Setting Up Your Shop on Hubtiger’s Rental Software: A Step-by-Step Guide

Next, you’ll need to set up your shop profile, which includes key details that customers will see during the booking process.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

 

Process:

Fill in the following fields:

Finally, click “Update Profile” to save all your changes.

 

Top Tip: Make sure your country and address are entered correctly in your shop profile. Accurate location details are essential for enabling key Hubtiger features, such as seamless location sharing through WhatsApp, integrations and in-app payments.

At this stage, your next step depends on whether you have a POS system. If you have one, you’ll link it to Hubtiger for automatic syncing. If not, you can add products individually or import them using an Excel sheet, making the process simple and efficient. Let’s walk through both options.

One of the most powerful features of Hubtiger is the ability to integrate your existing POS system, which allows for seamless inventory management and easy transaction processing.

• Maximum Outgoing Rentals Per Day: Set a limit on how many rentals can go out per day to manage inventory effectively and prevent overbooking.
• Maximum Rentals Per Pickup Slot: Define how many rentals can be scheduled for pickup at the same time, ensuring your staff can handle the load.
• Pickup Time Intervals: Set the time intervals between each pickup (e.g., every 15 minutes) to prevent congestion at your store. This ensures a smooth experience for customers while helping your staff manage pickups efficiently without added stress.
• Buffer Time Between Rentals: Add buffer time between rentals to allow for cleaning, maintenance, or setup, ensuring each product is in top condition before it’s rented again.
• Allow Fixed Length Reservations: Toggle this option if you offer fixed-length rentals, like hourly or daily bookings.
• Allow Flexible Reservation Durations: Toggle this option to allow customers to book for flexible time frames, such as multi-day or long-term rentals.

• Add a Booking Fee: Choose whether to add a booking fee, either as a percentage or a fixed amount. Enter the booking fee value and link it to a SKU to ensure it’s visible on the rental quote.
• Send Rental Notification on Reservation: Enable this option to automatically notify your team whenever a new rental is booked.
• Add a Rental Waiver: Include a rental waiver to protect your business by outlining the risks and responsibilities, releasing you from liability in case of any harm or damage during the rental. This ensures customers acknowledge the risks involved and agree not to hold your business accountable for incidents that may occur.
• Cancellation Policy: Add any applicable cancellation policies to clarify what happens if a customer cancels their booking. This can help reduce last-minute cancellations and protect your revenue.

Top Tip:

Configuring custom pickup slots is a great way to manage peak periods efficiently and prevent too many customers from arriving at the same time, reducing wait times and ensuring a smooth handover process.

Choosing the right rental duration configuration is crucial for optimising your rental store’s operations. Hubtiger offers two types of rental durations: Fixed and Flexible. Each option caters to different types of customer needs, allowing you to align your rental durations with the nature of your business.

This option works well if your business operates with a set schedule or high-demand items where bookings need to be controlled within specific timeframes. Customers can book rentals for predetermined periods, such as hourly or daily.

 

Best suited for:

 

• Short-term rentals, such as bikes for leisure rides or quick equipment hires.
• Scenarios where you need strict control over rental turnaround, ensuring items are returned promptly for the next booking.

Example Scenario:

If you’re renting out mountain bikes for casual riders, you might offer bookings in time blocks like 2 hours, 4 hours, or a full day. The fixed duration ensures a steady stream of turnover, allowing you to service multiple customers per day.

Flexible rentals provide customers with more freedom to choose the rental period, which is ideal for long-term or multi-day rentals. With this setup, you can charge customers based on their usage over an extended period, offering more convenience for those who need items for longer durations.

 

Best suited for:

 

• Long-term rentals, such as road bikes for commuting, where customers need the product for several days or even weeks.
• Situations where offering discounts for extended bookings could increase customer loyalty and booking value.

 

Example Scenario: Flexible bookings allow for a scalable day rate, where the longer the rental, the lower the daily cost. For example, for rentals of 1-5 days, the daily rate is $80, but for rentals of 6-8 days, the rate drops to $70 per day.

Important:

If you leave an SKU blank for a rental duration, the customer will not be able to book that duration for the item. If you don’t have an SKU for a particular rental duration, you can create a new one under POS products, provided you don’t have a POS linked to Hubtiger.

 

For POS-linked accounts: Create a new SKU on your POS system, then return to the Hubtiger portal and link the SKU to the relevant price group. If the SKU doesn’t appear, navigate to POS products and click the refresh icon (located at the top right next to the search bar) to sync the new SKU data from your POS.

 

Example:

For mountain bikes, you could allow customers to rent for up to 24 hours, setting an hourly rate for short bookings and a daily rate for full-day rentals.

Price Group Configuration:

 

Similar to fixed rentals, you’ll need to create price groups for flexible durations. This ensures that your rental categories are linked to the correct pricing.

 

• Click “Add Price Group” and name it appropriately, such as “Flexible Road Bikes” or “Long-Term Road Bike Rental”. Remember it is best to name it after the category that it corresponds to to avoid confusion.
• For each time unit range (e.g., 1-10 days, 11-20 days), assign the appropriate SKU that corresponds to the price for that duration.
• Important: If you leave any SKU fields blank, customers will not be able to book the duration of the item.
• If you don’t have an SKU ready for these durations, create one in POS products (if you don’t have a POS linked to Hubtiger).
• For POS-linked accounts: Add a new SKU to your POS system for the rental durations and prices, then return to Hubtiger. If the new SKU does not appear, navigate to POS products and click the refresh icon next to the search bar to sync the new data from your POS system.

 

Example:

A road bike could be rented for flexible periods, with the daily rate decreasing after 10 days. For example, the first 10 days could be charged at $20 per day, and days 11-20 could drop to $15 per day, offering value to long-term customers.

Top Tip:

Consider using a combination of fixed and flexible durations based on the product type. For high-demand items like e-bikes, fixed durations ensure availability throughout the day, while long-term rentals for commuting or specialised equipment can benefit from flexible pricing models. Balancing both can increase your store’s booking volume while satisfying various customer needs.

Process:

 

• In this section, you can add new rental products, new rental accessories and link products to accessories.
• Use the tab at the top to swap between these three sections.
• Rental Products: Under the rental products tab, you can add or import rental products by clicking the corresponding button. Insert the information for the product you would like to add.
• Accessory Categories: You can create separate categories for accessories to better organise them (e.g., helmets, pedals, protective gear). This makes it easier for customers to select what they need during the booking process.
• Linking Products to Accessories: At the top of the page, you’ll find a tab called “Link Products and Accessories.” Here, you can drag and drop your rental products (e.g., bikes, kayaks) into the relevant accessory categories (e.g., helmets, pedals, baby seats).
• By linking an accessory to a specific product, that accessory becomes automatically mandatory when a customer selects the product.

 

Example: For a bike rental business, you can link a budget-friendly helmet with an affordable bike or a premium helmet with a high-end bike, and these accessories will be required when booking those items, ensuring safety and proper use of rental gear.

Top Tip:

Linking accessories to main products not only improves the customer experience by offering everything they need in one booking but also increases revenue through upselling. Forcing certain essential items, like helmets, can also help reduce liability concerns and ensure compliance with local safety regulations.

Adding custom rental questions helps gather specific information from customers, improving the booking process and ensuring they get the most suitable products. These questions are particularly useful for rentals where additional data (such as height, weight, or experience level) is necessary for rental item preparation.

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Custom Rental Questions

Process:

 

• Drag and Drop Controls: You can create custom questions by dragging controls (e.g., text inputs, text areas, or checkboxes) from the “Control Templates” section on the left.
• Configure Your Questions: After dragging the desired control, you can configure the question by entering the text you want to ask the customer (e.g., “What is your weight?” for setting bike suspension).
• Add a Hint: Provide hints to guide the customer, such as “We need this information to set the bike suspension correctly.”
• Mandatory Question: Toggle this option if the question must be answered before completing the booking.
• Link to Categories: You can link each question to specific product categories (e.g., linking weight questions to mountain bikes or road bikes).

Top Tip:

Custom rental questions improve customer experience and help ensure that the products are tailored to the customer’s needs. For example, knowing a customer’s weight for a bike rental helps set up the suspension correctly.

Communicating effectively with your customers is key, and Hubtiger offers various messaging options, including email, SMS, and WhatsApp. Setting up message templates will allow you to send automated notifications and updates, keeping customers informed about their reservations and store policies.

 

Navigate to Settings > Messaging > Message Templates

 

Process:

 

You will see three options: Email, SMS, and WhatsApp. You can customise templates for each type of message.

 

Email Setup:

• Toggle email notifications on or off.
• Customise email templates by adding text, buttons, headings, dividers, and images.
• You can also configure the layout, colours, and fonts to match your brand’s style.
• Add links or menus to help customers navigate directly to bookings or reviews.

 

SMS Setup:

• Toggle SMS notifications on or off. Note that SMS messaging requires purchasing SMS bundles.
• The template is limited to 160 characters, so be concise. Add merge tags to personalise the messages (e.g., including customer names or booking details).

WhatsApp Setup:

WhatsApp integration requires an additional $10 per month per store, with separate charges from WhatsApp.

• To set up, update your Hubtiger plan by adding WhatsApp. Navigate to Settings > General > Manage Subscription and add WhatsApp.
• Go to Settings > WhatsApp Integration, log in via Facebook, and follow the prompts to connect your WhatsApp Business account.
• You can customise WhatsApp messages, which have no character limit, and include merge tags, headers (optional), and CTAs (Call-To-Actions).

 

Top Tip:

Automated messaging improves customer communication and reduces manual admin tasks, keeping customers updated throughout the rental process. For more details on WhatsApp setup, check out our Step-by-Step Guide to WhatsApp Integration.

If you work with affiliate partners, Hubtiger makes it easy to manage them. You can offer affiliate-specific coupons and track reservations linked to affiliates, ensuring they get commission payouts based on the rental bookings they refer.

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Affiliates

 

Process:

 

Click on “Add Affiliate” and fill in the following fields:

• Affiliate Name: The name of the affiliate business.
• Contact Person: The name of the person managing the affiliate.
• Contact Email and Phone Number: This is so that communication with the affiliate is streamlined.
• Affiliate Physical Address: Add the affiliate’s business address.
• Commission Settings: Toggle Pay Commission to enable commission payouts for this affiliate.
• Set the Commission Percentage: This defines how much of the reservation total is paid as a commission to the affiliate.
• Payout Cycle: Choose between weekly or monthly payouts. Weekly payouts occur every Monday, while monthly payouts happen on the 1st of every month. Hubtiger will generate a commission report, but it is your responsibility to make the transfer.
• Notifications: You can add user email addresses to receive notifications when a new rental is made through the affiliate’s widget.

Top Tip:

Affiliates help expand your business network, and this feature allows you to manage partnerships with ease. You can monitor rentals made via affiliates and streamline commission payments.

One of the key advantages of using Hubtiger is the ability to offer online bookings through a customised widget that you can easily embed on your website. The booking widget allows customers to browse and book rentals directly on your site, saving both time and admin effort.

 

Navigate to Settings > Plugins > Rentals Widget

 

Process:

• Theme Configuration: You can customise the widget’s appearance to match your branding by configuring:
• Primary Colour: The main colour used in the widget.
• Primary Text Colour: The text colour used for primary information.
• Secondary Text Colour: The text colour for secondary information.
• Card Background: Set the background colour of product cards displayed in the widget.
• Default Page Background: The overall background colour of the widget page.
• Card Border Radius: Adjust the roundness of the corners of product cards to fit your design aesthetic.
• Custom Fonts: If you want the widget to use a specific font, you can configure this here.
• Google Tag Manager Integration: If you use Google Tag Manager (GTM) to track visitor behaviour on your site, enter your GTM ID here to monitor widget interactions. If you need help with setting up Google Tag Manager, you can find instructions here.
• Widget URLs: Once you configure the widget, you will be provided with two options:
• Copy URL Link: Use this to generate a standalone page where the booking widget is hosted.
• Copy iFrame: Copy this code to embed the widget directly on your website’s pages.
• Deliveries/Collections Option: By default, if you offer deliveries, the widget will include delivery options. However, you can toggle this off if you want the widget to exclude the delivery step.

Top Tip:
Offering a booking widget makes the process convenient for customers, enabling them to book rentals anytime, and integrating it with your website encourages more online bookings. If you need more information on booking widgets and how they can benefit your business, please read our blog “Driving Growth: How A Booking Widget Can Benefit Your Business”.

Discounts and coupons can be a great way to increase rentals by offering promotions to your customers. Hubtiger offers various customisable coupon options that allow you to tailor promotions to specific products, days, or customer groups.

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Coupons

 

Process:

 

You can create different types of coupons, such as:

• Percentage Discounts: Offer a percentage discount (e.g., 10% off).
• Rental Item Discounts: Apply discounts to all rental items or specific product categories (e.g., all mountain bikes).
• Accessory Discounts: Offer discounts on accessories, either storewide or for specific categories (e.g., helmets).
• Affiliate-Specific Coupons: Generate unique coupon codes for each affiliate partner, which can be used in the booking widget on their website.
• Day of the Week Specials: Encourage more bookings by offering discounts for rentals made on specific days of the week.
• Expiry Date: Set an expiration date for the coupon, giving you control over how long the promotion is valid.
• Usage Limits: Control the number of redemptions allowed per coupon (e.g., limit the discount to the first 50 customers).
• One Per Customer: Restrict coupon usage to one per customer, encouraging new transactions.
• Number of Products to Qualify: Require customers to book a minimum number of products (e.g., 3 bikes) to qualify for the discount.
• Minimum Spend: Set a minimum spend requirement for the coupon to apply (e.g., $100 minimum to get 10% off).
• Coupon Code Generation: Hubtiger can auto-generate codes or allow you to input custom codes for your coupons.

Top Tip:

Coupons are an excellent way to drive customer loyalty, boost sales, and increase booking volume. Experiment with different types of promotions to see what works best for your business. If you would like more information on how to use coupons for your rental business please read our blog post ‘How to Use Coupons to Boost Equipment Rental Business Profitability’

Hubtiger simplifies logistics by allowing you to manage delivery and collection options for your rentals. You can define delivery areas, set fees, assign vehicles, and configure time slots for deliveries and collections.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Rental Deliveries & Collections

 

Process:

• Enable Deliveries and Collections: Toggle these options on if your store offers delivery or collection services.
• Delivery/Collection Areas: Click the plus sign to add new areas. You can draw custom delivery areas on a map, adjusting the size and shape as needed.
• Assign names and SKUs to each area: Set a delivery and collection fee for each area by linking the fee to an SKU or creating a custom name for it.
• Delivery Vehicles: Add each vehicle used for deliveries by clicking the plus sign. Provide a name for the vehicle (e.g., “Van 1”). Specify the maximum number of rental items the vehicle can carry. Link each vehicle to the appropriate delivery areas.
• Delivery/Collection Slots: Configure delivery and collection slots by selecting the day of the week and the start/end times for each slot. You can link specific vehicles and areas to each slot, ensuring efficient scheduling.
• Buffer Days: Set a cut-off time for bookings (e.g., rentals must be booked a day in advance).
• Custom Slots: If you need to change the delivery schedule for a specific date, you can create custom slots that override the default ones.
• Unavailable Dates: Block out dates when deliveries or collections are not available, such as during holidays or maintenance periods.

Top Tip:

Offering delivery and collection services can significantly improve customer satisfaction, and Hubtiger’s system ensures you can manage these services with precision and efficiency.

Setting up your rental store in Hubtiger can occasionally bring up a few challenges. Below are common questions and issues users encounter, along with clear solutions to help you troubleshoot effectively.

Removing a category can sometimes disrupt your pricing, but this depends on how you manage the removal process. Here’s what to do in different scenarios:

 

Accidentally deleted a category: If you accidentally delete a category and your pricing stops working, simply re-add the category and your pricing should function as expected.

 

No longer renting a category: If you decide to stop offering a particular category, like mountain bikes, follow these steps:

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Products and Accessories

 

Process:

• Find the product(s) under the category you wish to remove.
• Click “Edit,” scroll to the bottom, and select “Retire Rental Product.”
• Once all the products linked to that category are retired, you can safely delete the category without affecting pricing.

Still facing issues with pricing? If your pricing still doesn’t work after re-adding or removing categories, please contact our Customer Experience Team for further assistance.

If a product is set to “Draft,” it won’t show up on the widget or be available for booking. Here’s how to fix that:

 

Navigate to Settings > Rentals > Products and Accessories

 

Process:

 

• Expand the relevant categories and check the status of each product.
• If a product is marked as “Draft,” click “Edit,” scroll to the bottom, and change the status to “Available,” then click “Save.”

Status Options:

1. Draft: The product is not available for booking.
2. Available: The product is bookable.
3. Repair Needed: The product is not bookable and requires repairs.

Top Tip:

Once a product has been repaired, don’t forget to update its status back to “Available” so it can appear in the widget and be booked by customers.

To process online payments through Hubtiger, you’ll need to connect either Stripe or Paystack, depending on your location.

 

For Stripe Users:

 

Ensure you have a Stripe account. If not, you can sign up here.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > In-App Payments

Process:
Click “Connect Stripe,” log in with your credentials, and connect Hubtiger with your Stripe account.

For South African Users (Paystack):

 

If you don’t have a Paystack account, you can sign up here.

Navigate to Settings > General > In-App Payments

Process:
Click “Connect Paystack.”
If the Paystack option doesn’t appear, check that your shop’s location is set to South Africa by:

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

 

Set your country to “South Africa,” click “Save,” and return to the In-App Payments section. Refresh your browser if necessary, and the Paystack button should now appear.

Top Tip:
If you continue to experience issues connecting your payment provider, refreshing your browser or contacting support should help resolve the issue.

Linking your Google Reviews URL is an effective way to build trust and showcase customer feedback directly on your store’s profile. By displaying reviews, you allow potential customers to see the positive experiences others have had, which can significantly improve your store’s credibility.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

Process:

Scroll to the bottom, where you’ll find fields to add your Google Reviews URL and Trustpilot URL.

But what if you don’t have a Google Business Reviews URL or Trustpilot account yet?
Here’s how to get started:

 

How to Get a Google Reviews URL

To generate a Google Reviews link, you need a Google Business Profile. If you don’t have one set up yet, follow these steps:

 

Create a Google Business Profile:

 

1. Go to Google Business Profile.
2. Sign in with your Google account and click “Manage now.”
3. Follow the steps to enter your business details, verify your business location, and claim your Google Business Profile.

Get Your Google Reviews Link:

 

1. Once your profile is verified, go to your Google Business Profile dashboard.
2. Click on Home or Info, depending on the layout.
3. Scroll down to the Get more reviews section, and you’ll find a “Share review form” option.
4. Copy the URL and paste it into the Google Reviews URL field in Hubtiger’s shop profile settings.

Tip: Displaying this link makes it easy for customers to leave a review and see what others have said about your store.

 

How to Create a Trustpilot Account

If you prefer using Trustpilot for customer feedback, or if you want to use both platforms, setting up a Trustpilot account is simple.

 

Sign Up for a Trustpilot Business Account:

 

1. Go to Trustpilot.
2. Click “Create Free Account” or “Get Started.”
3. Enter your business information, including name, website, and contact details.
4. Trustpilot will guide you through the process of setting up your profile.

Share Your Trustpilot Review Link:

 

1. Once your account is set up, you can find a review link by navigating to your Trustpilot Business Dashboard.
2. Copy this URL and paste it into the Trustpilot URL field in Hubtiger’s shop profile settings.

 

Top Tip:

Having both Google Reviews and Trustpilot linked on your profile increases the avenues through which customers can leave feedback, giving your business greater exposure. By setting up and linking both your Google Reviews URL and Trustpilot account, you’ll provide customers with multiple trusted platforms to share their experiences, boosting credibility and encouraging new customers to engage with your business.

If new technicians aren’t appearing in your account, this may be because you’ve reached the technician limit set by your subscription package. To verify this, go to Settings > General > Manage Subscription and check the Tech Limit for your current package. If you’ve reached the maximum, consider upgrading to allow more technicians to be added.

Changing your language settings can make the platform more accessible for you and your team. Hubtiger supports multiple languages.

 

Navigate to: Click on your profile name in the top right corner of the dashboard.

 

Process:

 

• Select My Profile.
• Change your preferred language from the dropdown menu.
• Click Update Profile, and the portal will automatically update to the new language.

Supported Languages: Dutch, English (UK and US), Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

Top Tip:

Switching the language makes Hubtiger user-friendly for international staff or customers, allowing for smoother operations across different regions.

Free text merge tags allow you to customise communications and personalise your messages for customers.

 

Navigate to Settings > General > Shop Profile

 

Process:

 

• In the Free Text Merge Tag section, add a custom message (up to 50 characters). For example, you can add a sign-off like:
• “Thank you, Hubtiger Cycles.”
• You can modify the text by adjusting the size, adding links, inserting images and more.

Using Free Text Merge Tags in Message Templates:

 

• Navigate to: Settings > Messaging > Message Templates
• When customising a message template (for SMS, email, or WhatsApp), insert the tag $Partner.FreeText$ in the relevant location.
• Once triggered, the system will automatically replace the tag with your custom text. Don’t worry if you don’t see the final version in the preview—when the message is sent, the tag will be updated with the custom text.

Top Tip:

Free text merge tags are a great way to personalise customer communications, making your messages feel more engaging and professional without needing manual updates for each individual message.

If you’re seeing an error, ensure a valid payment method or card is linked to your Meta account, as this is necessary for WhatsApp integration. Without this, your WhatsApp messages won’t be sent, and the system will default to SMS.

 

How to Add a Payment Method:

 

1. Access Billing and Payments: Click this link to open a new tab and go to the billing and payments section of your Facebook Business Account on Meta.
2. Add or Verify Payment Method: If you don’t already have a payment method linked, follow the prompts to add one. If a card is already linked, check that the details are current to avoid interruptions.
3. Fill in Payment Details: Enter your country/region, currency, and time zone, then click ‘Next.’
4. Select and Save Payment Method: Choose your preferred payment option, click ‘Next,’ then add your card details and click ‘Save.’
5. Keeping your payment information up to date ensures that WhatsApp integration functions smoothly, allowing you to reach customers reliably through WhatsApp.

To enable direct messaging, you’ll need to set up a secondary WhatsApp account specifically for this purpose. This keeps your primary account separate, ensuring it remains unaffected while allowing you to manage customer communications smoothly from the dedicated account.

WhatsApp templates must be approved by Facebook Meta. After customising your templates, they are sent for approval, which can take a few minutes as templates are reviewed individually. While awaiting approval, the WhatsApp icon next to the template will appear red. Once approved, it will turn green, indicating that the template is ready for use.

 

To quickly check the status of your templates, navigate to Settings > Messaging > WhatsApp Integration. Here, you’ll see all approved and pending templates, and you can click on each one to make changes if needed. Check back in a few minutes and refresh the page to see if your templates have been approved.