If your app wants to provide days of access to a facility and it may or may not be tied to a particular resource, you need to allow your users to make their bookings and select 'from' and 'to' dates as long as they want to use the facility, if it's available. Good examples are hotel rooms, car rentals, equipment rentals, vacation homes, etc.
When you install Zappter Reservations plugin, it comes with functionalities to support two different booking concepts. Depending on your selling needs, you can use either or both options:
Predefined Bookings (for hourly bookings): You would use this part of the plugin when creating a booking app to handle predefined or the slotted bookings. For example, if you think of a spa, a customer has to make the bookings as per available slots in the spa, and these slots are predefined in their scheduling by spa operations
Flexible Bookings (for daily bookings): You would use a flexible booking for apps that handle open and long-term booking requirements. For example, a 'rent a car' where customers can book a vehicle for any number of days as long as their preferred vehicle is available. And, there are no time-slots in a day. The same is true for hotel bookings and other similar business operations
Car rentals example
Following steps show how you can create 'Flexible' booking items for a car rental (reservations not with timeslots).
1. Admin > Customize > Content. Click to edit your app.
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2. Expand the group, 'Online Bookings' and then select the option, 'Flexible Booking.'
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3. Setup screen comes up; enter the details.
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Name, title or heading: Provide a name for your selling item
Price: The price
Brief text: Brief and descriptive description
Picture Dimension: Recommended to keep it 'Device optimized' to make sure the main focus of the picture (usually the center) is kept in the center in any device screen sizes. When you keep it square, it tries to paint the entire picture, which is good for larger screens but in small screen, it will only display part of the picture
Picture: Upload a picture
Resources: Check if you need any resources attached for selection along with this booking. For example, in a rent a car, you can make chauffeurs as resources for customers to choose in chauffeur-driven rentals
Min. Duration: You set a limit possible to rent/hire a facility
4. Click on the 'More Options' button. And look at these options that help you customize the app according to your business requirements.
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Duration tab:
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Reservation Time: It is the hold time. You set it to hold the booking temporarily for limited time in case the customer has not confirmed with deposits or other means
Preparation time in minutes: How long do you need to prepare the item before it can be given to a customer
Availability tab:
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Not same day: If the item is available for rent on the same day or not
Custom availability: It is a crucial option. You can use this option to say on each day what are the timing that this item will be available for book. For example, if you don't want to rent your car on Monday you can create a custom availability and specify it here
If you don't specify a value for 'Custom availability,' the app uses the defaults in Admin > Settings > Online Bookings.
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Tip: It is always best practice to keep your default opening hour set to 00:00 to keep your bookings open 24 hours. And, then set custom opening hours on each item as mentioned in the above step.
Flex-Settings tab:
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Only same day: If the item is available on the same day. Probably 'Yes' for car rental, but it's completely up to your operational needs
Time cannot be chosen: Hide displaying hours for app users. For a car rental, you wouldn't want users to select from/to by hours, unless you have unique needs
Suggest durations: Instead of asking users to select from/to, you can use this option for them to quickly select the number of days to book. If your rental company sees most of your customers book for 3 days, then it's more convenient for your users to tap on '3 days' option than selecting from/to dates
Allow only suggestions: If you're offering to rent only for a predetermined number of days, you can activate this option. But, you need to create all available 'Suggest durations' in this case
Resources tab:
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Resources: Usually, you don't need to use resources for car rentals. However, if you offer chauffeur-driven rentals, you might give customers with options to select their preferred chauffeurs. If you go for this option, it is advisable to create a resource that says, 'Self-drive' to know if a customer wants self-drive
Disable resource selection: If you don't offer chauffeur-driven rentals, you may disable this option so the customers don't see resources
Deactivate number of people: Activate this option for car rentals because it doesn't depend on number of people like in the case of hotel rooms
Number of persons blocks only one resource: Activate this option if you offer chauffeur-driven rentals since there is always one chauffeur for vehicle
Modifiers tab:
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Modifiers groups: You may take advantage of this option to give customers with color options or vehicle options such as limited editions, full options, and vehicle year. You can create modifiers accordingly and set prices for it, so it will add the charges on to the base price of the rent. Read here to learn how to create modifers: https://www.zappter.com/marketplace/en-us/plugins/modifiers.html
5. Click on the 'Create' button to complete your car listing.
