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Setting up your Rental platform
Setting up your Rental platform

How to start using ATOM's rental platform with a pre-booking calendar

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Written by ATOM Support
Updated over a month ago

ATOM's rental platform is designed for cases where your service would benefit from using a pre-booking calendar in the mobile apps - basically, this is a digitized classic vehicle rental that lets customers manage the process remotely and simply arrive at the pre-booked time and place to pick up their vehicle and start their journey.

User app

How it works:

The customer selects the pick-up and return area which for the rental services is the same point (you will have the option to predefine them in the dashboard under More -> Zones -> Parking zones):

You can also see any vehicle availability in the selected period by choosing the default pick-up/drop-off location "All":

Then the customer selects the start and end time of the rental from the calendar:

After confirming the selection, the app will show a summary that can be further edited. If the data is correct, the client presses Show available vehicles to see a list of vehicles to choose from:

The rental app will show available vehicle models for the period for that pick-up zone, or all available vehicle models for that period in all zones if "All" was chosen for the pick-up location part:

The vehicle availability is determined by the vehicle GPS - the vehicle will be tied to a parking zone from which it sent a GPS signal and where afterwards the bookings for this vehicle exist.

NB! If it is required to change the parking zone linked to the vehicle, make sure no future bookings exist for the initial parking zone (either none exist or you can manually cancel them from the dashboard), and afterwards move the vehicle to the new parking zone, so it can send it's GPS signal from there and be linked to the new parking zone.


After the customer confirms by pressing Book & Pay, he pays upfront for the selected period:

Upcoming bookings are displayed in the Rental module of the user app where customer can perform the following actions:

- change the return date - can extend max for the duration of the original rental; it can be broken down into smaller extension increments, but the extension in total cannot be more than the original booking;

- navigate the path to the pick-up station;

- report any damage should there be any;

- cancel the booking - please note that auto-refunds are not implemented forthe rental module.

NB! In case of a cancellation, the customer will need to reach out to support of the provider.

Rental dashboard

The dashboard is the command center of your rental business. Here, you can create a fleet, define parking zones, set your pricing strategy, manage your vehicled and customers, get statistics about your operation, and more.

On the left side of your dashboard, you will find a shortcut list to the different sections in which your platform is divided, which are:

  • Dashboard: The platform's landing page. It shows valuable information about your operation, including your rides, customers, vehicles, analytics, and revenue. Clicking on the headers will take you to that specific page of your platform.

  • Bookings: Information about your upcoming, current and past bookings.

  • Vehicles: Here, you will find information about your vehicles, their status, and their geolocation. You can also add new vehicles here.

  • Customers: Information and statistics about your customers, status, and activity.

  • Analytics: General statistics about your bookings, new user registrations, cost, drivers, heatmaps, etc. You can read more about it in our analytics article.

  • More: The platform's backend, where you can set up your marketing strategy, add subaccounts, personalize your app, and more.

Steps to configure your platform

Zones:

First, you must define at least one parking zone where your rental vehicles can be picked up and dropped off under More -> Settings -> Parking zones:

To define it, you first need to choose a subaccount. You can do this by clicking "Admin (Global)" at the top-right corner of your screen and selecting the appropriate subaccount for this particular zone:

Once you're under the correct sub-account, you will be able to Add a new zone:

The new zone will be created, and finally, you should be able to define a polygon: a geometrical shape over a map that will delimitate your parking zone's area:

To create the polygon, simply navigate to the point in the map where you want to start drawing and click through different points sequentially to craft the shape of your area:

Once you click through all the points and return to your initial point, a new parking zone will be created for the polygon you just defined:

At this point, you can edit the new zone's settings: add a name (under "Edit settings"), redefine your polygon, and delete the polygon and the zone:

Adding vehicle models

To add vehicles to your fleet, you first need to maintain at least one vehicle model for your service in the dashboard.

You can maintain information for your vehicle model(-s) by going to the dashboard section More -> Settings -> Vehicle models:

Click Add new model button to proceed:

And afterwards, fill in all the mandatory fields marked with an asterisk (*):

You will need to set up pricing for a vehicle model, consisting of different parameters, such as fixed price, price per minute, price per hour, price per day, and optional distance-based fees:

Based on these pricing settings, the system will combine the cheapest option for the user. For example, if the user rents for 30 days, daily pricing will be applied instead of hourly or minute pricing to offer the best possible rate to the user.

You will need to define the max distance and optional default speed, along with a vehicle voltage (for EV cars) or fuel levels (for combustion cars):

Additional parameters

Vehicles, add-ons, tutorials, and other rules can be set up in your Rental dashboard.

Additional parameters that are exclusive to the Rental module and can be set up in your dashboard under More -> Settings -> System preferences are:


- time gap between two bookings (can be used to have a fixed gap between two bookings of the same vehicle to maintain and clean it);

- time gap between the next booking and the current ride (used to define a time gap between the next possible booking and the existing booking if the existing booking is already overdue for return)


- minimum and maximum rental period - the rental period is adjustable for your vehicle model - it can be a minimum of 15 minutes and a few days maximum or, for example, designed for long-term rental with a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of a few months.

NB! Note that for the first ever booking on a newly added vehicle to the Rental platform, the vehicle will need to be located physically in a parking zone you have defined in your dashboard, and the vehicle will need to send an active GPS signal update from the zone.
After the first vehicle rental made through your rental app, the vehicle will be linked to this specific parking area, and the next rental booking for this car will always be linked to this first parking zone where the rental booking took place.
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Active booking management

The user will have access to the car 5 minutes before the planned rental time, so he/she can unlock the vehicle, inspect it, and start the ride.

If the user fails to return the vehicle on time, the booking time can be extended also from the dashboard.

You need to navigate to Bookings and filter by active bookings:

Opening the booking card you will have the possibility to edit the booking:

In the opened pop-up window you can extend the booking. There is no limit on how much time till the end of the rental is left for the extension to be applied:

Ten minutes before the rental ends, the user will receive a reminder to return the vehicle to the parking area. If the user continues the ride, additional fees will be charged and calculated the moment the user ends the ride in the return location.

NB! If the booking is extended from the dashboard before the ride starts, the extension will still be charged at the end of the rental.

NB! If the rental is not returned in time, from the dashboard merchant can exchange the car in the upcoming reservation.

NB! A vehicle from the Rental module is also visible in the Service app to manage and maintain in case you're onboarded with our Standard plan, which includes access to the service app.

You can assign a number of statuses to a vehicle from the dashboard, such as Available, Discharged, Charging, Maintenance, etc.

If you need to do some maintenance on the vehicle, please feel free to assign a relevant status to it. Please note that even if the vehicle has an active or upcoming booking, you can change the status from Available to Maintenance, and it will remove the vehicle from the selection for new bookings, leaving open and upcoming ones intact.

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