How to Add Customizable Car Rental Bookings on Your WooCommerce Site

Car rentals represent a thriving business model, with the U.S. market alone projected to generate $31.54 billion in revenue by 2024. For WordPress site owners looking to tap into this lucrative field, creating rental products isn’t possible with WooCommerce alone. A quality plugin is essential for building functional and user-friendly rental offerings.

This article will guide you through the top three car rental plugins for WooCommerce, highlighting must-have features to look for. We’ll then provide a step-by-step demonstration on creating a car rental product page using Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce. 

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade your existing rental system, this guide will help you create a customized, efficient car rental booking process on your WooCommerce site.

Must-have features for your car rental plugin

When selecting a car rental plugin for your WooCommerce site, look for these essential features to ensure you meet your business needs and enhance your service:

1. Customization options:
   • Configurable booking forms to gather crucial customer information
   • Ability to add custom fields for insurance, mileage limits, GPS upgrades, etc.
   • Example: Allow customers to select premium insurance or add a child car seat to their rental.
2. Dynamic pricing and discounts:
   • Flexible pricing based on rental duration, seasonal demand, and additional services
   • Options for setting up promotions and discounts to attract customers
   • Example: Offer a 15% discount for weekly rentals or implement surge pricing during peak tourist seasons.
3. Responsive and mobile-friendly design:
   • Ensures smooth booking experience across all devices
   • Crucial for catering to customers who prefer booking via smartphones and tablets
   • Example: A user-friendly calendar interface that works well on both desktop and mobile devices.
4. Payment integration and security:
   • Support for secure payment gateways to protect customer information
   • Multiple payment method options and straightforward refund/cancellation processes
   • Example: Integration with PayPal, Stripe, and local payment methods, with the ability to take deposits.
5. Comprehensive reporting and analytics:
   • Detailed reports to track bookings, revenue, and customer behavior
   • Integration with marketing and analytics tools for enhanced insights
   • Example: Generate reports on the most popular rental periods or vehicles to inform inventory decisions. 
6. Inventory management:
   • Real-time tracking of vehicle availability
   • Ability to block out dates for maintenance or other reasons
   • Example: Automatically update availability when a vehicle is booked or returned.
7. Customer communication tools:
   • Automated booking confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups
   • Integration with email marketing platforms
   • Example: Send an automated reminder 24 hours before pickup with location details and required documents.

Top 3 car rental plugins for WooCommerce

Each of these plugins offers unique features to help you create a robust car rental system. By comparing their capabilities, you can find the best fit for your specific needs.

Rental Products for WooCommerce

Rental Products for WooCommerce is a feature-rich plugin designed specifically for rental businesses. It offers a comprehensive solution for managing rentals, including both shipped and in-person pick-up options. Key features include a user-friendly rental form, real-time availability checking, and flexible pricing options. The plugin also provides a robust dashboard for managing rentals, inventory, and customer communications.

With its extensive customization options and WooCommerce integration, this plugin is ideal for businesses focused solely on rentals. However, its annual pricing of $189 may be steep for smaller operations or those just starting out.

RnB – WooCommerce Booking & Rental Plugin

RnB is a versatile and budget-friendly option for setting up a car rental business on WooCommerce. It allows for unlimited rental products and offers a comprehensive calendar management system. One standout feature is the “request for quote” functionality, enabling custom pricing for individual users.

The plugin supports various rental items beyond cars, making it suitable for diverse rental businesses. With a one-time fee of $29, it’s an attractive option for those on a tight budget or just entering the rental market. However, it may lack some of the advanced features found in more expensive alternatives.

Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce

Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce isn’t a dedicated car rental plugin, but its versatility makes it a powerful tool for customizing rental products. This plugin allows you to add a wide range of custom fields to your product pages, including all the essentials for car rentals:

• Calendar fields for selecting rental dates
• File upload options for driver’s licenses
• Radio buttons and checkboxes for add-ons like insurance or GPS
• Deposit charging capabilities
• Dynamic pricing based on selected options

Its flexibility extends beyond car rentals, allowing you to customize any product in your WooCommerce store. This makes it an excellent choice if you offer a mix of rental and retail products or if you want the freedom to expand your offerings in the future.

The plugin also features conditional logic, allowing you to show or hide options based on customer selections. This can create a more streamlined and user-friendly booking process.

Advanced Product Fields is compatible with the WooCommerce Discounts plugin, enabling more sophisticated pricing and discount structures for your rentals.

Pricing starts at $69 per year for a single site, offering a middle ground between the other two options in terms of cost.

Customizing essential car rental settings with Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce

This section will guide you through setting up crucial elements like rental durations, pricing options, and additional features such as insurance, mileage packages, and GPS upgrades. By following these steps, you’ll be able to create a comprehensive and user-friendly car rental product page.

Setting up rental durations and pricing options

To set up rental durations and pricing for your car rental product:

1. Create a new product in WooCommerce and set it as a Simple product. Add a name, image, and description. 
2. Set a base daily rate in the Regular price field.
3. In the Custom fields tab, click Add fields and add two date fields: Start rental and End rental.
4. Make the field a required option. 
5. Adjust the time-picking settings further down.
6.  Repeat the same steps for the End rental field and then go down to the pricing settings, click on Adjust pricing, and select Formula based pricing.
7.  If you click on the question mark icon, you can now build your formula so that the overall price gets adjusted depending on the days. 

• Use this formula: max(0; (datediff([field.pickup_date];[field.return_date])*[price])-[price])
• The [field.pickup_date] and [field.return_date] will be automatically replaced with your actual field IDs.

This setup allows customers to select their rental period and automatically calculates the total cost based on the number of days and your base rate.

Adding custom fields for insurance, mileage, and GPS upgrades

Enhance your car rental offering with these additional options. 

Car insurance

1. Add a new field, set the field type to Select list, and name it Car insurance.
2. Add options like “Basic”, “Premium”, and “Full Coverage” with corresponding prices as flat fees.
3. Save your settings and check how it looks on the front end. 

GPS upgrade

Add a Checkbox field named “GPS Navigation” and then set a flat fee for this option.

Driver’s license

1. Add a File upload field named “Driver’s license” and set it as required. 
2. Specify allowed file types (e.g. jpg, png, pdf) and set a max file size. 

These additions allow customers to customize their rental experience while providing you with necessary information and additional revenue opportunities. Remember to update your product description to explain each option clearly to your customers.

Create a bespoke car rental service with Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce

Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce is a versatile plugin that allows you to set up flexible rental durations, implement dynamic pricing, and add crucial options like insurance, file uploads for documents, and various upgrades.

While Advanced Product Fields isn’t exclusively designed for car rentals, its flexibility makes it an excellent choice for businesses offering a mix of products or those planning to expand their services in the future. The plugin’s features, such as conditional logic and a modern backend builder, enable you to create a user-friendly booking experience that can significantly enhance customer satisfaction.

For those focusing solely on vehicle rentals, specialized plugins like Rental Products for WooCommerce or RnB might offer more out-of-the-box features. However, Advanced Product Fields provides a cost-effective solution with regular updates and reliable customer support, ensuring compatibility with the latest versions of WooCommerce and WordPress.

Ready to transform your WooCommerce store into a powerful car rental platform? Give Advanced Product Fields for WooCommerce a try and start creating your bespoke rental products today.