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General Settings

The Rentals General Settings tab lets you configure default values that apply to new rental products. These include pickup and return times, same-day rental options, security deposit defaults, rental period limits, and your business opening hours.

Accessing Rental Settings​

  1. Click Settings in the sidebar.
  2. Select Rentals from the settings menu.
  3. You will land on the General Settings tab.

The Rentals General Settings page

Default Pickup and Return Times​

  • Default pickup time -- the default time customers can collect their rental (e.g., 9:00 AM). This can be changed for each booking individually.
  • Default return time -- the default time customers are expected to return their rental (e.g., 5:00 PM). This can be changed for each booking individually.

Select a time from the dropdown in 15-minute increments.

Same-Day Rentals​

  • Same day rentals by default -- when enabled, new rental bookings will default to same-day return. This can be changed for each booking individually.

How Customers Choose Rental Length​

Control whether customers can pick any return time, or only a set list of durations. The choice you make here applies everywhere a rental is booked -- your website widget, the point of sale, and the API.

  • Customer picks the return time (default) -- customers choose both a pickup and a return time. Any combination is allowed.
  • Customer picks from a list of durations -- customers choose a pickup time and a duration (e.g., 2 hours, Full day); the return time is calculated automatically. They never see a return-time field.

When to use each mode​

  • Use Customer picks the return time if your pricing handles any return time gracefully (per-hour or per-minute pricing) or if customers expect to choose exact return times (e.g., before a flight).
  • Use Customer picks from a list of durations if your price schedule has set tiers (2 hours, 4 hours, full day, weekend, week) and you want every booking to land on a tier instead of on an "odd" in-between time that has to be estimated. This is the simplest option for most rental businesses.

Setting your allowed durations​

When you choose Customer picks from a list of durations, the Allowed durations list appears below:

The Allowed durations list with two rows (2 Hours and 8 Hours) and the Suggest from price schedule button highlighted

  1. Click Suggest from price schedule to fill the list from the duration tiers you already charge for across your products. This is the quickest way to start -- it pulls the exact intervals you've priced (e.g., 2 hours, 4 hours, 1 day, 1 week).
  2. Or add durations manually with + Add duration: enter a number, choose Hours, Days, or Weeks, and (optionally) a friendly label such as "Full day" or "Weekend".
  3. Use the × on a row to remove a duration. Reorder by editing the values directly.
  4. Click Update at the bottom of the page to save.
Keep durations on your price schedule

If you add a duration that isn't on any product's price schedule, EquipDash shows a small warning next to that row -- its price would be estimated rather than matching a listed tier. Using Suggest from price schedule avoids this.

What customers and staff see​

On your website widget, the Return date and Return time fields are replaced by a single Rental duration dropdown:

The widget rentals listing sidebar with the Rental duration dropdown highlighted in the Rental period filter

In the point of sale, the rental period strip shows PICKUP + DURATION instead of pickup and return:

The POS new booking page with the period strip showing pickup date and time plus a Duration dropdown highlighted

The API behaves the same way: requests can pass a duration value (e.g., "8 hours") instead of a return date and time. See the API docs for the exact field names.

Default Security Deposit​

  • Default security deposit? -- when enabled, every rental product collects a security deposit by default. Individual products can override this from their detail page (see Per-Product Security Deposit).
  • Choose the deposit type:
    • Fixed -- a set dollar amount (e.g., $50 per rental).
    • Percentage -- a percentage of the rental subtotal (e.g., 20%). Percentage deposits are calculated against the pre-tax subtotal, not the tax-inclusive total.
  • Enter the deposit amount or percentage value.

Collect Deposit Holds on Online Bookings​

  • Collect deposit holds on online bookings -- when ticked, customers who book through your website widget have a Stripe pre-authorization hold placed on their card automatically at checkout. The widget summary shows a Security deposit (hold) line and helper text explaining the hold is released after a clean return.
  • The hold goes on the same card the customer used for the rental payment -- no second card prompt for most customers.
  • This setting is off by default, so existing widget bookings continue to work the same way until you opt in.
  • See Widget Deposit Holds for the full flow.

The Default security deposit section showing the Collect deposit holds on online bookings checkbox highlighted under the Default security deposit toggle and percentage fields

Default Rental Period Limits​

Set default minimum and maximum rental periods. These apply to all products unless overridden at the product level.

  • Minimum rental period -- enter a number and select the unit (Minutes, Hours, or Days). For example, "2 Hours" means customers cannot book shorter than two hours.
  • Maximum rental period -- enter a number and select the unit. For example, "14 Days" means customers cannot book longer than two weeks.

Leave either field empty to enforce no limit for that setting.

Default Minimum Booking Notice​

Require a minimum lead time before a rental can start. This is useful when you need time to prepare equipment or arrange delivery, so customers cannot book at a moment's notice.

  1. Turn on Require a minimum booking notice?.
  2. In Notice period, enter a number and select the unit (Minutes, Hours, or Days). For example, "2 Hours" means a rental cannot be booked to start within the next two hours.

How the rule is applied depends on who is booking:

  • Customer widget and API -- the pickup is blocked. Customers (and automated integrations) cannot choose a start time inside the notice window.
  • Point of sale and the AI assistant -- your staff can still book inside the window when they need to. The item stays bookable and a warning is shown on the cart line, so the override is deliberate and visible.

The default applies to all products unless overridden at the product level. Leave the toggle off to enforce no minimum notice.

Limit Pickups Per Time Window​

Cap how many rentals can be picked up in the same time window, so a rush doesn't overwhelm your counter. This is a business-wide throughput limit, completely separate from each product's stock count -- it limits how many bookings start in a window, no matter which products they are for.

  1. Turn on Limit pickups per time window?.
  2. Set Max pickups (e.g. 5) and the window underneath -- a number plus a unit (Minutes or Hours), e.g. "5 pickups per 15 Minutes" or "1 pickup per Hour".

The Limit pickups per time window toggle with Max pickups and Per window fields in Rentals settings

How the limit is counted​

  • Windows are fixed buckets aligned to the start of the day in your business timezone. With a 15-minute window, the buckets are 9:00-9:15, 9:15-9:30, and so on.
  • EquipDash counts how many bookings have a pickup (start) time that falls inside the bucket. It does not count active rentals that are merely out during that time, and it does not count returns.
  • One pickup counts as one booking, regardless of how many items are on it.

What happens when a window is full​

Once a window reaches the cap, the rule is applied differently depending on who is booking -- the same way minimum booking notice works:

  • Customer widget and API -- that pickup time is blocked. In the product listing the item shows as Not available, and on the product page a Fully Booked banner explains the window is full. Customers (and automated integrations) cannot add or book that pickup time.
  • Point of sale and the AI assistant -- your staff can still book into a full window when they need to. The item stays addable and a warning ("Max pickups for this window reached -- you can still add it.") is shown so the override is deliberate and visible.

This is enforced from one central place, so the listing, product page, cart, and final booking creation all behave the same way.

Opening Hours​

Set your business opening hours. Customers can only pick up and return rentals during these hours.

  1. Toggle Same hours all days on if your hours are the same every day, or leave it off to set hours per day.
  2. For each day, toggle whether you are Open or closed.
  3. Set the Open time and Close time from the dropdowns.
  4. If you close after midnight (e.g., a nighttime operation), enable the +1 toggle next to the close time.

After configuring all settings, click Update at the bottom of the page.

tip

These are defaults only. You can override any of these values on individual products after creating them. Changing these defaults does not affect products that already exist.