Post-Installation Setup

After installing and activating the plugin, you only need to configure a few basic elements to create your first working booking form. The steps below describe the minimum setup required to get started.

Review the Global Settings

The plugin includes default global settings, so most options do not need to be changed before creating your first booking form. However, we recommend reviewing the main settings in ‘Settings’ -> ‘Car Rental Booking System’ -> ‘General’ -> ‘Main’.

• Billing Type – determines how the rental duration is calculated. You can use hourly billing, daily billing, or a combination of days and hours. Choose the option that matches the way you charge for vehicle rentals.
• Currency – select the base currency used for prices displayed in the booking form.
• Date Format, Time Format, and First Day – review these settings to match the date, time, and calendar format used on your website.
• Length Unit – select kilometers or miles as the default distance unit used for distance-based calculations, such as vehicle delivery and return.

We also recommend reviewing ‘Settings’ -> ‘Car Rental Booking System’ -> ‘General’ -> ‘Email’ and selecting the Default Sender E-mail Account that should be used for plugin notifications.

Create a Location

Before adding a vehicle, you need to create at least one rental location. This can represent your office, vehicle rental branch, or another location where vehicles are available.

1. Navigate to ‘Car Rental Booking System’ -> ‘Locations’.
2. Click ‘Add New Location’.
3. Enter a name for the location.
4. Open the ‘Availability’ tab and configure the business hours. At least one day of the week must be enabled with working hours defined.
5. Open the ‘Address’ tab and enter the location address.
6. Save the location.

Create a Vehicle

Next, create at least one vehicle and assign it to the location you created.

1. Navigate to ‘Car Rental Booking System’ -> ‘Vehicles’.
2. Click ‘Add New Vehicle’.
3. Enter a vehicle name and optionally add a short description and featured image.
4. In the ‘General’ tab, find the ‘Locations’ option and select at least one location where the vehicle should be available.
5. Review the remaining vehicle details, such as transmission type, engine information, number of seats, and minimum driver age, and configure them if needed.
6. Open the ‘Prices’ tab and configure the pricing for the vehicle.
7. Save the vehicle.

The ‘Prices’ tab allows you to define the basic rental rates and additional charges associated with the vehicle. Depending on your business model, you can configure options such as an initial fee, rental rates per day or hour, vehicle delivery and return fees, a security deposit, one-way rental fees, after-hours charges, custom location fees, and payment method fees.

Create the Booking Form

Once you have at least one location and one vehicle assigned to that location, you can create the booking form.

1. Navigate to ‘Car Rental Booking System’ -> ‘Booking Forms’.
2. Click ‘Add New Booking Form’.
3. Open the ‘Locations’ tab.
4. In the ‘Locations’ option, select at least one rental location that should be available in this booking form.
5. Save the booking form.

Add the Booking Form to a Page

1. Open the ‘Shortcodes’ tab in the booking form settings.
2. Locate the ‘Booking Form Shortcode’.
3. Click ‘Copy’.
4. Edit the WordPress page where you want to display the booking form and paste the shortcode into a Shortcode block or a shortcode-compatible element provided by your page builder.
5. Save or publish the page.

Your booking form should now be available on the page and ready for testing.