Whether new or established, running a bike rental business has its fair share of challenges. One of the most difficult ones to overcome is maximizing the company’s revenue. Rental software can go a long way to achieving this goal, as it allows you to streamline your operations by automating tasks that can help improve your business.
Of course, we would all love to make more money magically, but the truth is that everyone needs a little help. Software has helped millions of businesses to reach their full potential by assisting them to run more efficiently. This is no different for rental businesses, with average companies doubling their revenue by implementing rental software to help manage their bookings.
Rental software, like Booqable, allows you to get a better overview of your bookings and manage inventory more efficiently. In the past, you may have used emails to accept bookings and managed them in a spreadsheet, but with rental software, this can all happen in one place. In this post, we will discuss how rental software can be used to maximize revenue through online bookings, optimizing pricing, inventory management, and scheduling.
Create a booking experience with availability insights
One of the biggest things that keep bike rental businesses from generating more revenue is a poor booking experience. Despite everything moving online, many companies still ask customers to call or email to make a booking. While some have added a way to book rentals online, they mostly use outdated software that doesn’t give customers everything they expect.
When someone visits your website, they have just three questions:
- What type of bikes do you offer?
- How much do you charge?
- Are they available on the day I want them?
Your website probably answers the first one as it’s easy to show what types and models of bikes you offer. The second one is also pretty easy, as long as you’re transparent with pricing. However, the last one is usually much more difficult to answer without software. Unless you’re going to spend a lot of time updating the availability manually, you probably won’t answer it.
Booqable allows you to show real-time availability on your website with a booking calendar linked to your inventory. This will enable customers to select their desired rental dates and immediately see if you have bikes available for them to rent. If you do, they can make a booking through the online checkout without the hassle of calling you.
Showing availability alongside your products removes a massive hurdle preventing you from getting more bookings. Combining this with a fast checkout experience people are familiar with when shopping online makes it super easy. If customers can see what you have, check availability, and book immediately, they will hesitate less.
Start your rental business for just $29/month
Put your toes in the water and test the demand in your area with a rental website for just $29/month.
Optimize your bike rental pricing during the high season
Understanding the bike rental market and what your competitors charge when setting prices is crucial. Finding the right balance between an attractive offer while remaining competitive and maximizing revenue would be best. This is often easier said than done, especially when you are starting. So it’s essential to take the time to learn about how to price bike rentals.
However, as renting out bikes is a seasonal business, it is vital to note that your prices should be flexible. Generally, your pricing should be dynamic to account for demand and availability. It is a standard practice to charge more for bike rentals during the summer when demand is at its peak and less during the winter when demand is lower. This will help you to increase revenue and ensure prices are competitive and fair.
Of course, doing this manually could be time-consuming, especially if you have a large inventory, but it doesn’t have to be. When you create a product in Booqable, you can set up advanced pricing that automatically changes based on the times and dates you select. For example, you could charge 10% more between June and August.
By setting up dynamic pricing like this, you can maximize revenue during the summer when bookings are high. In contrast, increasing demand during the winter when bookings are usually low because your pricing is better. This allows you to maintain your cash flow throughout the year and grow your revenue without much effort.
Increase bike usage with scheduling
Scheduling is somewhat overlooked in bike rental businesses but can help increase revenue by optimizing usage. It is common for companies to hand out any of their bike inventory to customers when they come to pick them up for their booking. However, this can mean that some bikes are sitting around, not being used for much of the day. This could be hurting your revenue.
You want to get the most usage out of each of your bikes so that you can make the most of your inventory. By keeping track of your stock and assigning bikes to bookings in advance, you can ensure that you get the most revenue possible for each bike. This also helps to prevent double bookings, which can cause trouble when you don’t have the stock available.
In Booqable, you can create stock items that are tracked individually, so stock can be assigned when customers make a booking. In the calendar view, you can see which stock is allocated to each booking and make changes to ensure each bike is being used optimally. This allows you to free up inventory and leave space for more bookings, increasing your revenue. In addition, you can add barcodes to products to ensure the right bikes are handed out.
Utilizing inventory management best practices can help maximize product usage and prevent double bookings and shortages. It also gives you a better understanding of what you have available and when to invest more stock as demand grows. This allows you to serve more customers and grow your revenue without a massive time investment.
Start with building your rental website
Every new rental business starts with a website to get their first bookings.
Maximize bike rental revenue with rental software
Rental software is a powerful tool that can help you to streamline your bike rental business and increase revenue. You can maximize your revenue by giving customers a better online booking experience, implementing dynamic pricing, and optimizing scheduling through inventory management. By running your business more efficiently, you can make the most of what you have.
The three Booqable features we have discussed today, including real-time availability on your website, advanced pricing rules, and detailed inventory management, give you the tools you need to maximize your revenue. They can also help you to save time which you can use to focus on other areas like marketing to help increase your income even more.
