You’re searching for the best bike rental software for your business, and we’d like to help out as much as possible. Firstly, we’d like to recognize that it’s very hard to get a straight answer online about the best bike rental software, and this is for two reasons:
- People are trying to sell their bike rental software to you
- Different businesses have very different needs, so one person’s recommendation might not be completely relevant to your bike rental business
Because Rentrax develops and sells bike rental software, we fall into the first category. It’s impossible for us to be objective about bike rental software because we live and breathe it every working day. Despite this, we’d like to first look at our own bike rental software, then we’d like to offer advice for anyone who would like to look elsewhere. This is not a hard sell; it is a clear-headed look at the world of bike rental software. And if we convince you to look into Rentrax further, you can request a free demo where we will talk you through the software’s features and applications in more detail.
Developed by a Bike Rental Company for Bike Rental Companies
As you’re reading this blog, there’s a strong chance that you’re shopping around for the right bike rental software for your business. If you’re new to the industry, you probably want to get off to a good start, and if you’ve been in the bike rental business for a while, then you have probably already been burned — or at least disappointed — by another rental software company.
The biggest complaint people have about bike rental software is that it’s not specialized enough to help operators run their bike rental businesses properly. This was absolutely our experience as Rentrax actually started out as a bike rental business (Note: we still have the business). We tried a range of software, but none of them performed all the tasks we needed them to.
Bikes come with a wide range of designs, parameters, and features, and all of these mean that general inventory management software can’t possibly do everything we need. Completely frustrated with the software on offer, we created software specifically designed to help us run our bike rental business. Afterward, we realized that other companies like ours could find Rentrax software much more specialized and geared (excuse the pun) toward their business’s needs. And that’s how a bike rental business became a software business!
Wide Range of Important Features and Functionalities
While it’s impossible to anticipate every single function a business might desire its bike rental software to have, it is possible to continually develop the software, adding new functions as and when our clients ask for them. We can always see the value in adding a new feature to our software and are always open to suggestions. Our software can perform an impressive range of functions for you. Here is a brief list of our top features:
SKU-based inventory management allows you to give your customers a wide range of exact bike features to choose between — from size and model to tire width, weight, colour, and any intricate details. It can be as complex or as simple as you like, giving customers a curated experience that guarantees they will find what they want.
Inventory management that tracks when your bikes and bike equipment have earned over the initial cost of investment. This allows you only to sell stock after it has more than paid for itself, allowing you to replenish and refresh it most efficiently.
Sales and booking features are also built into our bike rental software. While many of our clients simply rent bicycles, some also offer bike tours and sell drinks, snacks and bike gear in-store. You could have separate sales and booking software for this, but it will cost more money, and all of the income from the three aspects of your business will not be pulled together as part of the same system. It’s easier just to have it all in one place, and we’re all about making things easy.
Our native waiver function is strangely rare in an industry that always requires its renters to sign a waiver, both to protect the customer and the business. Many third-party waivers can be integrated into bike rental software, but it’s much simpler just to have a native waiver, so that’s what we did.
Marketing tools on Rentrax allow you to offer special deals to previous customers, either by email or SMS. This could be done on a separate piece of software, but that’s an additional hassle.
There are many more features, but it would get boring to list everything here. As we said, you can book a free demo or you should also feel free to get in touch if you have any follow-up questions.
Looking for Other Bike Rental Software Out There?
While it’s not in our interest to advise readers to try specific other rental software instead of Rentrax, we also want to be as helpful as possible and we’re very confident that the features our software offers make it the best possible option for most businesses. However, for whatever reason, it may make more sense for your business to opt for a software provider other than Rentrax.
Perhaps you are an especially small bike rental business with only a handful of units available. In this case, Rentrax is probably too comprehensive and you could make do with one of the free options. Just remember that free software is usually repurposed, unspecialized software; it’s only free because very little time or money has gone into developing it and this means that functionality is limited. We can only recommend free bike rental software if you are an exceptionally small bike rental business with a simple range of products.
Customer Support is Key
Whichever software you decide to go for, always make sure that they have customer support; otherwise, you may run into problems and discover that you are on your own. It’s vital for any business to be able to get their software supplier on the phone as quickly as possible to solve any issues they’re having.
Our advice is to phone the software companies you’re interested in and grill them about their product and about how well they support their clients. Without this support, you will quickly realize that you have to change software, and this costs time and effort, hindering your business.
That’s all we have time for today! We hope we’ve convinced a few readers to consider trying Rentrax. But even if we have not, we hope we have set the bar high for what you should expect from your bike rental software by explaining many of the features that make us the best option on the market.