Customer Self-Service

Every confirmation and reminder EquipDash sends includes a secure View booking link. From that link your customer can manage their own booking — reschedule it, extend an active rental, or cancel — without creating an account, without a password, and without calling you.

It saves you the back-and-forth of phone tag and manual edits, and it gives customers the self-service experience they expect. You stay in control: every action respects your availability, your minimum-notice rules, your cancellation policy, and your online-payment settings.

No customer login, ever

There is no customer portal or password to remember. Each link is a private, single-purpose web address tied to one booking. Customers just tap it in their email or text message.

How Customers Get the Link

The link is included automatically in:

• The booking confirmation email and SMS
• The booking reminder email and SMS
• The reschedule confirmation email (after a date change)

In emails it appears as a View booking button. In text messages it's the {{booking_url}} link in your SMS templates. You can also send a customer a direct extension link on demand — see Offering an extension below.

The View Booking Page

Tapping the link opens a clean, branded page showing the booking details, what's been paid, and what's outstanding. The available actions appear as buttons at the bottom.

Which buttons appear depends on the booking:

Action	Shown when
Reschedule	The booking hasn't started yet, and you allow online reschedules.
Extend	It's a rental the customer has already picked up, and you allow online extensions.
Cancel booking	The booking is still active.

Rescheduling a Rental

When the customer taps Reschedule on a rental, they pick a new pickup and return date and time. EquipDash checks availability and price live as they choose:

• A green ✓ Available for your selected dates appears when the new dates have stock; a red message appears when they don't.
• If the new dates cost more or less, the customer sees the original total, the new total, and the amount due now (or refund due).
• They tap Confirm new dates to finish.

Rescheduling an Experience

For an experience, the customer picks a new date and then chooses from that day's available start times for the same experience — exactly like booking it in the first place:

Slots that are in the past, too soon to book, or full are shown but can't be selected. Once they pick a time, any price difference is shown before they confirm.

Extending an Active Rental

If a customer wants more time with gear they've already collected, the Extend action lets them push out the return date themselves. The pickup stays fixed; they only choose a new return:

EquipDash checks the gear is free for the extra days and shows the additional charge before the customer confirms.

Paying (or Refunding) the Difference

A reschedule or extension can change the price. How that's settled depends on your online payment setting:

• If you collect full payment online, the customer pays any increase right there by card before the change is confirmed. A decrease is refunded by your shop.
• If you only take a deposit online, the change is confirmed immediately and the extra is simply added to the booking's balance for you to collect your usual way — no card step for the customer.

Either way, the customer always sees the amount before they confirm, and you receive a notification of the change.

The Rules EquipDash Enforces

Self-service never lets a customer do something you wouldn't allow at the counter:

• No past dates. A new pickup or slot must be in the future.
• Minimum booking notice. If a product or experience requires, say, 24 hours' notice, the customer can't reschedule into that window — the same rule your booking widget uses.
• Availability. The new dates or slot must actually have stock or capacity.
• Already-started bookings can't be rescheduled. Once a booking's start time has passed, the Reschedule option disappears (extending an active rental is still allowed).
• Cancellation policy. Cancellations follow the policy attached to the booking, including any refund tier.

Confirmation & Notifications

When a customer completes a self-service action:

• They see an on-screen confirmation and receive a confirmation email (a reschedule sends the reschedule email with the old and new dates).
• You are notified that the booking changed, so nothing happens behind your back.
• The booking's history records the change.

Turning Self-Service On or Off

Both options are off-by-default supplier settings you control:

1. Online reschedule (rentals and experiences) — go to Settings → Booking Widget and turn on Allow customers to reschedule online.
2. Online extensions (active rentals) — go to Settings → Rentals and turn on Allow customers to extend active rental online.

When a setting is off, the matching button simply doesn't appear on the customer's page, and the link shows a friendly "please contact the shop" message instead.

Offering an Extension On Demand

For an active rental, you can also push a customer the extension link yourself — handy when someone calls to ask for more time. On the booking's detail page, the Email actions and Text actions cards include a Send extension option button:

This only appears for picked-up rentals when online extensions are enabled. See Extending an In-Progress Rental for the operator-side workflow.

How Long Do the Links Last?

Each link stays valid through the life of the booking (a booking made far in advance keeps a working link right up to the rental), plus a grace period afterward for viewing receipts. Reschedule, extend, and cancel links are single-use — once an action is completed, that link is spent and a fresh one goes out with the next email.

See Also

• Move or Reschedule a Booking — doing it yourself from the booking detail page.
• Extending an In-Progress Rental — the operator-side extension workflow.
• Cancelling a Booking — and how cancellation policies apply.
• SMS Templates — the {{booking_url}} link in your text messages.