Charge equipment per part of day with options
You rent out a room and offer equipment such as a laptop, projector, flip chart or microphone. You want to charge it per part of day, for example a projector at € 7.50 per part of day and € 15.00 for a full day. This page explains what i-Reserve can do for this, what it cannot do, and which setup we recommend.
First: periods belong to the room, not to the equipment
The periods in the Period detail block (for example quarter, hour and part of day) are the time units of the room. They decide in which blocks the room can be booked and, through the price schema, what the room costs. Equipment (an option) has no periods of its own. With Price per period you only give an option a price per period of the room.
- the room can no longer be booked in that time unit (for example only per part of day);
- the price schema rows of that period are deleted as well;
- prices that equipment had for that period are no longer charged.
You change the price of equipment in the Option detail block: click the arrow next to the pencil and choose Edit prices.
How does «Price per period» calculate?
When you switch on Price per period for an option, you enter a price for each period of the room and choose a Price method. In the examples below the room has the periods quarter, hour and part of day (4 hours).
Amount per booked period
Every period the room booking uses is charged at the price of that period. Example with projector prices hour € 3.00 and part of day € 7.50:
| Room booking | Periods used | Projector price |
|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 1 × hour | € 3.00 |
| 2 hours | 2 × hour | € 6.00 |
| 4 hours | 1 × part of day | € 7.50 |
| 6 hours | 1 × part of day + 2 × hour | € 13.50 |
| 8 hours | 2 × part of day | € 15.00 |
Amount per period
The price of one period is spread proportionally over the booked time. A 6-hour booking with a part-of-day price of € 5.00 (4 hours) therefore costs € 7.50. A short booking costs part of the part-of-day price.
Not possible: always the part-of-day price, even for a short booking
You cannot set up that every booking up to one part of day automatically gets the full part-of-day price («per started part of day»). A booking of 1 or 2 hours uses the room period hour, and the equipment is then charged the hourly price or part of the part-of-day price. If you enter € 0 for hour and quarter, the equipment is free for a short booking. So if the room needs the quarter and hour periods, «Price per period» does not work for a fixed part-of-day price.
Recommended: a fixed amount per part of day
Create an option with a fixed amount for each piece of equipment and let the customer choose the number of parts of day. This always works, regardless of the room periods.
- Go to Configuration → Objects → Product management, open the product and click Views → Object - Extra.
- In the Option detail block, add a new option of Type B: 0, 1 or several per product (textbox).
- Give it a clear name and description, for example «Projector (price per part of day, full day = 2)».
- Leave Price per period switched off in the prices and use the settings below.
- Does the equipment still have prices per period? Set that old option to inactive, or delete it if it has no bookings yet.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Price per period | Off |
| Price method | Fixed amount |
| Price | € 7.50 (the price of one part of day) |
| Quantity for the customer | 1 = part of day, 2 = full day |
If the customer chooses 2, i-Reserve charges 2 × € 7.50 = € 15.00. A full day therefore automatically costs double.
Prefer not to ask for a quantity? Create two options of Type C: group of options per product instead, for example «Projector – part of day» at € 7.50 and «Projector – full day» at € 15.00. The customer then picks one from a list.
When is «Price per period» a good fit?
- The room is only rented per part of day (see Charge a room per part of day). With Amount per booked period equipment then costs the part-of-day price per part of day, and a full day automatically double.
- You deliberately want to charge equipment per hour, just like the room.
See also How do I set options? and How do I set periods?.
