This article is a continuation of the Parking Intro article. It covers what Products are, when your organization needs them, and how to create and manage them in the Management Dashboard. Before you dive in, we recommend reading the "Parking Intro" and "Facilities" articles first. 

This video walks you through everything covered in this article — from creating your first product to linking it to a facility.

What Is a Product?

Products answer the question: What type of parking is available for users to obtain?

Think of the Product as the "ticket type" (e.g., a 4-hour EV session or full day parking) and the Facility as the "venue" where that ticket can be used. 

Without a product linked to a facility, reservations are not possible. Products are what turn a physical parking space into something users can actually book or purchase. The process for linking products and facilities is discussed in further detail below. 

What is the difference between a Permit and a Product?

A Permit is managed through an approval process or a waitlist to verify eligibility. A Product, on the other hand, is built for speed—allowing users to instantly book daily or monthly spots via the app in seconds.

Do You Need Products?

Whether products are required depends on your organization. Not every setup needs them, and it is worth understanding the distinction before you start configuring.

Organizations That Can Skip Products

If all of the following apply to your organization, you can create facilities without products:

• Parking is completely free
• You have more spots available than users
• You do not need reservations or structured bookings
• You only want to display remaining capacity — for example, via a camera system connected to the facility

While CommuteHub still displays real-time capacity, this simplified setup removes the need for bookings, pricing tiers or structured allocations. Consequently, you can simply create your Facilities without the need for additional products or offers.

Organizations That Need Products

If your organization requires any of the following, you need to create a product and link it to a facility:

• Reservations or bookings
• Paid parking or differentiated pricing
• Limited capacity allocations or designated spaces (e.g., EV charging spots)
• Structured access control based on user type or role

Creating a New Product

Log in to your dashboard, click on "Parking" in the left sidebar, and select "Products." All existing products are listed here for you to view, edit, and manage. To create a new product, click the plus icon (+) in the upper right corner of the page. You will then be guided through a series of fields to define the product details.

⚠️ Important: Always click the blue Save button after making changes. Save buttons appear after multiple sections throughout the product setup — make sure to save after completing each section before moving on.

1. Information

Name

Choose a clear, descriptive name that users will immediately understand. Good names tell the user exactly what they are booking. Examples:

• Hourly Parking
• Daily Parking
• 4 hour EV parking

Tags

Tags improve searchability within the platform. Add relevant keywords that reflect the product type, the user group it targets, or the location it is intended for. This makes it easier for administrators to find and manage products as the list grows.

Description

Add a general description of the product. This does not need to be perfect for every product right away — when you later link the product to a specific facility, you can refine and adjust the description for that context.

2. Validity Period

The validity period controls when and how long the product can be used. 

Product Duration

Set the booking duration—for example, 1 day for a daily booking or 1 week for a recurring spot. This defines how long the product remains valid before a user needs to make a new booking.

Allowed Days & Hours

In the Allowed Days section, you can specify exactly which days of the week the product is valid. You can also define the Allowed Time window during which the product is valid. To save time, you can use the toggle to set the product for full-day parking or quickly apply the same hours to every day you have selected.

☝️ Days and times can be adjusted later when linking the product to a specific facility. This allows a single product to have unique time rules at different locations, though you can also keep them the same.

3. Default Capacity

The Default Capacity defines how many parking units of this product can be booked. In other words, this number determines how many reservations users can make for this product at one facility.

⚠️ Important: Product capacity is applied individually to every facility it is linked to. For example, if you set a capacity of 200 units and connect it to two different facilities, both Facility A and Facility B will each offer 200 bookable spots—resulting in a total of 400 possible reservations.

☝️ Pro Tip: If you manage multiple facilities or have a more complex setup, it is often better to set the capacity here to 0. You can then define the exact capacity later when linking the product to each facility. This prevents accidentally offering too many parking spots and gives you full control over availability per location.

4. Default Price

Set whether the product is free or paid:

• Free: Common for EV charging spots or open-access parking.
• Paid: Define the price amount. Pricing can be overwritten per facility when linking the product, so you can charge different rates at different locations. Dynamic pricing, such as tiered rates for different income groups, can also be adjusted later when setting up your offers.

5. Purchase Options

The purchase options define how users obtain the product. There are two options:

• Reservations: Users actively book parking in advance through the platform. Use this for standard bookable parking spots.
• Auto Purchase: The product is sold to the user automatically. This option is perfect when users can pay by swiping their badge or an LPR read.

Release Schedule

Rather than releasing all spots immediately, you can stagger availability in stages to manage demand strategically. This feature is optional but a configuration could look like this:

• 80% of capacity released 8 days before the booking date at 8 AM
• 10% released 2 days before
• 10% released on the same day

This approach helps prevent over-allocation early in the booking window and keeps some spots available for last-minute needs. Release rules can be updated at any time.

☝️For one-day exceptions — such as releasing extra capacity on a specific date — use the Capacity Overrides function rather than adjusting the release rules permanently.

Cancellation Policy

Define until when users may cancel their booking. If left at the default setting, users can cancel up until the reservation start time as defined by the validity period. You can tighten this window if your operations require more predictability — for example, requiring cancellations to be made at least 24 hours in advance.

Archiving Products

If a product is no longer needed, you can archive it rather than deleting it. Archiving is the preferred approach because it preserves the integrity of historical data.

When you archive a product:

• All historical booking data associated with the product is preserved
• The product is removed from all linked facilities
• It becomes unavailable for new bookings

Archived products can be restored at any time if your needs change.

Linking Products to Facilities (Creating Offers)

A product on its own is just a template — it defines the rules, pricing, and availability settings, but it has no physical location attached to it yet. Linking a product to a facility is what creates an actual offer: a bookable parking option at a specific place. This step is what makes the product visible and purchasable for users in the app. One product can be linked to multiple facilities, and each offer can be fine-tuned independently — so you have full flexibility without having to recreate products from scratch for every location.

How to Link a Product to a Facility: Creating an Offer

After creating a product, it must be linked to a facility to become bookable.

Open the product and navigate to the Offered in Facilities tab.

1. Click the plus icon (+).
2. Search for one or multiple facilities.
3. Select the desired facilities.
4. Click Add Selected.

You can bulk-assign a product to multiple facilities at once.

After linking, select a facility to fine-tune the offering, including:

• pricing
• capacity
• availability settings

⚠️ A product that is not linked to a facility cannot be purchased or booked.

Rulesets

The Rulesets tab allows you to define advanced conditions that control under which circumstances a product can be purchased or priced differently.

Examples include:

• income-based pricing
• user group restrictions
• customized eligibility rules

For example, you can configure a rule where members of a specific network qualify for a lower parking price, while all other users continue to pay the standard rate.

☝️ The capacity you enter here is added on top of the product's default capacity. For example, if the default is 200 and you add 50 here, the total becomes 250.

Access

The Access tab defines who is allowed to purchase or obtain the product.

While Rulesets determine under which conditions a product can be booked, Access determines which users are eligible at all.

Examples include restricting a product to:

• full-time employees only
• specific networks
• defined user groups or roles

For instance, you may want a parking product to be available only to permanent employees, while external contractors or visitors cannot see or purchase it.

Access settings ensure that parking availability aligns with organizational policies and prevents unintended users from booking restricted parking resources.

History

The History tab provides a detailed audit trail showing:

• who modified the product
• what changes were made
• when changes occurred

This ensures full transparency.

If you need assistance with setup, have questions about specific scenarios, or want to explore advanced capabilities, our support team is ready to help.