Online booking page and website widget
Each Entity gets its own booking page, which also sits inside your website as a widget. Customers find a free car or class, choose cover and extras, give their licence details, book and pay. A booking not paid in time is cancelled and the car freed.
PLANSFrom Growth
The problem it solves
- Customers find you at night and leave because they can only book by phone.
- A car is promised online and at the counter for the same weekend.
- Bookings are made with no deposit and the customer never turns up, so the car stood idle.
- Licence details are collected at the counter, and the queue grows on a Friday evening.
How it works
- In Rental > Configuration > Settings > Online Booking, tick Online Booking Open. Give the Booking Page Address, the colour and what is Taken Online. The page is at /rent/ and your address.
- Mark the cars to sell with Shown Online, and the classes customers may book as a class ("any SUV"). Rates come from your rate plans.
- The customer picks pick-up and return, the depot and the type, and presses Find. Classes come first with how many are free; then free cars, cheapest first, each with picture, highlights and price.
- On a car's page they tick cover and extras and see the rent, the total and the deposit. They give their contact and licence details, accept your terms and press Book and Pay.
- The booking is confirmed at once and the customer lands on its own page. It shows what to pay with Pay, Pay by, Read and Sign for the agreement, and Cancel Booking.
- If it is not paid within the hold time, it is cancelled and the car is free again. Put the widget on your website with one line of script.
Everything it does
The booking page
- One page per Entity at /rent/<address>, closed until Online Booking Open is ticked; the address must be unique
- Your logo, your name and your own colour; the language can be set in the link
- Find by pick-up and return, depot (when you have more than one) and type
- Only cars shown online, active, free for the whole time and with a price are offered
- Book a class: the cheapest free car of the class is given, and staff can swap it for another of the class before pick-up
A car's page
- Picture, class, year, colour, depot, highlights, description and Watch the video
- Drivers' youngest age and licence years, as set on the car
- Cover and extras of the rate plan; compulsory ones ticked and fixed; for a cover, the most the customer pays for damage
- Rent for the hours, each extra, the total, and the deposit returned after the rental
- Your details: full name, email, mobile, date of birth, licence number, licence country, issue and expiry dates; I accept the booking terms
Behind the booking
- A signed-in customer books as themselves. Otherwise a contact is reused only when both the email and the phone match, else a new one is made
- A blocked customer's email or phone is refused with a request to call you
- A driver record is made or updated with the licence details; staff verify it before the car goes out
- The order is confirmed with Source Booking Page, priced for the customer (VIP tiers and price rules on Scale)
- Payment requests for the rent, the deposit, both or nothing; the deposit can be held on the card where your provider allows it
Holds and cancelling
- Unpaid bookings are cancelled after the hold time, checked every 5 minutes
- The customer cancels on their booking page until the free cancellation time; after it, they are told to call you
- On cancel, card holds are released and online payments refunded through your provider, unless you turned that off
Agreement on booking
- With SmartMy Sign, the rental agreement is sent the moment the booking is made
- The booking page shows Read and Sign until the customer signs
- Where you require it, the car goes out only once the agreement is signed
The widget
- One script line on your website with your booking page address, and data-lang for the language
- The booking page shows inside your page and grows with it
- Bookings through it carry the same rules, holds and payments
Who uses it
RenterFinds a car, books, pays, signs and cancels without calling.
AdministratorOpens the page, sets notice, holds, cancellation, terms and what is taken online.
Rent UserMarks cars and classes Shown Online, verifies the driver and hands the car over.
Web developerAdds the widget to your website.
Where you use it
- Public page: /rent/<address>, the car's page and the booking's own page, without sign-in
- Your website: the widget
- The SmartMy Rental app: Book a Car for signed-in customers (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
- Web: Rental > Configuration > Settings > Online Booking; Shown Online on each car and class
- Not on the page: the customer's account history; signed-in customers see that on the customer pages
What you control
Settings
- Online Booking Open: off until you tick it
- Shortest Notice: 2 hours
- Hold Unpaid Bookings: 30 minutes (0 holds for ever)
- Free Cancellation Until: 48 hours before pick-up
- Taken Online: Rent and Deposit, or The Deposit, The Rent, Nothing
- Booking Page Colour: dark blue to start with; Booking Terms: your text
- Give Money Back When an Order Is Cancelled: on
Notifications
- Rental Confirmed: to the customer as soon as the booking is made
- Rental Payment Link and Rental Payment Received: to the customer
- Each goes in the app to people with a login and by the first channel that works in the order WhatsApp, email, SMS. WhatsApp and SMS use your message credits
- Each goes out at once; a person can switch off a channel, never the message, and in-app notices always arrive
Works with
SmartMy SignThe rental agreement goes out on booking and is signed from the booking page.
Questions
Can a car be booked twice, online and at the counter?
No. Only cars free for the whole time are offered, and the booking is confirmed against the same calendar as the counter.What if the customer never pays?
The booking is held for the hold time, 30 minutes by default. Unpaid after that, it is cancelled and the car is free again.Does the page check the driver's age?
It shows the car's youngest age and licence years, and records the licence details. The driver is verified by staff before the car goes out, which blocks a driver who does not meet the rules.Can customers book a class rather than one car?
Yes. Tick Shown Online on the class. The customer books "any" of that class at the cheapest free car's price, and staff can swap the car before pick-up.Does it need our own website?
No. The booking page works on its own address. If you have a website, the widget puts the same page inside it.Which plan has it?
Growth and Scale. Starter has no online booking.Related features
CUSTOMERSPublic booking API with keysYour website or a partner's booking form can list depots, find free cars and classes, get a quote and book, through a JSON API. Each caller has its own key, made by a Rent Manager and shown once.CUSTOMERSThe SmartMy Rental app for customersYour customers follow their rentals on the phone: what is on hire, call off, ask to extend, pay, and share check reports. They keep their licence and ID photos in the app, and book a car when you take bookings online.HIRE ORDERSRental agreements signed online before the car goes outSend the rental agreement from the order through SmartMy Sign. The customer signs on their phone with a code sent by email, or in person on your screen, then your side signs. With one setting on, no car on the order goes out until it is signed.BILLING AND PAYMENTSPay links, card holds, saved cards and mandatesAsk for money with a pay link on your own payment provider. Hold a deposit on the card, and charge a saved card or mandate each billing cycle. Every request follows its payment to Paid, Held, Failed or Refunded by itself.DRIVERS AND DELIVERYDriver licences, IDs, age rules and blocklistKeep each driver's licence, international permit and ID with photos, verify them once. A self-drive car goes out only when every driver on the order passes. Each needs a licence valid for the whole hire, old enough, licence held long enough, and must not be blocked.RATESRate plans by hour, day, week and month with the cheapest mixPrice each class or car by the hour, day, week, month or year in one rate plan. For every rental the system works out the cheapest mix of those periods. The same plan holds a shortest rental, a grace time on return and the deposit.
See your fleet on it.
Tell us how many cars or machines you hire out, from how many depots, and how bookings reach you today. We will set up your fleet with you on SmartMy Rental.