.
5. The hirer pays, the booking flips to Confirmed, and the payment posts to your ledger.

Nominated — A named approver reviews#

The same flow as Manual, but only the specific person you've named gets the enquiry email. If they don't respond and you'd rather every admin had a shot, set the asset back to Manual on its Details tab.

The thank-you page#

After submitting, the hirer lands on a thank-you page that depends on what just happened:

• Auto mode: a spinner while we wait for the bank to confirm, then a green tick and "Payment received".
• Manual or nominated mode: an amber notice — "We'll review your request and get back to you shortly".

Either way, the hirer gets a button to Manage your booking that opens their personal management page.

The management page#

Every booking confirmation email includes a magic link to a private management page. The link works for 30 days and a fresh one is issued every time we email the hirer, so there's nothing for them to remember or save.

From the management page, the hirer can:

• See their booking reference, dates, and the asset
• See what's paid, what's owed, and what's held as a damage deposit
• Pay the deposit — if it hasn't been paid yet
• Pay the balance — once the booking is confirmed and the balance is due
• Cancel — only available while the booking is still pending. Once the deposit clears, they need to contact you directly for a refund.

Hirer emails#

Hirers receive emails at key moments — none of which need any action from you to send:

Embedding the portal#

If your group has its own website, you can embed the public portal so it lives inside your site rather than sending visitors away. Use my.scoutworks.app/embed/hire/<your-group-slug> inside an <iframe> — the embed strips out the standard Scoutworks page chrome.

What's next#

• Getting started with Hire — the one-time setup wizard.
• Creating and editing hire assets — pricing, rules, and custom questions that shape what hirers see.
• Managing hirers — keeping on top of repeat hirers and their contact details.