As millennials continue to prioritize experiences over things and spend more money on building memories, boat rental businesses can benefit from this growing trend and optimize boat rental booking software. Hitting the open waters is an appealing idea for adventure seekers, especially during the peak summer months.
In most cases, renting a boat is a more economical option compared to buying. This is one reason the boat rental industry is anticipated to grow at a rate of approximately 5% as more people focus on creating memorable experiences while keeping expenses low.
The boat rental business can be split into multiple types of categories:
1. Boat type:
Yachts
Sailing boat
Catamaran
Motorboat
2. Power source:
IC Engine
Electric
3. Activity type:
Fishing
Water skiing
Kayak Surfing
Snorkeling
Parasailing
Why does your rental business need boat rental booking software?
No matter what kind of boat rental inventory you maintain, you need to ensure that you track and maintain it for optimized operations. Here are 5 ways rental software can help your business do better every day.
1. Use dashboard availability calendar for conflict-free bookings
Every boat rental reservation is unique. The rental duration can be different depending on the type of boat and purpose for renting. For example, a pontoon boat, also known as a pleasure ferry, may be rented out for a week, whereas a towboat for water skiing may be rented for a couple of hours.
Keeping complete track of all your bookings is easy with an availability calendar. Tracking software will consolidate all information to let you know at a glance whether a certain item is available, booked, rented out, or in maintenance. A monthly calendar view helps you manage conflict-free rental dates and book future orders.
Navigation between months to check events is easy and you can also access details such as order number, client name, and rented-out item.
2. Offer flexible prices based on customer requirements
Different sizes and types of boats, the types of water sports and activities they are utilized for, and rental durations are few of the factors that influence the rental price. For example, renting a fishing boat is less expensive than renting a luxury cruiser.
Let’s say, you have a customer who wants to book a large boat for water sport activities during a peak summer period. Offering a flexible and attractive price can affect your customer’s decisions and lead them to choose you over other boat rental competitors. A boat rental booking software will enable you to set up and automate a pricing structure where you can charge an individual rate for individual items.
You can also easily set multiple pricing and discounts to entice customers to rent again. Offering discounts for customers willing to rent out large boats can incentivize them to rent from your business. You can also set customer-level pricing for loyal and frequent customers. Customized pricing makes your customers feel special and keeps them coming back.
3. Boat Fleet maintenance
Regularly maintaining your boats, engines, trailers and other related equipment minimizes the chances of customers encountering problems on the water. Having a regular maintenance strategy ensures that your fleet is always in top shape.
Keeping fittings and moving parts lubricated, cleaning and checking drive lubricant and engine oil, are some examples of regular maintenance work that you can schedule and track with boat rental booking software.
Another crucial aspect of a well-maintained fleet is preventative maintenance. It helps you to take measures that ensure that all required service and maintenance take place before any unplanned downtime. Machine failure was one of the top five key contributing reasons for accidents in 2020, with 5,265 recreational boating accidents resulting in property losses of roughly $62.5 million dollars.
With the help of boat rental software, you can set service reminders based on meter readings and engine hour intervals. The service events on the dashboard help you keep track of important maintenance events and ensure that your equipment is always ready to be rented out.
Post-inspection is equally important to quickly identify and troubleshoot issues. Use the service triage function to automate post-inspection procedures as soon as the boats are checked back in. A proactive maintenance strategy to prevent unexpected breakdowns can ensure the safety of your equipment and crew.
4. Custom fields in boat rental booking software
Each boat rental order can be customized to meet customer’s unique requirements. A family renting a day cruise, for example, may require life jackets for both adults and children, but someone going fishing may require fishing equipment.
A robust boat rental software enables you to create custom fields so you can include any additional criteria while renting out boats in order to respond to individual demands. There are different types of custom fields that may be generated with an order, including single text, paragraph text, dropdown menus, and numeric fields. By selecting the appropriate custom field, any additional instructions or requirements can be fulfilled. You can also choose to mark custom fields as mandatory so that it becomes an essential part to fulfill before renting out to customers.
5. Rules of the water – Mandatory checkout documents
Customers must also provide required documents to rent out boats for recreational activities, such as valid ID and passports, licenses, and forms of payment documents. A boat rental software makes it easier for customers to submit and owners to verify documents while checking out boats.
Your customers can upload documents and rental owners can approve orders once the validity of the documents has been verified. Documents size, types, and the number of documents can be specified for customers to upload the correct set of documents. This ensures quick and easy checkouts for customers and automation of tedious tasks during peak season for you.
About EZRentOut
EZRentOut, a cloud-based equipment rental software can help. EZRentOut offers companies in numerous industries seamless rental management along with a host of other features. You can integrate your website with our EZR plug to keep track of all your rental Assets and operations.
