What is a reservation?
A reservation is a way for the customer to claim a unit and hold it for a future move in date. You have the option of charging a one time reservation fee, but a reservation will NOT be billed on a recurring billing cycle until the customer has completed the rental process. Once the reservation has been completed, any fees paid to reserve the unit will be applied towards the setup fees, deposit, and first month's rent.
The benefit of allowing online reservations is increasing your occupancy. This allows potential renters to set up rentals ahead of time. This can be great for facilities in areas that have an influx of people moving to the area, or facilities that have high turnover.
One thing to consider, reservations DO NOT bill your customer monthly, so aside from the optional one-time reservation fee, there is not a monthly cost to reserve a unit, and you can miss out on income from other potential customers if you have a unit reserved for someone that won't begin paying you until the reservation is transitioned into a rental.
How do I setup the reservations fee?
The fee can be added under Units > Unit Types > Orange "Edit" link on the far right". See Related Articles for Instructions.
Regardless of a reservation fee being assigned to a Unit Type(s), the customer will be expected to enter payment account information when reserving a unit.
Will Reservations be require to sign a Storage Agreement/Lease?
Customer's reserving a unit online will be required to create an account, but will not be required to sign a lease until the move-in has been finalized and the reservation is finished as a completed rental. You have the option of emailing the lease and collecting a signature using the digital lease agreement in our software once the rental is complete (See Also: Storage Agreement FAQ).
What is a reservation receipt?
The reservation receipt is an email confirming a reservation that is automatically sent out by the system if the Template is enabled under "Email Text and Print." It will send out after a reservation is made by either a manager or a customer, whether there is a payment made or not. The default reservation receipt confirms details such as Date Reserved, Desired Move In Date, Unit, Invoiced Amount, Paid Amount. It also gives them contact information for the facility in case they need to contact you about their reservation. See Also: Turn On Automatic Messaging.
Does a Reservation Ever Expire?
No, a reservation does not expire. The unit will remain in the reserved status until the reservation has been completed or cancelled. It is up to the manager to monitor the Reservations report (Located under Customers > Reservations) and remove any customers that are no longer wishing to rent the unit, or remove customers that have been in the reservation status for too long.
Can I pick and choose which unit types I enable reservations for?
Yes! You can pick and choose which unit types to enable reservations for. Enable one, some, or all of your units, you can change these settings as needed to suit your business
Can I set up a limit on a reservation?
Yep, you can set it up under 'Setup' > 'Settings' > 'Other' and then check the 'Reservation limit' box. Once you click on the box you can enter how many days you'd like to limit your reservations. This will prevent the reservation from being in the future. Setting it to 30 will only allow your tenants to reserve up to 30 days from the current date.
How do I cancel a reservation?
Reservations must be "Approved" before it will allow you to complete or cancel a pending reservation. First, go to the customer's profile and in the "Reservations" section of the screen, click the "Approve" button on the right hand column of the reservation. After the page refreshes, you will see that button replaced with the options to "Complete", which will take you through the rental process (Approving and Completing Reservations), or "Cancel" which will cancel the reservation. If you charged a reservation fee and that fee was paid by your tenant, you may need to adjust the billing to refund the fee, or add a credit to transfer the fee to a different unit.
How do I transfer a reservation to a different unit?
If your customer accidentally reserved the wrong unit, or desires to move into a different space, you can cancel the reservation following the steps in the paragraph above. Once the reservation for the incorrect unit has been cancelled, go ahead an reserve the correct unit, re-invoicing the reservation fee in the new space. Once you have reserved the unit, and the fee is added to the billing history for the new space, you can go back to the tenant's profile and manually add a credit without payment that is equal to the amount of the reservation fee that they initially paid. This will transfer that payment to the invoice connected to the new unit. When you are ready to complete the reservation, the system will treat it like a normal reservation and apply their reservation fee to the move in charges of the correct unit.