Modern consumers prefer a faster shopping experience, preferably from the conveniences of their homes.
Let’s take the travel industry. One survey found that 80% of global travelers prefer to book online. It is no different in the rental industry.
For example, businesses with a 24/7 online booking system see a 37% increase in bookings, which is an indication that people lean towards online bookings.
It has great implications for traditional brick-and-mortar-type rental businesses that need to transition into more innovative rental models so they can give their customers autonomy to select, book, and pay directly from their gadgets.
We consider the electronic payment to be the backbone of online bookings. So, we dedicated this article to teaching how to establish online payments for your rental business.
Why electronic payments are important?
Here are the 10 primary advantages:
- Conveniences – customers can book rental items from anywhere in the world at any time using credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers. It saves time and trips to the office.
- Better record-keeping – every transaction or payment gets recorded in the system and businesses can utilize that data to manage their finances.
- Reduced administrative burden – No need to process the payments manually, which reduces errors, minimizes processing time and clears free time for other tasks for more productivity.
- Expanded business reach – If you can’t take electronic payments, you are limited to clients from your area. Electronic payments, on the other hand, remove those boundaries.
- Better customer experience – Modern consumers love to do everything quickly. So, writing a check, staying in line, waiting for time-consuming payment processing, filling out paperwork, etc. may not fit their lifestyle. Electronic payments can avoid those.
- Enhanced security – electronic payments are usually encrypted, recorded, and protected by other security measures, while written checks and cash lack them.
- Automated billing – rental businesses can automatically collect payments based on signed contracts. It minimizes missed or late payments and manual labor.
- Competitive advantage – Rental businesses that accept electronic payments are more attractive than those that still use outdated payment methods.
- Streamlined cash flow – electronic payments eliminate bottlenecks that persist in modern business models. For example, you can easily charge deposits, set up payment plans, split payments, and more without sending your customers from department to department.
- Eco-friendly – wasting paper and pen does not align with global sustainability goals. Electronic payments help your business go paperless as you are accepting electronic versions of contracts, invoices, and billing information.
Electronic payments give a complete booking experience and remove fragmentation from the booking process.
Let’s say, you have a utility trailer rental business that takes online bookings through simple electronic forms.
Such a method is inefficient because a customer who wants to book your trailers must first fill out the booking form, and then, wait for a reply from the business owner for confirmation and further instructions to complete the booking.
Fragmentation also creates a serious bottleneck since the administration has to review the booking requests and then manually add them to the system. Manual bookings are also prone to errors such as double bookings.
How to set it up?
This question would have required very complex answers decades ago.
But in today’s world, the answer is simple: Use rental software, and let the system do the work.
We recommend Reservety for this matter.
Why Reservety?
It handles more than simple electronic payments.
For example, most rental software solutions are compatible with only a few payment gateways.
But Reservety does not have boundaries. Its payment settings are fully customizable.
Meaning, people can integrate their rental business with almost all global and country-based payment gateways.
Check the list below:
Asia
Europe
Africa
South America
Middle East
Australia
Asia
Europe
Africa
South America
Middle East
Australia
Please visit our Payment Integrations page to view the full list of supported payment options.
Other Payment Features You Will Get with Reservety
Instant Payments
Once integrations are set, your customers can complete their bookings with instant payments. The system can handle payments from credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and terminals.
Since the system can be used as a POS system, you can also accept checks and cash and apply the payments to customer accounts manually.
Automated Invoices
Reservety allows businesses to create a custom invoice with their preferred structure, logo, and other design options.
Electronic invoices are generated automatically but they can also be modified manually.
Similarly, the invoicing can be sent automatically or manually.
Security deposits
Rental businesses need security deposits to validate bookings and cover the costs in case of damages to rental items.
The system automatically charges security deposits as preauthorized payment or payment on hold.
It automatically gets released once the item is received back in good shape.
Partial payments & installments
Reservety allows partial payments and sets schedules for the next payments for automated collections.
You can also implement installment plans. It is a good strategy for a membership-type rental business, which you can also set up with Reservety.
Payment notifications and reminders
Disconnect between a customer and a business can pose trust issues, especially when it relates to payments.
Reservety equips your business with a real-time notification system that informs customers about successful or failed payments, reminders for payments, and other notifications to keep customers updated.
Customer balances
Reservety makes it easy to manage your customers. Each customer will get an account with self-serve options.
Through this, customers can create new orders, change existing bookings, modify their personal information such as addresses and billing details, and see their past transactions and current balances, depending on the privileges you grant for users.
Financial reports
Reservety allows you to create instant financial reports on revenues, transactions, expenses, and current balances to enable owners to monitor the financial heartbeat of their rental business.
Automated taxes
The system can automatically charge taxes based on the customer locations and order amounts.
You can manually set the tax percentages, and waive them for certain orders.
Discounts & coupons
You can create discounts as coupons and have customers redeem them during the booking process to reduce total amounts.
You can also create and implement membership-based discounts. For example, 5% off for gold members; 3% off silver members; 10% off for the new member; etc.
Integrations with accounting platforms
Are you accustomed to using certain accounting & bookkeeping software? No problem.
Reservety seamlessly integrates them into your rental business, and synchs the payment data in real-time, helping rental businesses manage their finances with greater ease.
Security measures to avoid vulnerabilities.
Reservety puts great effort into protecting businesses’ and customers’ data from getting into the hands of the wrong people.
To minimize the risk of scams, frauds, and other vulnerabilities, Reservety applies the latest security layers & encryptions and keeps them regularly updated to counter even newly emerging threats.
Does Reservety sound like something you would use for your rental business?
Here is how the Reservety-powered rental model works:
- A customer picks an item.
- Selects rental duration from a calendar.
- Adds additional services or recommended items (optional)
- Fills out required fields
- Reviews automated quote
- Signs rental contracts and waivers electronically
- Choose a payment method,
- Completes the billing information
- Hits the “Book” button
- Receives booking confirmation email along with order details.
- You manage your orders at the convenient dashboard.
Please note: The software lets you customize these steps to suit your business model.
Sign up for a free trial and take advantage of the following perks.
If you already have a website:
- Free Migration
- Free Integration
- Free Makeover
- Free Premium Support
If you need a new rental website:
- Free web-design
- Free Setup
- Free Premium Support.
