Uploading Information to Rently

Branches.

Branch information: Make sure the address, phone number, and email are complete and correct.

Hours: Set the hours, as these hours determine the branch’s availability to brokers. Without hours, the system considers the branch closed, and that’s how it will appear to brokers. Addresses must be real and valid on a map (if you enter it into Google Maps, it should pinpoint a specific location).

Holidays: Keep in mind that if you set different hours for holidays—or if the branch is closed on holidays—you must specify your holiday schedule in the 9-point menu under “Offices” > “Holidays.”  If this isn’t set up correctly, brokers may enter reservations on days that are holidays for you, and you’ll be required to honor them.

After Hours: If you want to offer the option for reservations to be made outside of established hours for an extra fee, you must create an additional service with a cost and then link it to the branch’s schedule settings. That additional service must be “available to external systems” and have a price set if you plan to charge for it.

Locations.

Location Availability: The locations that will be visible to brokers are those marked as “available for external systems.”

Extra Cost: If the location has an extra cost, you must enter the price, if applicable.

“Description” Field: In the description field, you must include pickup instructions for customers. These instructions should be as clear as possible and leave no room for doubt regarding the type of service. Here are some questions to help you draft them:

If it’s an airport, do you have a counter there? Will you pick up the customer at a specific location within the airport? How will they recognize you? Does the customer need to do anything to ensure you pick them up?

If the customer has to call or text you, is there free Wi-Fi at the airport? Keep in mind that most broker customers are from other countries and may not have roaming service.

If you don’t have a counter at the airport, do you bring the car to the airport or take the customer to an office outside the airport?

Nothing should be left to chance or open to interpretation. Keep in mind that brokers often do not provide customers’ contact information.

Age Settings.

If you have age ranges for which you charge a surcharge and want broker reservations to automatically take this into account and apply it, you must configure this under “General Settings,” “Reservation Settings,” in the “Driver Restrictions” section. Enter the age ranges and select the surcharge to apply. That surcharge must be marked as “Available for External Systems” and have a price set.

Add-ons/Additional

Add-ons that you want to make available to brokers must:

• Have a price if you want to charge for them. If the price is not fully specified, it will be zero—that is, free.

• Be marked as “available for external system.”

• Include a clear description of what the add-on entails, regardless of the type (for example, if an insurance policy covers many things, specify what it does and does not cover).

• If an additional is ALWAYS required, it must be checked as “required.”

• If an add-on is mandatory only under certain circumstances—such as age or off-hours—it should not be marked as mandatory, and those add-ons must be configured based on age and branch (as explained in previous points).

• If you do not want an add-on to be visible to brokers, please let us know so we can take this into account when configuring commercial agreements later.

Taxes

We recommend setting up taxes in Rently so that a more detailed breakdown of prices is displayed. If you set up taxes, prices must be listed as net amounts, since Rently will calculate them based on your tax settings.

If you choose not to set up taxes, it is assumed that you will manually calculate those percentages into the prices for all items.

Rates/Tariffs

Without a rate, availability information is not sent to brokers. For this reason, it is very important to have rate schedules that cover as long a period as possible, so as not to miss out on sales opportunities. We recommend covering at least from the current date forward for one year.

Rate schedules must:

• Cover all branches.

• Cover all models or categories, depending on their configuration.

Currency

Brokers will expect to receive prices in USD or euros. They can set prices in either of these currencies throughout Rently or check the “Use main currency rates for foreign currencies” option in the general settings. At the same time, they should enter the exchange rate in the checkout, so that Rently uses that rate when converting to USD or euros.

You will receive a report by mail titled “availability report.” This report notifies you when brokers searched for specific dates or categories but were unable to finalize a booking due to a lack of pricing or minimum/maximum rental limits. It’s also possible that you had no availability, which is why no availability was sent in response to the search conducted by the broker or website. 

Fleet

Models and categories.

In the general settings, availability must be set by category.

• Categories must have a primary model selected.
• The category and its main model must have “Available for external systems” selected.
• The models belonging to the category must have units loaded and active in order to effectively provide availability.
• Models must have all required information filled out, especially passenger capacity, number of doors, SIPP, transmission, air conditioning, deposit, and deductibles. Without this information, it is impossible to perform mappings in the API.
• Models and categories must have complete deposit and deductible amounts for damage, rollover, and theft. We suggest that the deposit/deductible amount for each category should match each of the models within it (each model must be consistent with its category). If this information is incomplete in the model and/or category, brokers will assume that the deposit is $0 and that the deductible is zero excess.
• A common question is which amounts are sent via the API—those from the main model or those from the category. This will depend on this setting in the general configuration:
   
  If pricing is based on the model, the deposit and deductible amounts listed for the main model in that category are used.
  If pricing is based on the category, the deposit and deductible amounts listed for that category are used.
• SIPP codes for models in one category must not be repeated in models that belong to another category.
• Mapping in the API is one of the main models for Rently's categories, so we recommend that you never delete models.
• Availability at brokers. The main model determines the availability of its entire category. Reservations are added to the category, and a model is assigned at the time of delivery.
• They should not allocate future reservations, as that leads to overselling.