How to Create an Equipment Rental Business Website like Sunbelt Rentals

Sunbelt Rentals is an equipment rental business that was founded in the year 1983. With the course of time, Sunbelt adapted to various changing trends and stayed agile. Today, it provides reliable and branded heavy equipment in the USA, UK and Canada with the help of a fast and easy-to-use equipment rental website. 

If you are an existing player in the heavy equipment rental industry and want a digital transformation, or are simply looking to launch an equipment rental website like Sunbelt Rentals, then this blog will help you out. Below we have covered the most ideal approach to create a website like Sunbelt Rentals along with our recommended heavy equipment rental software and essential features.

Table of Contents

• Creating an Equipment Rental Website like Sunbelt Rentals
  – Select a Software Technology
  – Select a Hosting Server
  – Install the Rental Software
  – Add Listings and Important Web Pages
• Essential Features on an Equipment Rental Website
  – Rental Booking Calendar
  – Request-for-Quote Module
  – Rental Add-ons
  – Rent Plus Sell
  – Rental Security Management
  – Late Cancellations and Returns
  – Rental Buffer Period
  – Document Verification
  – Agreement Management and eSign
  – Product Comparison
• Conclusion

Creating an Equipment Rental Website like Sunbelt Rentals

1. Select a Software Technology

While you can use the traditional custom development approach to create your equipment rental website, it is more ideal and economic today to use an off-the-shelf solution instead. Ready-made heavy equipment rental software are precisely developed to resolve the various challenges that rental business owners face and streamline numerous rental operations.

Our recommendation:

In Yo!Rent heavy equipment rental software, you will find numerous features and functionality to create and manage your equipment rental website. As Yo!Rent is also fully customizable, it gives you the best of both worlds. Meaning, you can benefit from the pre-integrated features and also customize the rental software for any additional requirements. Furthermore, Yo!Rent comes with a one-time cost, which means you are not required to pay any monthly recurring payments nor transaction charges.

Lastly, to help your business grow without the need to switch your software solution, Yo!Rent supports unlimited listings, transactions and user profiles.

2. Select a Hosting Server

Some equipment rental business software will provide you with their own hosting. For example, like in the case of monthly-charged SaaS solutions. However, in all other cases, you are required to invest in a reliable hosting service or set up your own hosting server.

The best approach to select a hosting server is to consult your software provider for any suggestions. You need to ensure that your selected hosting server matches the minimum hardware requirements of the software. Likewise, you can also look for a faster or more secure hosting server for your equipment rental website. 

3. Install the Rental Software

In the next step, your software provider will install the rental software on your provided hosting server. For this, you will also require a domain name. If you already have one, then you can use your existing domain for hosting your website, otherwise you will need to purchase a new domain. 

Once the equipment rental software is installed on your server, the software provider will guide you on using the software. They will also provide you with user manuals, setup guides, and software demos for training and onboarding purposes.

4. Add Listings and Important Web Pages

To complete your equipment rental website, you will need to add product listings, including images, descriptions, specifications and rental charges. Similarly, you also need to set up important web pages like home page, contact us page, about us page and payment gateways. Once everything is set up, your heavy equipment website like Sunbelt Rentals is ready to start conducting business operations.

Essential Features On an Equipment Rental Website

No two well-recognized rental websites are the same. They can have the same offerings and value proposition, but still vary in terms of user interface, experience and functionality. To ensure ease of operations to business owners and maximum convenience to customers, Yo!Rent heavy equipment rental software offers the following essential features:

1. Rental Booking Calendar

For calculating the overall rental fees and accepting orders, you need an option to receive rental dates. Yo!Rent’s advanced rental booking calendar enables customers to easily select rental dates and check the overall rental fee. Furthermore, it also prevents double booking for appropriate inventory management. 

2. Request-for-Quote Module

Rental equipment orders can be very large and complex. They can include varying rental dates for different products, varying quantities and even consumable items such as nails, screws, drill bits, etc. To place such complex orders, customers prefer to get custom price quotes instead of system-generated invoices. For this purpose, Yo!Rent has a Request-for-Quote module as well. With the help of this module, not only can you give custom quotations but also negotiate them.

3. Rental Add-ons

Rental Add-ons are the complementary products and services. For example, attachment heads for drills and jackhammers, machine operators, tyre inflator kits, and more. Yo!Rent allows business owners to add as many rental add-ons they want and offer them along with rental equipment. 

4. Rent Plus Sell

Along with the option to lend heavy equipment, Yo!Rent has the option to sell. Its selling feature assists business owners in stock clearance and is also helpful in case a customer wants to buy second hand equipment or already rented product.

5. Rental Security Management

Collecting and managing rental security in an offline rental business is easy but on a website, it is not. For this reason, Yo!Rent experts have developed the rental security management module that business owners can use to collect and store rental security. They can use the security amount to reimburse for any equipment damages.

6. Late Cancellations and Returns

Both late cancellation and returns create inconvenience for rental business owners. Late order cancellations turn order processing costs into loss and late returns hinder the business’ capacity to fulfill new orders. To resolve these troubles, Yo!Rent allows business owners to define late cancellation and return periods and deduct penalties accordingly. 

7. Rental Buffer Period

Returned equipment requires thorough inspection and sometimes minor maintenance before it can be lent again. To ensure you get enough time to prepare the equipment, Yo!Rent has the rental buffer period module. In this module, you can set a custom period on whose completion only the equipment will be added back to the inventory. 

8. Document Verification

Rental businesses are often required to collect certain documents from customers like identity proofs and address proofs to lend heavy equipment. With the help of Yo!Rent, you can collect all required documents on your equipment rental website itself.

9. Agreement Management and eSign

Heavy equipment rental businesses also include a rental agreement that includes the equipment owner’s various terms and conditions. On Yo!Rent, business owners can upload their rental agreements and get them eSigned by customers. This paperless eSign process ensures a highly-convenient and user-friendly experience for both customers and business owners.

10. Product Comparison

With a highly-emphasized need for precision even in minor construction tasks, engineers need to be cautious about every minute detail and specification. To help them find the right equipment for the job, Yo!Rent supports automated comparison tables with up to 4 products at once. 

The Bottom Line

With Yo!Rent, it is easier than ever to create and launch a feature-packed equipment rental website. After you have launched the website, you will be able to deliver the same heavy equipment rental services like Sunbelt and do much more. However, the actual success of your business will depend on your business planning, industry knowledge, agility and how you use the software. For more assistance, you can also consult our experts to know how Yo!Rent heavy equipment rental software can help you fulfill your various requirements and manage day-to-day business operations.