Rental

What is rental?

When you sell something, ownership changes hands. With rental, you keep the item, and the customer is allowed to use it for a rental period—for example, a weekend or a week. Afterward, it comes back to you and can be rented out to the next customer. The same item can therefore generate income many times over.

Rental Period and Price

The rental period has a first and a last day. The price is often set per day, per weekend, or per week, and many rental providers have a minimum rental period, so it’s worth the effort to prepare the item, deliver it, and pick it up again.

Deposit

Many rental companies require a security deposit. This is an amount the customer pays in addition to the rental fee and gets back when the item is returned in good condition. The security deposit covers damage, missing parts, and late returns.

Availability and Double Bookings

The hardest part of renting out equipment is keeping track of what’s available. If you have two tents, you can rent out a maximum of two on the same day. If you rent the same tent to two customers during the same period, that’s a double booking, and one of the customers will have to be turned away. That’s why customers need to be able to see which days are available before placing a reservation.

What is typically rented out?

• Party tents, tables, chairs, and tableware for parties and weddings
• Draft beer systems, coffee machines, and other party equipment
• Trailers, tools, and machinery
• Costumes, sports equipment, and camping gear

Rentals on Shoporama

In Shoporama, a rental is a regular order where the product has a rental period. The customer adds the product to the cart and pays as with a regular purchase.

• Enable it in the profile: Under Webshop → Product Profiles, check the “Rental” box on a product profile. All products in the profile become rental products. The profile must have one variant—for example, the size of a tent—and each variant has its own quantity.
• Price per day: The product’s price is the price per day. If a customer rents a tent for three days, it costs three times the daily rate. There is no separate weekend or weekly rate, but you can set a Minimum Rental Period for the product, e.g., 2 days.
• The stock count is the number of units: The stock count is the number of units you own. A rental does not reduce the stock, so the count remains the same while the items are out on rental. If the product has 0 in stock, it cannot be rented.
• Calendar on the product page: Under “Select Rental Period,” the customer sees a calendar where booked days are crossed out. The customer clicks on the first and last days and immediately sees the price for the entire period. The calendar is available in the Montana, MontanaB2B, Delaware, and DelawareDK themes.
• Calendar days including both dates: Days are counted as calendar days, including both the first and last days. Friday through Sunday counts as 3 days, and same-day pickup and return counts as 1 day.
• Orders → Rentals: Here, you select a day and see what’s “Going Out,” what’s “Coming Back,” and what’s “Out,” along with the customer’s name, phone number, and delivery address. If there is a day within the next 30 days where more units have been rented out than you own, that day will appear at the top under “Overbooked.”

Shoporama does not charge a security deposit, which is refunded to the customer when the item is returned in good condition. If you want part of the rental fee paid at the time of booking and the rest later, you can enable “Partial Payment” in your rental profile. Otherwise, the customer pays the full rental fee at the time of booking. If you cancel the order, the items become available again.

You can track how often your items are rented out under Statistics → Rentals. Read more about utilization rate. You’ll find the entire setup process, step by step, in the article on rentals.