The crucial elements of a rental
Inventory - which bikes
Underpinning each rental is your inventory – your bikes.
in BRM each bit of inventory, each bike, has its own calendar. It can only be included in a rental if it’s available.
But a bike also has a ‘life’ of it’s own which must be tracked.
- it can be bought, sold, transferred etc
- it can be maintained
- it can be prepared for a particular rental
Customer / Client
your customer, client – your renter.
who are they, where do they live. (and any other custom fields you may want to store)
This is not *part* of the rental but it must be linked to that rental.
If the same customer comes back to rent something else you need be able to easily find their record.
BRM has an integrated CRM (customer relationship management) system.
pricing
a rental is not as simple as retail.
you don’t have one price per product. The price varies according to duration.
Discounts may be applied.
BRM auto-prices your rentals so you don’t have to.
(and so you can sell online of course!)
waiver / receipt
Deposits
Deposits are a crucial part of the rental landscape – but did you know there are two flavours of deposit?
Reservation Deposit – securing a reservation – making sure they show up for advanced bookings.
Security Deposit – making sure your bikes come back! holding something while they are out riding
BRM handles both
communications
Communications is a broad name.
In this context it means each of the following:
- talking to your renters – any special requirements?
- bike setup – exactly how do they want your kit setup – rider weight, height, pedals etc
- rider name – it’s a really nice touch to be able to hand each rider their bike when he walks in – all setup correctly
- sending them emails pre-reservation – detailing what’s booked & when. Avoid mis-communication up front
- sending them emails post-reservation – ‘how did you get on?’ please review us. This gets you more business.
BRM does all of that inside your rentals – so you’re not looking up 100 emails when a customer walks in.
right information, right place, right time.
dealing with change
If there is one thing you can be sure of in rental – it’s that stuff is gonna change!
change can kill an operation if you can’t re-act quickly without error.
“Hey I want to push back 3 days”
“can I add 2 bikes”
“can I swap 2 bikes for a tandem”
BRM can handle the above (and much more) in seconds.
imagine doing that manually. Imagine making a mistake coz you’re in a hurry – you can’t with BRM.