Online booking system vs. Rental software
Ultimately, the goal of software should be to serve the needs of your rental shop and work as a solution to any occurring problem. What might be perfect for one shop, might be a complete waste of money for another. To know that, you need to understand the differences between solutions often used by rental shops — online booking systems and rental software.
Online Booking System
While being efficient in helping simplify and automate the booking process itself (getting customer details, updating booking information, and accepting payments), online booking systems often work as a solution focusing on the customer interface.
From the customer’s perspective, placing an order does not significantly differ between a booking solution and rental software. The only exception is that with a rental software a shop might be able to offer a more detailed selection of equipment for the customer to choose from.
Example: Generic Ski Set vs. Ski set with Fischer RC4 Worldcup SC skis. See what we mean?
Booking solutions rarely have order or inventory management integrated, which leads to a lot of manual work related to scheduling online bookings and managing inventory. Because booking solutions are not connected with the in-store activities and resources, it creates a risk for double bookings and overall complicates the rental processes for the staff.
Rental Software
A rental software, on the other hand, works on a larger scale and serves multiple functions of a rental shop. Let’s put it this way — a rental software works from the core, having a booking system as one of the features among others.
Rental software has features from which shops with bigger inventories benefit. Having the software integrated to the business starting from the back-office and inventory, allows shops to have multi-channel sales tracked and scheduled automatically based on real-time stock availability. This helps out especially during rush-hours and reduces the staff’s workload — all while making the shopping experience more streamlined.
The hardware has a more significant role in rental software. For example, to get the full advantage of the barcode support or integrated POS system, a shop needs to invest in barcode scanners and receipt printers. It is important to acknowledge the size of the required additional investments when making a purchase decision on software.
So, which solution is better?
Check out the whole article to find out!
This post was originally published on our blog and was redacted for Medium.
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