General Guidelines

Best practices and workflows for managing rental inventory, processing bookings, and configuring the plugin to match your business model.

Managing Rental Products

Rental items are WooCommerce products with special rental fields. Create and manage them from Products → Add New or by editing existing products.

Creating a Rental Item

  • Go to Products → Add New and select a rental type category (Bike, Car, Resort, Equipment, Dress, or General)
  • Set the product type to "Rental Product" in the Product Data metabox
  • Configure pricing: per-day or per-hour rate, security deposit, and optional extras
  • Upload high-quality images and write a detailed description
  • Set inventory quantity and define availability rules (off-days, holidays)
  • Publish the product — it will appear in [rent-list] shortcodes automatically

Rental Pricing Models

  • Per Day: Customer pays a fixed rate for each calendar day of the rental
  • Per Hour: Customer pays based on the number of hours between pickup and return
  • Per Day + Per Hour: Hybrid model charging a daily base rate plus an hourly surcharge beyond the included hours
  • Flat Rate: A single fixed price for the entire rental period regardless of duration

Inventory & Availability

Stock Management

  • Enable WooCommerce stock management per product for quantity tracking
  • Set the initial stock count to your total available units of each item
  • Stock is decremented automatically when a rental booking is confirmed
  • Use the "Out of Stock Threshold" to stop bookings when stock reaches zero
  • Back-orders can be disabled to prevent overbooking

Off-Days & Holidays

  • Define global off-days under WpRently → Global Settings → Availability
  • Set weekly off-days (e.g., Sundays closed) and specific holiday dates
  • Off-days can be overridden per product for different operating schedules
  • Customers cannot select off-days as pickup or return dates
  • Buffer periods between bookings can be configured to allow cleaning or maintenance

Availability Calendar

  • Each rental product has an availability calendar showing booked and available dates
  • Booked dates are blocked and cannot be double-booked
  • Color-coded indicators: green (available), red (booked), gray (off-day)
  • Calendar syncs with external calendars via the Availability Calendar Sync addon
  • Manually block dates from the product edit screen for maintenance or private use

Buffer & Preparation Time

  • Set a minimum buffer period between consecutive bookings for cleaning, inspection, or transport
  • Buffer can be configured globally or per product in hours or days
  • A 1-hour buffer means the next booking can only start 1 hour after the previous return
  • Preparation time ensures items are ready before each new rental begins

Booking & Order Management

Processing Bookings

  • Customers select pickup and return dates on the product page or via [rbfw_search]
  • Price is calculated dynamically based on the selected dates and pricing model
  • Customers proceed to checkout (WooCommerce or plugin's built-in checkout)
  • Order statuses: Pending, Confirmed, Active (rented out), Completed (returned), Cancelled
  • Admins can manually change statuses from the order edit screen

Order Notifications

  • Email notifications are sent on order confirmation, status changes, and upcoming returns
  • Customize email templates under WooCommerce → Settings → Emails
  • Admin gets notified of new bookings; customer gets booking confirmation and reminders
  • Late-return alerts can be enabled with the Late Return Fees addon

Deposits & Payments

  • Require a deposit (percentage or fixed amount) at checkout to secure the booking
  • Remaining balance can be collected on pickup or via a scheduled payment
  • Refundable damage deposits are handled by the Damage Deposit Handler addon
  • Supported gateways: Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce Payments, and any standard WooCommerce gateway
  • Partial refunds can be issued for deposits when items are returned early or damaged

Delivery & Pickup

  • Enable delivery option to let customers specify a delivery address
  • Distance-based delivery fees can be calculated with the Delivery Zone Mapper addon
  • Define delivery zones, radius limits, and per-km pricing
  • Customers can choose between pickup and delivery at checkout
  • Delivery time slots can be configured in the product settings

Search & Filtering

Rent Item Search Form

  • Use [rbfw_search] to display an advanced search form on any page
  • Fields: pickup date, return date, rental type, category, location, keyword
  • Results redirect to a search results page (set in plugin settings)
  • The search form supports AJAX if enabled for instant filtering
  • All fields are optional — empty fields return all available items

Category & Type Filtering

  • Use the category parameter in [rent-list] to narrow results by WooCommerce category
  • Use the type parameter to filter by rental type (bike, car, etc.)
  • Categories and types can be combined for granular filtering
  • Custom taxonomy archives work out of the box with rental categories