How to create Rentable items for customers?

[superthrifty]

I am trying to develop a more sustainable way for my customers (college students) to purchase formal wear. I need my website items to be rentable, so requires my customers to reserve garments for their selected period of time. I also need to create contracts if garments are damaged or not returned. I also need to be able to charge a fee to the customer's card on file. If anyone has mastered this concept, tips would be much appreciated.

[MayaP]

Hello @superthrifty,

Welcome to The Seller Community, so happy to have you! This is such a neat business idea, I love it! I hate to do this but I am going to refer you two community posts with some other sellers who had similar questions. That way you can see which option would work best for you:

1) This response from Candlestore : Use Google Calendar to setup appointments and have limits to the number of Kayaks per day.

In Square POS not Retail.... Setup your ITEMS as

1 Kayak

2 Kayak

3 Kayak

.......

20 Kayak etc...

When a person shows up for the day, check to see they are on google calendar that they reserved a Kayak.... if NO.... check to see how many People reserved Kayaks.... if you have 1 Available Rent it out.... If none are available... do you have a set time when the person renting needs to show up by or could loose said reservation?  People do not always show up when they say they will.  Could you rent it to this person in 10 or 15 min if someone is a no show?

Ok now lets say the person is on the list or you had an extra Kayak to rent out.

Take your Square Terminal out that is connected to a Hotspot, in the search area type in 1, this should pull up item 1 Kayak and a list of all Kayaks from 10-19, 100-199 and 1000-1999 etc...  or you could keep typing to get the search down to what your looking for.  If you went Kayak 1, you would need to type in Kayak 1 for the above results.  This way you have the receipt payment tied to the Kayak # you rent out for the day.  Then when the Kayak comes back you can go into your Items and add 1 for the Quantity of # Kayak.

2) Response from M2GH: You setup variations and that can change the duration/cost for the client. From there add in a block time after buffer to include break down and setup time so when someone else books in same day you have the buffer you need to transport to the next place. Also you can put in a stipulation about the amount of lead time a client needs to book so you dont have any add ons that will be hard to cover. Also if you have it to only book on the hour you dont get technical 15 minute late issues. From there I would also include in the notes for booking to choose the time that the client needs to setup (recommend 1hr or whatever setup time is) prior to the event. But to be on the safe side I would only offer this if you have 2 of a setup. Its too contingent for a 1 of 1 situation.

I really hope one of these options helps!