A glossary for rental businesses.
Short answers to the words you meet when you rent out trailers, machines, storage units or venues: locks, payment, contracts and rules.
01
Rental and booking
Unattended rental
Unattended rental means the customer books, pays, collects and returns on their own, without anyone meeting them. It works when booking, payment, the lock and the condition check are joined up.
How an unattended rental worksSelf-service
Self-service is when customers do what staff would otherwise do, such as booking, paying or collecting. You can start by letting customers book and pay on their own and hand things over as usual.
What unattended rental meansStaffed rental
Staffed rental means that staff hand over and take back what the customer rents, on site. The customer can still book and pay online.
Staffed or unattendedRental booking system
A rental booking system shows what is free, takes bookings and keeps track of when each item is rented out. Unlike appointment booking for services, it handles things that go out and come back, often with payment, contracts and locks in the same flow.
Qonnecta's featuresBooking page
The booking page is where your customers see what is free, choose a time and pay. In Qonnecta it has your logo and your colours, and you link to it from your website.
Online booking for rentalsLocation
A location is a place where you rent things out, such as a station with trailers, a building with storage units or a shop with machines. Qonnecta costs a fixed price per location and month, however many products and bookings the location has.
Prices per locationAdd-on
An add-on is something the customer adds to the booking, such as insurance, ratchet straps or an extra bucket. The customer pays for add-ons in the same payment as the rental.
Add-ons in the bookingDouble booking
A double booking is when two customers have booked the same thing for the same time. A booking system prevents it: a time that is already booked cannot be chosen.
Customers see what is freeBuffer between bookings
A buffer is time you set between two bookings, to clean, charge or check what has come back. Nobody can book during the buffer.
Renting out venuesCancellation terms
Cancellation terms say until when a customer may cancel and how much they get back. Customers should be able to read them before they book.
Refunds on cancellationLate return
A late return is when the customer brings something back after the rental period has ended. Many rental businesses charge a fee for it, since the next customer may be waiting, and the fee should be in the terms before the customer books.
Reminders and late returnsAdmin
Admin is the part of Qonnecta where you, the rental business, see bookings, customers, payments, locks and issues. What needs you is at the top.
Your day in adminAI agent
An AI agent is an AI program that can carry out tasks, not just answer questions. In Qonnecta the AI agent answers your customers in the chat on the booking page, based on your products, prices and free times, and fills in the booking for them.
About the AI agent02
Locks and pick-up
Digital lock
A digital lock opens with a code or an app instead of a key. For rentals, the point is that each customer can get their own code that only works during the rental.
Digital locks for rentalsCode lock
A code lock opens with a number code. It can have a fixed code that you change yourself, or take a new code for every booking.
Which locks workOne-time code
A one-time code is a code that works only once, or a code that only applies to one booking. In Qonnecta every booking gets its own code, valid for a limited time, and the customer sees it in the booking once the rental has started.
What happens to the code after the rentalKey box
A key box is a small locked box for keys, often with a code lock. It suits things you rent out that already have an ordinary lock: the customer opens the box with their code and takes the key.
Locks and pick-upigloohome
igloohome makes digital locks: padlocks, key boxes and door locks. The codes are generated in advance, so the locks need neither Wi-Fi nor mains power, only batteries. Qonnecta supports igloohome locks, and we're happy to find a solution for other locks.
Locks without internetCondition check
A condition check documents the state of an item, usually with photos, when the customer collects it and when they return it. That way you can see whether something happened during the rental, and who had the item.
Photos before and afterIssue
An issue is something that is not right after a rental, such as damage in the photos or something missing. In Qonnecta issues end up in admin, with the photos and the booking.
Issues in admin03
Payment
Swish Handel
Swish is the Swedish mobile payment app, and Swish Handel is the version for businesses that take payment online or in an app: the customer approves the payment in the Swish app and the money goes to the business's account. You sign the agreement with your Swedish bank, which also sets the fee.
Taking payment by card, and Swish in SwedenStripe
Stripe is a payment service for card payments online. In Qonnecta you connect your own Stripe account, so the money goes to you, and Stripe takes its fee per payment. Through Stripe the customer can also pay with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and with Klarna if you turn it on.
Where the money goesCommission
Commission is a fee the system takes on every booking, often a percentage. With a fixed monthly price you pay the same amount however much you rent out, and Qonnecta takes no commission.
PricesDeposit
A deposit is an amount the customer leaves as security and gets back if everything is in order after the rental, often as a hold on the card. In Qonnecta you can add a mandatory fee or insurance to the booking, have damage terms with an excess that the customer accepts when booking, and condition photos at pick-up and return. Want to take a deposit as a hold on the card? Get in touch.
Deposits in QonnectaExcess
The excess is the part of the cost of damage that the customer pays themselves. It is set in your rental terms, and insurance offered as an add-on in the booking can lower it.
Excess and insurance in the bookingVAT on rentals in Sweden
In Sweden, renting out things such as trailers, machines and tools carries 25 per cent VAT (moms). Renting out premises is usually VAT-exempt, but there are exceptions, such as premises for sport, and when the tenant uses the premises permanently in a VAT-registered business you can opt to charge VAT.
The Swedish Tax Agency on VAT when renting out premises (in Swedish)04
Contracts and terms
Rental agreement
The rental agreement is what you and the customer agree on: what is rented, for how long, at what price and who is responsible for damage. For short rentals the customer usually accepts your terms when booking; for storage units and other long rentals you sign a contract.
Contracts for storage unitsMonthly rent
Monthly rent is when the customer pays the same amount every month for as long as the contract runs, as for a storage unit. In Qonnecta the customer pays the first month by card in the booking, and after that the rent is charged to the same card every month.
Contracts and monthly rentDigital signing
Digital signing means the customer signs the contract online instead of on paper. In Qonnecta you can require the customer to sign the contract before the first payment.
Contracts signed digitallyDirect debit (autogiro)
Direct debit is when a payment is taken straight from the customer's bank account, with the customer's consent; in Sweden it is called autogiro. In Qonnecta monthly rent is charged to the customer's card. Need direct debit? Get in touch if you need it, and we'll add it.
Direct debit and credit checksCredit check
A credit check shows how a person or a company has handled their payments, and some storage businesses run one before signing a contract. Need credit checks in Qonnecta? Get in touch if you need it, and we'll add it.
Direct debit and credit checks05
Trailers and driving licences
Gross weight
Gross weight is the maximum weight a vehicle is built for: its own weight plus the heaviest load it may carry. It is in the registration certificate, and for trailers it is the gross weights that decide which driving licence is needed, not what the trailer weighs at the moment.
The Swedish Transport Agency on cars with trailers (in Swedish)B, extended B and BE licences
Under Swedish rules, a B licence lets you tow a trailer with a gross weight of up to 750 kg, or a heavier trailer if the car and trailer together have a gross weight of at most 3,500 kg. Extended B (B96) allows up to 4,250 kg together, and with BE the trailer may have a gross weight of up to 3,500 kg.
The Swedish Transport Agency on cars with trailers (in Swedish)06
Personal data
GDPR
GDPR is the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, and it applies when you handle personal data, such as your customers' names, contact details and bookings. Among other things, it requires you to keep only what you need and to tell customers what you do with their data.
Data controller
The data controller decides why and how personal data is processed. When your customers book with you, you are the data controller for their data.
Who the data belongs toData processor
A data processor processes personal data on behalf of someone else, and only on their instructions. Qonnecta is your data processor, under a data processing agreement.
The data processing agreementMissing a word, or see something wrong? E-mail us at kontakt@qonnecta.se, and we will add it or correct it.