How rental companies can offer faster, safer payment experiences

Payments can be a headache for rental companies. Business owners with physical stores want transactions to be effortless, especially during peak hours. Clearly, customers don’t like standing in line. Then, when we look at e-commerce, customers demand more payment options than ever before. In this post, we’ll look at a couple of easy ways for rental businesses to offer faster and safer payment experiences.

Booqable currently enables you to accept payments from customers all over the world. More importantly, though, you can securely accept online payments and credit cards without the risk of customers’ payment details ending up into the wrong hands.

So, how do we protect our customers from fraudsters? Booqable uses PCI compliant payment processor Stripe for encrypting and processing payments, and our infrastructure provider is PCI Level 1 compliant, the key security standard within the payments industry.

Specific payment options for the rental industry

Enough about security. Let’s go back to the industry-specific payment options. Here’s the thing: most common payment providers are built with traditional retailers in mind. That’s problematic because the rental industry generally has more complex requirements than your average retail store. Rental businesses can benefit greatly from specific solutions that, for example, support down payments and security deposits.

Our integration with Stripe allows us to offer specialized payment features for the rental industry. We are continually developing new ways for rental businesses to receive payments and serve their customers. In the next sections, you’ll find an overview of the different options that Booqable offers to accelerate and simplify your payments.

1. Accept online payments 💳

Today, customers have higher standards than ever before. Can you meet these expectations? Rental businesses must offer a full range of payment options and allow customers to pay with their preferred payment method. The most popular payment options today are credit cards, PayPal, and local payment methods, such as iDEAL and Bancontact. By offering more than just Visa and Mastercard, you get the most out of your online transactions for local and international customers.

Besides accepting various digital payment types, Booqable gives you granular control over the payment process. Rental companies can choose to charge the full order amount, part of the order amount, or have the customer pay later (at pickup, for example). Additionally, it’s possible to require a refundable security deposit at checkout.

2. Payment request (Pay by link) 🔗

With payment requests, you can accept payments using a payment link. The link takes your customers to a secure, Booqable-hosted payment page where they can pay with any of the payment methods you set up in your Booqable account.

Payment requests are perfect if you accept orders through email, by phone, or on social media, or if you don’t accept payments in advance. They also help you provide a more seamless experience as it’s easy to include a payment link in your emails and documents.

3. Pre-authorization and security deposits 🔒

Pre-authorizations, also known as authorization holds, are ideal when combined with security deposits. With this feature, your customers’ credit card is pre-authorized instead of actually charged. The available funds are temporarily blocked, which reduces chargebacks and improves the experience for your customers.

Within seven days, you decide whether or not you capture the authorization. Pre-authorizations are an excellent tool for rental companies to manage risk in case equipment is damaged or lost.

Note: Authorizations must be captured within seven days.

4. Accept in-store payments

Of course, you can also charge and refund credit cards directly from your Booqable account. Payments and orders are connected, so it’s simple to refund any charges and deposits. Don’t accept payments with Booqable? No problem, you can register any payments that you accept outside of Booqable, such as bank transfers and cheques. By bringing these into your Booqable account, you still have all your transactions in one place.

Want to learn more about payments?

Our team is always here to answer any questions regarding payments for your business. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send us a message through our chat or contacting us at [email protected].