hoosing a booking platform for your rental business is an important decision. The right platform will increase your bottom line and customer satisfaction. The wrong system will lead to wasted time and money as well as frustration. If you are considering BookingCentral as your new system, let us help you with the decision making process. We’ve outlined 5 questions below to ask yourself when deciding on partnering with BookingCentral.
Does the platform have the features I need?
We say YES! Â BookingCentral is the most feature-rich platform on the market. Our expert development team has built in features that a rental business needs in a booking system. The best of the best are outlined below:
- Damage Authorization. When you are renting top dollar equipment such as boats, jeeps, jet skis, it is important to protect your assests. Having the ability to add a security deposit that is held on the customer’s credit card while they have the equipment rented is the peace of mind your business needs. Plus, since it is an authorization, there are no transaction fees charged by the processor.
- Waiver Integrations. Paperwork is necessary when renting equipment or offering activities. This is why having a way to integrate a waiver into your booking system is critical. The waiver follows the booking, and can be seen on the booking in the system.
- Automated Communications. Emails and text messages can be configured and customized to send to your customers before and after their experience.
- Flexible Pricing and Deposit Rules. Easily create seasonal, weekday, weekend, and holiday price categories for your activities. Include variable lengths (half day, full day, multi-day) for each rental type. Decide the deposit to take when booking from fixed, percentage, or credit card hold.
- Customized Booking Widget. BookingCentral’s online booking calendar can be customized to meet your needs. Add to your website by linking to a Book button and choose different views such a list, grid, or search. The customer experience is top notch.
- Check In / Check Out. When customers arrive for their rental or activity, use the Check In feature to swiftly welcome them. The settings can be configured to create a check in/check out checklist, add charges, and send waivers. Customers can add gratuity and their signature right in the platform.
- Master Calendar. See availability and bookings in a color-coded calendar that will show employees what is booked for the day. Drag and drop functionality allows you to move around rental inventory as needed, or adjust start/end times. Make edits to any booking with a few clicks.
How does the platform integrate into my website?
Your booking platform should offer an easy way to integrate into your website. BookingCentral offers a URL (link) that you can add to a Book Now button on the website or access a code that you can embed the booking page into the website with a simple copy and paste.
How is the setup process?
Setting up a new system can seem like a daunting task. From pricing rules, descriptions, and add-ons, there are a lot of moving parts to ensure that your booking platform is set to take bookings as soon as possible. BookingCentral is designed for a quick and easy setup. We want you to have control of the setup process and choose the best approach that works for you. Our team gives you the option to set up the account on your own or have one of our expert account managers set it up for you. You'll appreciate the way the system is laid out logically to include a robust Settings tab that allows you to easily and quickly configure your account.
What is customer support like?‍
You will have questions. Our team is here to answer them. In fact, we pride ourselves in providing excellent customer service.  Don’t take our word for it, though.  Hear from an existing rental business with their review of our customer support.
“We appreciated how fast the response of tech support was.  On a scale of 1 to 10 your group was way up at the top. Something that is sometimes sadly lacking in other systems.”
BookingCentral offers many ways to get support. If you want to talk to a live person, you can do that! Prefer to email your questions? Go ahead. Our team is responsive and will address your requests quickly. Plus, we provide a robust knowledge center that walks you through many common setup questions.
Will it help me grow my business?
You bet! We hear this all the time. Adding a booking platform to your operations will get you more bookings. Customers will be able to make a booking when it’s convenient for them using the booking widget, and not have to wait for you to book for them. This undoubtedly leads to more sales and happier customers. A boat rental business that used BookingCentral this year had this to say about how we helped grow their business:
“With amazement we watched how fast the bookings would come in for watercraft rentals and quickly realized that we probably lost a number of sales in previous years as we were unable to answer the phone or the messages in a timely manner to reach out to our clients.  The booking system was our answer to that issue.”
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Have more questions? We get it. It's a big decision. Reach out to our team of experts today, and we'll be happy to help.
