Rental Site - Is it possible?

[BilstonBob]

I wondered if anyone has any thoughts on this. I've been asked to build a car rental site, based on a start date, end date and car type. These then determine the final price for the service.

I know this question has been asked in one or two other threads from the past, and the broad answer was 'no you can't do this with Actinic'. So has anyone been able to build this kind of functionality into a website with Actinic, even if it means buying extended modules or scripts?

Many thanks

Anthony

[jont]

As a thought process (not an implementation) have a section with 1 product ie the type of car and a calendar function with the ability to highlight the start and end hire dates then pass this info through to the Actinic product - I have seen these 2 stages in seperate sites by Gary Hay and from Norman - the issue would come if a weekend was being incorporated and different charges were required etc.

Try contacting Norman at www.drillpine.biz as this is his sort of specialty.

[zmagyar]

Just an idea but may help. You can capture the start date in the standard date prompt and the number of days as quantity (IOW all products would be a 1 day hire of a car).
Possibly it would solve the initial problem. But unfortunately we do not have real time stock control implemented yet which makes it difficult to run a rental site.

[BilstonBob]

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I was going to dismiss it, but will do some more research first. First stop Norman and Gary.

If anyone else has any ideas or examples of Actinic sites doing similar things I'd appreciate hearing from you.

[Univiz]

We've done a boat hire site using Actinic [well its a sub-domain of the client's main site]. boats4hire.chandleryworld.co.uk

The requirements were different from yours. Firstly, all the hire boats are the same i.e. there is no need to distinguish between different models when booking and secondly, the boats are only hired for a day. Plus the site is only designed to take deposits which are the same for all boats/dates.

But nevertheless, it may help with some ideas or alternative thoughts - and if it doesn't there's nothing lost

Each month is a 'section'
Each day is a hidden product.
The main product is for the month e.g. September
and has a 'component' of 'select date'
The attributes use a drop down box and are populated with the hidden products [dates].
Stock monitoring has been enabled and is populated with the total number of boats available per day.

Regards
Sharon

[BilstonBob]

Thanks for your input Sharon.

It's interesting to see how other people are using Actinic to do anything other than sell a simple product. Like you say it's not quite what I had in mind, but I think the ideas here and others I've seen will give me something to go back to the customer with.

Anthony

[Univiz]

On-Line Booking Systems

Hello Anthony

The same client also has a Caravan Park for Touring Caravans and I'm toying with the idea of doing an on-line booking system for next year's season. But before I moot the idea to the client, I need to work out in my head whether it is feasible and workable [The client may not go for the idea even if it is possible - but it would still be an interesting exercise]

I've got until end of December to decide whether it's a potential goer so happy to contribute thoughts, ideas [and failures!] via this thread or direct email.

Thoughts so far ..
The caravan pitches would equate to your cars in that each one is individual except that you may have several of the same vehicle models.
The requirement to book the pitch for several days, if not months, is the same as your vehicles.
The price is less complicated than yours in that all the pitches are the same price, except for long stays that get pro-rata cheaper - this could be accommodated via discounts [I think].
The boat hire model won't work as bookings could span over month ends.
I think Norman may have an applet to cope with the calender part but haven't confirmed this yet.
.. and that's about as far as I've got

As stated, this is just an idea mulling in the background but your thread has brought it to the fore.

Regards
Sharon