I’m planning to set up a rental business and need to find appropriate apps.
There are some requirements:
Some items are available for sale, some for rent.
There should be a unique rental period for all rental items in the cart.
An additional deposit is added in the cart for the rental items. Or even better, an additional amount is blocked/authorised via credit card/paypal/etc. and released once the rented items have been returned by the customer.
Bookthatapp for example can handle sales/rents at the same time as well as deposits. But I’m not sure about the unique rental period and blocking amounts.
I appreciate your support and your ideas on how this can be set up.
@juli12 To set up a rental business on Shopify, you’ll want apps that handle both sales and rentals simultaneously. Consider using apps like BookThatApp or Rental Product Manager, allowing you to list items for sale and rent. Within these apps, configure specific rental periods for each item you want to rent out. Additionally, for handling deposits or authorizations, explore apps like Zapiet, Rentalify, or those offering deposit functionalities. These apps can integrate with payment gateways, enabling you to block or authorize an extra amount via credit card or PayPal for rented items, releasing it upon their return. Make sure the chosen apps are compatible with your payment methods and conduct thorough testing to ensure seamless functionality, covering rental periods, deposits, and the checkout process before making them live on your store.
I love to put Supercycle in the mix, it’s a modern, native rental solution for Shopify that enables rental alongside but from new and buy from used. Would be happy to setup a demo for you.
For my own rental business experience, I’ve found that using a platform like Bookthatapp is a solid choice since it can handle both sales and rentals. I agree, though, the unique rental period and blocking amounts could be tricky. One thing I did was use a custom checkout system that allowed me to adjust rental periods and block deposits separately, which worked well for my needs.
If you’re also renting to students, like I did near Queen’s University, https://axonproperties.ca/student-rentals-kingston/ offers a great example of managing deposits and rentals with a clear structure. They make things easy for both renters and landlords.
Though Shopify is designed for e-commerce, there are a number of tools that can work handle your desired rental workflow.
One software that integrates nicely with Shopify’s websites is Booqable.
You can offer rental items and consumable/sale items (think: disposable plates and napkins, not necessarily traditional e-commerce sales items) and keep track of everything based on the day since product availability fluctuates based on rental bookings.
If you check it out, let me know how it goes. If you’ve found a good solution, what did end up using?
We’ve recently added a new equipment feature on Cowlendar Booking, on which you can rent things for a couple hours and/or for several days. Including deposit and/or prepayment if needed. I’m including a few screenshots so you can see how it looks like
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