Set up a rental

A rental is created in the same editor as any other offering — only the type and one section change. This article walks the whole path: from preparing the resource to the first successful booking.

1. The resource first, the rental second

A rental sells time on a resource. If the resource doesn’t exist, the offering saves but shows zero free times. So start in the catalog:

1. Open Catalog → Resource kinds.
2. If you have no suitable kind, press New kind and create one — “Court”, “Room”, “Equipment”. Do not choose the “person” category — person kinds are not offered for rentals.
3. Enter the kind and add the actual resources: “Court 1”, “Court 2”, “Blue Room”…
4. Make sure the resources are active for booking (the switch in the kind’s list) — inactive ones don’t count.

Details: Resource kinds & capacity and Add a resource.

2. Creating the offering — step by step

1. Open Catalog → Offerings.
2. Press the plus button top right — Offering.
3. In the Template section pick the Rental / resource card (“Resource by slot. Court, camera, studio, golf bay.”).
4. Section Basics: fill in the name (“Tennis court — hourly”) and optionally a description.
5. Section Rental settings: set Slot length, Booking length and Price per slot — see §3.
6. Section Resources & add-ons: pick the Main resource and decide whether the client picks the specific one — see §4.
7. Optional: Price by day & time, Public-page details, Highlight, client questions, Locations.
8. Press the save button top right.

3. The “Rental settings” section

The section is split into three parts, each with an icon.

3.1 Slot length

“The smallest unit a customer can rent. Pick one or set a custom value.”

• Buttons: 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, Custom.
• Custom opens a numeric field labelled Minutes with the reminder “(between 15 and 240 min)”.
• The tooltip explains the trade-off: “Smaller slots = more flexibility but more clicks for the customer.”

Changing the length automatically lowers the minimum and maximum if the new value would breach the 12-hour ceiling.

3.2 Booking length

“How many slots in a row the customer can pick. Each slot = {slot}.”

• Minimum — nothing shorter can be booked.
• Maximum — nothing longer can be booked.

Under each field you see the real-time translation (“2 h”, “4 h”). Below that, a summary: “Customer can book from {min} to {max}”, or, when minimum equals maximum, “Customer books exactly {value}”.

If the 12-hour ceiling bites, a warning appears: “Capped at 12 h total — the customer can pick up to {N} slots in a row.”

3.3 Pricing

• Price per slot — the price of one slot. Tooltip: “The price is per slot. Total is auto-multiplied based on the number of slots the customer picks.”
• Below the field sits the worst-case sum: “Max booking ({N} × {slot}) = {total} {currency}”.

The currency comes from the board’s settings and is not chosen here.

4. The “Resources & add-ons” section

• Main resource — “The resource the customer is renting.” The dropdown lists only non-person kinds, each with its count of active resources (“Court · 4”). Pick an empty kind and an amber note appears: “This kind has no active ‘{kind}’ yet — the service won’t be bookable until you add at least one.” with an Add {kind} button.
• Client picks which one — a switch. On: “The booking flow shows a resource picker. Otherwise the system assigns one automatically.” The switch stays disabled until there are at least 2 resources of the kind: “Need at least 2 resources of this kind to enable customer choice.”
• Resources customers can pick — appears when the switch is on; chips with the resource names and a “{selected} / {total}” counter. An empty list blocks the save.
• Add-ons — optional resources on top of the rental (rackets, balls, floodlights). Each has four blocks: How it appears to the customer, Quantity, Which resource to reserve, Price (included / additional charge / price per unit).

5. What differs from the other types

6. Verifying that it works

1. Open your public page (Setup → Public site → the link to the page).
2. Find the rental in the rentals section.
3. Pick tomorrow’s date. You should see a slot grid at your slot length.
4. Mark two consecutive slots — the total should double.
5. If the grid is empty, see §7.

7. Troubleshooting

Not a single free slot. The usual causes, in order: the chosen kind has no active resource; there are no working hours that day; everything is booked; the offering is restricted to a different location. Full diagnosis: Why are there no free times.

The save fails — “Select a resource kind for the main rental resource.” You didn’t pick a Main resource.

The save fails asking for allowed resources. You turned client choice on but ticked nothing: “When customers pick the resource, at least 1 resource must be allowed — select one in ‘Allowed resources’ or turn off customer choice.”

I can’t find where to set a deposit. For a rental the block isn’t rendered. See Rental deposits.

I want to rent out a person (a coach) by the hour. That is an appointment, not a rental — person kinds are excluded from the rental list.

I changed the slot length and the maximum changed by itself. By design: total length can’t exceed 12 hours, so the maximum slot count is lowered.

What’s next

• Rental slots & pricing — the numbers in detail.
• Multiple units & availability — four courts, one rental.
• Hourly rentals — the big picture.
• Create a service — the shared editor.