Boat hire runs on short windows. A self-drive dayboat, a RIB or a jet ski goes out on a slot, comes back, gets refuelled, wiped down and turned round for the next customer — sometimes inside the hour. Other operators hire bareboat by the week, or tow trailered craft to a lake or a customer's mooring. Either way most of the year's income arrives in a few good-weather months, and the risk sits in the gap between handover and return: fuel level, engine hours, a scrape down the gelcoat, a briefing nobody wrote down. Software matters where it holds availability, handover evidence, servicing and the final bill in one place rather than a wall planner and a phone.
Equipment categories we support
Common challenges in boat hire
Overbooking a small fleet
With six boats and three jet skis, one double-booking leaves a family standing on the pontoon. Phone bookings, walk-ins and web enquiries all draw on the same small pool, and a wall planner does not stop them clashing.
Weather cancellations and refunds
A forecast turns on Friday night and half of Saturday goes. Without a cancellation rule agreed up front, every call becomes a negotiation, refunds get argued, and the slots you freed up never get resold.
Turnaround between slots
A dayboat back at two has to be refuelled, wiped down and handed over again at half past. The condition look, the fuel reading and the briefing are the first things to go when the pontoon is busy.
Fuel, hours and damage on return
Craft come back light on fuel, over on engine hours, or with a fresh scrape down the gelcoat. If nobody logged the state at departure, you either absorb the cost or argue it in front of the next customer.
Briefings nobody can find later
Self-drive hire needs a handover briefing, and some craft need a licence or experience check. Written on a clipboard, it is unfindable six months on when an insurer or a solicitor asks what was covered.
Servicing that lands mid-season
Outboards run to hours, not calendar months, so a service falls due in the middle of August. Pulling a craft out for a fortnight in peak season costs more than the work, and missed intervals surface as breakdowns on the water.
How Renttix helps
Availability checked before you commit
Renttix checks a date window against the pool for that craft, or against one named vessel, before an order is taken. The Booking Calendar shows the day boat by boat, so counter, phone and website read the same picture.
Hourly, daily and block rates
Rate definitions run on hours, days, nights, weeks or fixed blocks, each with a minimum hire period and chargeable days. Put a two-hour minimum on jet skis and a day rate on the dayboats, each set on the product itself.
Cancellation policy set in advance
Each craft carries its own cancellation policy — free until a set number of hours before, or tiered by notice given. It shows on the storefront when the customer books, so a weather call follows the policy rather than the mood.
Handover evidence at the pontoon
A handover policy can require a meter reading, a fuel level and a signed checklist before a craft leaves. Photos and the customer's signature attach to the order, so the return comparison is already on record.
Servicing driven by engine hours
Usage-based service rules set an hours interval per product — 100 on the outboards, 250 on the RIB. When engine hours from a connected telematics unit cross the interval, the craft is flagged service due with a notification and a webhook. You raise the workshop job from there and it sits on the planning board with a checklist for its task type, and a craft in maintenance or marked damaged stops showing as available to book.
Damage, waiver and the final bill
Damage reports hold photos, a responsibility decision and a charge. At off-hire the final invoice prices the hire, adds damage and any usage overage, and applies a damage waiver level if the customer took one.
Key workflows
Enquiry and quote
A call, a walk-up or a web enquiry becomes a quote with the craft, the slot and the deposit spelled out. Availability is checked as the quote is built, so nothing gets promised twice.
Booking and deposit
The quote converts to an order. Card payment or a refundable security deposit is taken, and the hire agreement goes out as a signing link so it is done before the customer reaches the pontoon.
Pre-departure handover
Staff work the handover checklist, log fuel level and engine hours, take photos of the hull, give the briefing and capture the customer's signature. All of it attaches to the order, not a clipboard.
Return and check-in
The craft is booked back in with fuel, hours and condition recorded against the same order. Anything wrong raises a damage report with photos, a responsibility decision and a proposed charge.
Off-hire and final invoice
Off-hire closes the hire and prices the final charges, including any usage overage or damage, applying a waiver level if one was taken. The deposit is released or drawn on, and the invoice goes out in the next run.
Relevant integrations
Stripe
Take card payments, save cards for regulars, and run Stripe Identity checks where a craft needs a licence or ID verified before it leaves the berth.
Airwallex
Place a refundable security deposit against the order as a card hold or a straight charge, send the customer the link to authorise it, then capture against damage or release it in full once the craft is back. The deposit's state sits on the order.
Google Maps
Geocode delivery and collection addresses for trailered craft and towed jet skis, and plan the day's runs on real distances rather than guesswork.
Message a customer from their record on your own Twilio WhatsApp number — where the berth is, a weather call, running late — and their replies land back on the same thread with a notification, so the conversation sits on the customer record rather than on somebody's phone.
WooCommerce
Sell slots from your own WordPress site with live availability, rate tiers and your cancellation terms shown on the product page before anyone pays.
Xero
Push sales invoices, credit notes and journals into Xero so the season's takings reconcile without re-keying every hire by hand.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. A rate definition can be based on hours, days, nights, weeks or fixed blocks, with a minimum hire period and chargeable days set per product — a two-hour minimum on jet skis, a day rate on the dayboats. The Booking Calendar shows the day craft by craft, and availability is checked against the pool or the named vessel before an order is confirmed.
Each product carries its own cancellation policy — free until a set number of hours before, or tiered by notice given — and it is shown on the storefront when the customer books. Renttix does not read a weather feed and will not cancel for you. What it does is make the terms explicit and consistent, so the refund conversation is short and the freed slot is back in availability straight away.
Yes. A handover policy, set for the whole fleet or per product, can require a meter reading, a fuel level and a checklist before a craft goes out and again when it comes back. If you price on metered usage, the hours included per day are set on the rate definition and anything beyond that is charged at an overage rate on the final invoice.
A refundable security deposit can sit on the product and be collected at checkout, then released or drawn on from the order. Damage reports carry photos, a responsibility decision and a charge. If the customer took a damage waiver, the waiver level absorbs the charge up to its limit and whatever is left lands on the final invoice at off-hire.
In two halves, and they are not joined up. A usage-based service rule carries an hours interval per product — 100 hours on the outboards, say — and when engine hours from a connected telematics unit cross it, the craft is flagged service due with a notification and a webhook; mark it serviced and the count restarts. The work itself is a workshop job, raised by hand, from a failed return inspection or by an automation rule, and it sits on the workshop planning board with a checklist for its task type. A craft in maintenance or marked damaged drops out of availability, so nobody books a boat that is sitting on the hard standing.
Yes, through Shopify or WooCommerce. Live availability, a day-by-day calendar, rate tiers and your cancellation terms render on the product page, and the order lands in Renttix. If your site runs on neither, there is an embeddable widget that takes reservation requests into an admin inbox for you to confirm — those are enquiries, not paid bookings.
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