Availability check
Prevent rental overbooking before it reaches the cart
When a customer clicks Add to Cart, RentalFlow counts the units already booked for their dates and compares that with how many you own. If nothing is free, nothing is added.
Why Shopify stock alone isn't enough
Shopify inventory tracks what is on your shelf today. It doesn't know what is promised for next weekend. If you have 10 units and 8 are booked for Saturday, Shopify still lets a customer order for Saturday. That's how overbookings happen.
One double booking means finding a replacement at your own cost or refunding the customer. Either way you lose the sale and some trust. For comparison, RentalFlow costs $39 a month.
How the check works
- 1
The customer picks dates
They choose a delivery date and a pickup date in the booking form on your product page. - 2
They click Add to Cart
RentalFlow adds up the units booked on dates that overlap theirs. That includes orders that are reserved and orders that are out on rent. - 3
RentalFlow compares with Shopify
It subtracts those booked units from the product's inventory in Shopify. - 4
Added, or asked to pick other dates
If a unit is free, the item goes into the normal Shopify cart with the booking details attached. If not, the customer sees the message and nothing is added.
Worked example: a store that owns 10 moving box kits
Customer picks Oct 15 to Oct 22
10
kits you own
7
booked on overlapping dates
3
left for those dates
A unit is free. The kit goes in the cart with the dates attached.
Customer picks Oct 24 to Oct 31
10
kits you own
10
booked on overlapping dates
0
left for those dates
Packages that share items, and time to clean them
Shared stock pools. If your packages come from the same items, like 5, 10, 25 and 50 bin packages from one stack of 1,000 bins, put them in one pool. Each package says how many items it uses, and every booking counts against the same total. The packages can be options of one product or separate products.
Turnaround days. Items stay blocked for a set number of days after each pickup, so there is time to clean them before they go out again.
Hold until returned. If a pickup date passes and you haven't confirmed the return yet, those items stay unavailable until you do.
Only the RentalFlow form adds rentals. One setting hides your theme's own Add to cart, Buy it now and sticky cart buttons on rental product pages, so every booking gets dates and a stock check.
Only take orders in the areas you serve
Add the ZIP and postal codes you deliver to. US ZIP codes, Canadian postal codes and Canadian 3-character prefixes like M5V all work. Add them one at a time or upload a CSV.
Customers see a check mark or a warning as they type their address. Addresses outside your area can't be added to the cart. Leave the list empty to accept orders everywhere.
How it compares to alternatives
Most Shopify rental apps check availability in some form. Booqable manages availability on its own platform, separate from your Shopify inventory. RentalFlow starts from the stock number you already keep in Shopify, then keeps that count itself and frees items when you confirm returns.
What the check doesn't do
- It runs when the customer clicks Add to Cart. It is not a live calendar, and dates are not greyed out.
- Orders created outside the RentalFlow form, like a manual order in Shopify, are not counted as bookings. Turn on the setting that hides your theme's own cart buttons on rental product pages. Quick-add buttons on collection pages are not hidden yet.
- If the check itself can't run, for example because of a network error, the order is allowed through. Keep an eye on the dashboard.
- The form adds one unit. If a customer raises the quantity in the cart, the extra units are only refused when the store has turned on RentalFlow's optional checkout rule.
- Stock is counted per product across all its variants, or by the shared stock pool you set up. Products outside a pool need inventory tracking turned on in Shopify, or stock is treated as unlimited.
Questions
Stop double bookings before they happen
Install RentalFlow, add the booking form to a product page, and take your first rental booking today. Free for 14 days, then $39 a month.