Book Rentals and Tours from WhatsApp with Checkfront
This recipe turns a booking request on WhatsApp into a Checkfront booking, with real availability and the price given in the conversation. Part of connecting Checkfront to WhatsApp and AI chat.
What happens today
A customer asks on WhatsApp whether two bikes are free from Friday to Sunday and what it costs. Someone checks Checkfront, works out the rate and replies. If they are busy at the counter, the reply waits. By the time it arrives, the customer has asked another shop and booked there.
The flow that works
- AeroChat answers the customer’s question first.
- It asks which item, which dates and how many.
- It checks Checkfront for availability and the rate for those dates, and tells the customer the price.
- When they confirm, it asks for their details and your booking form questions and creates the booking.
- It confirms the booking number, dates and amount due in the chat.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When someone on WhatsApp asks to rent or book something, answer their question first from our knowledge base. Then follow these steps.
- Ask which item they want, the start and end dates, and how many. Match it to one of our Checkfront items, such as City Bike or Half-Day Kayak Tour (example items).
- Check Checkfront for availability and the rate for that item, those dates and that quantity.
- If it is available, tell them the total price and ask: “Would you like me to book this for you?”
- If it is not available, check the same item for the day before and the day after, or a similar item on the same dates, and offer those.
- When they confirm, ask for their name, email and phone number, and the questions on our Checkfront booking form, such as rider height or pickup location (example questions).
- Create the booking in Checkfront with those details, and add a note with anything else they asked for.
- Confirm the booking number, dates, items and amount due. Tell them how to pay from our knowledge base.
Only offer items Checkfront shows as available. Never quote a price that Checkfront did not give. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the items and booking form questions to the ones in your Checkfront account before you paste it.
What to connect
- Checkfront. Once API access is on your account, open Manage, then Developer, create a new application with the Token authentication type, and copy the API key and API secret. Paste them in with your Checkfront address when AeroChat asks.
- Your knowledge base. Upload your item details, pickup instructions and payment terms to AeroChat so it can answer before it books.
After you paste the recipe, AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and shows a checklist: connect Checkfront, add your knowledge base if the recipe uses one, then switch it on. If it built the connection from Checkfront’s public documentation, the checklist asks you to check it once against the current docs.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- Which items AeroChat can book in chat, and which stay with your team.
- Which alternatives it offers when an item is taken.
- How customers pay after booking.
The result to expect
Customers who ask on WhatsApp get the price and a booking in one conversation, while they are still deciding. Your rates, inventory and booking rules still come from Checkfront.
Measure it with your own numbers: bookings made from chat, and the share of availability questions that end in a booking, for a month before and after.
Next: answer booking questions in chat.
Works on every chat channel
This workflow runs the same way on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, the chat on your website and email, with the same Checkfront connection behind it. See what each channel does on the Checkfront integration page.
Take your first Checkfront booking from WhatsApp
Paste the recipe, add your Checkfront token, and ask your own WhatsApp number for two items this Saturday.