Specific configurations and necessary information in Rently for integrations with brokers through API
Branch offices.
Branch office: Make sure that the address, telephone and e-mail are correctly filled in.
Opening hours: Configure the opening hours, since that will give availability to the broker. Without this setting, the system takes the branch as closed and it will be seen as closed for brokers. The addresses must be real and valid on a map (if we write it in Google Maps it must indicate a specific point).
Holidays: Keep in mind that, if you set different opening hours for holidays or even if the branch is closed on holidays, you must tell the system which days are holidays for you in the 9-point menu, “offices”, “holidays”. If you don't have this right, you may get bookings from brokers on days that are holidays for you and you will have to honor them.
After hours: If you want to offer the option to enter bookings after hours at an extra cost, you must create an additional cost and then relate it to the branch's opening hours configuration. This additional must be “available for external systems” and priced in USD or Euro, the currencies that brokers will use.
Places.
Availability of locations: The locations that will be visible to brokers will be those that are “available for external systems”.
Extra cost: If the location has an extra cost, you must fill in the cost in USD or Euro, since that is the currency that brokers will use.
Description field: In the description field you should put the pick-up instructions for the clients. They should be as clear as possible and leave no doubt about the type of service. Some questions that can guide you to create this are:
If it is an airport, do you have a counter at the airport, do you pick up the customer at any point in the airport, how do they identify you, does the customer have to do anything to be picked up?
If the customer has to call or write to tyou, is there free wifi at the airport? Keep in mind that most brokers' clients are from other countries and may not have roaming. If you do not have a counter at the airport, do you take the car to the airport or the client to an off-site office? Nothing can be left to chance or free interpretation. Keep in mind that brokers often do not provide customer contact information.
Age configuration.
If you have age ranges where you charge extra and you want the brokers reservations to contemplate it and apply it automatically, you must have this configured in “general configuration”, “reservation configuration”, section “driver restrictions”. Complete the ranges and select the additional to apply. That additional must be “available for external systems” and have a price in USD or Euro, currencies that will be used by the brokers.
Additionals
The additionals that you wish to make available to brokers must:
- Be priced in USD or Euro. If not fully priced, the price will be zero, i.e. free of charge.
- Be marked as “available for external system”.
- Clear description of what the additional is, whatever type of additional it is (in case, for example, of an insurance that includes many things, specify what it covers and what it does not).
- If an additional is ALWAYS mandatory, it must be marked as “mandatory”.
- If an additional is mandatory only in some occasions, such as age or after hours, it must not be marked as mandatory and those additional must be configured in age and branch (explained in other points above).
- If you do not want an additional to be shown in the brokers, you must let us know so we can take it into account in the configuration of commercial agreements later.
Taxes
We recommend having taxes configured in Rently so that you can have a more specific breakdown of the prices. If you set up taxes, then the prices must be net, as Rently will calculate them based on the tax settings you make.
If you choose not to configure taxes, it is assumed that you manually calculate those percentages in the price figures for all items.
Rates
Without rates no availability is sent to brokers. For this reason it is very important to have rates that cover as much time as possible, in order not to lose the possibility of sale. We recommend as a minimum to cover from the present date to one year onwards.
The rates should:
- Cover all branches.
- Cover all models or categories, depending on your system configuration.
- Be in USD or Euro, since these are the currencies that brokers will use.
You will receive by mail a report called “availability report”. This notifies you when there were searches for brokers for dates or categories and could not be completed due to lack of rates or minimum/maximum rental limits. More information about this here: https://help.rentlysoft.com/en/es/what-do-the-availability-reports-that-are-received-via-e-mail-mean-rently-centro-de-ayuda
Fleet
Models and categories
Some things to keep in mind:
- Categories must have a main model selected. Having this incomplete affects availability directly, especially when they have availability by category configured in the main Rently configuration.
- Models must have all the required information complete, especially number of passengers, number of doors, SIPP, transmission, air conditioning, tank and franchises. Without this information it is impossible to perform the mappings in the API.
- Models and categories must have complete deposit and excess amounts for damage, rollover and theft in USD or EUR. The deposit/excess amount of each category must match each of the models that compose it (each model must be consistent with its category). If it is incomplete in the model and/or category, brokers will understand that the deposit is $0 and the excess is zero excess. The logic would be that the deposit and deductible amounts in the category match the amounts of the same in the models that compose it.
- The SIPP codes of the models of a category should not be repeated in the models that belong to another category.
- The mapping in the API is of the Rently models, even if they have the availability configuration by model or category, so we suggest never to delete models.
- Availability in brokers. If you have the system by category, the visualization in brokers is of one model per category, but when the cars of the main model of the category run out, the bookings will enter to the other models, continuing their visualization in the broker. If you have the system by model, the visualization in brokers will be by model and when the cars of that model run out, the offer will no longer be displayed.
- If you have availability by category, you should not assign reservations in the future as this generates overbooking.