Party hire is not booked by the hour, it is booked by the day. The thing that goes wrong is always the same thing: one marquee, one Saturday in June, two people who were told it was theirs. Give every item you own its own diary, take the deposit as the date is taken, and let customers book and cancel their own dates rather than ringing a van.
Blu MarqueeBook online
Six-metre marquee1 day · Sat 14 Jun$340.00
PA and lighting rig1 day · Out Fri$120.00
Chocolate fountain1 dayBook
Next freeSat 21 JunSun 22 JunSat 28 Jun
Booked online
11:04 PM
While the van was out
Deposit
$85.00
25% as the date came off
One marquee, one Saturday
Date taken
It stops being offered at all
Four things that decide whether a hire weekend runs itself, and every one of them currently lives in a paper diary somebody keeps in a van.
The marquee, the PA, the lighting rig and the chocolate fountain are each one object that can be at one party. Once the date is taken it stops being offered, whoever is answering the phone.
A date held on a phone call is a date you can lose twice. Take the deposit, or the whole hire, at the point of booking (through PayPal on the free plan, or Stripe or Square on the paid ones), and the Saturday is only gone once the money has gone through.
Address, parking, gate width, what the ground is, whether there is power within reach. Every one of those is a call you currently make on Friday night, and on the paid plans it is asked as part of booking instead.
One page carrying what you hire, what it costs and which dates are still free. Most party hire is decided late at night by somebody who is not going to ring you in the morning.
A four-hour party is a day’s hire, because the item goes out in the morning and comes back on Sunday. Set the length a hire actually takes and that is what the page holds, so nothing else can be booked onto the same item either side of it. Set how far ahead people may book, the minimum notice you will accept, and how late a booking may be cancelled. These are all the things you currently explain on every call, applied by the page instead of by you.
Party hire is nearly always a deposit at booking and a balance nearer the day, and the balance is the bit that gets forgotten in a busy June. Raise it as an invoice off the booking, send it, and mark it Paid when the money lands. Anything Unpaid or Overdue is in the same list rather than in a notebook, you can send a reminder against an invoice without writing it out again, and the company hiring for a staff party can have the PDF their finance team will ask for.
Quarter past seven on a Saturday in June, loading the van. There are two addresses in the book for the six-metre marquee: one written in the diary in March, one taken over the phone on Tuesday by somebody who did not have the diary in front of them.
Only one of the two has paid anything. Neither entry says what the ground is or how wide the side gate is, which you will find out at half past eight standing in a garden with a trailer you cannot get past the bins.
Picktime gives each item its own diary so a date can only be taken once, holds it against a deposit, and on the paid plans asks about the access and the ground while the booking is still being made.
One entry for each item you own, with what it costs and how long a hire runs. Give each one its own availability, so a marquee that is out for a wedding is not offered for a christening the same weekend.
How long a hire actually runs, how far ahead people may book and how late a date may be handed back. On the paid plans, write down the questions you always ask (address, parking, gate width, ground surface, power), and they become part of booking, which is the end of the Friday evening round of phone calls.
On your site, in the Facebook page’s button, in your Instagram bio, behind a QR code on a flyer. Somebody planning a party at eleven at night can book the date rather than send a message.
The free plan has no end date and no card. One van and one lock-up can run on it through a whole summer without being asked for anything.
A hire lands in the calendar already on your phone, and the paid plans sync it both ways, so when it moves there it moves here. Put a Book Now button on your Facebook page and the parent who saw the photos of last weekend’s setup books from the same post.
Picktime runs in a phone browser, which is what you have with the other hand on a guy rope. iOS and Android apps are there if you want one, and customers can see their own booking from theirs.
The one thing it has to get right is that an item can only be at one party on a given date. Picktime gives every item its own diary and takes the deposit at booking, and it is free for one van, with your own site questions on the booking form on the paid plans. Full rental suites add stock counting and route planning, which Picktime does not do.
Yes. A page carrying what you hire out, customers booking and cancelling their own dates, a deposit taken through PayPal, and email notifications are all on the free plan. Your own site questions on the booking form sit on the paid plans. There is no end date and no card.
Give it its own entry. Each item is a thing that can be held once, so the moment a date is taken it stops being offered: by you, by anybody else answering the phone, and on the page itself.
Yes. Take a deposit or the whole hire fee at the point of booking, through PayPal on the free plan or Stripe or Square on the paid ones. The date is only held once the payment has gone through.
Yes, on the paid plans. Add fields for the address, parking, gate width, surface and power, and they are answered as part of booking rather than on a phone call the night before.
Yes. Set how far ahead people may book, the least notice you will take, and how late a booking may be cancelled. The page applies all of it, so you are not explaining it on every call.
Yes. Raise an invoice off the booking, send it, download the PDF if the customer needs one, and mark it paid when the money arrives. Everything still unpaid or overdue is in one list.
Judge it on whether it books a date rather than an hour. A marquee out on Saturday is gone for the whole of Saturday and usually for the setting-up day before it, and software that thinks in appointment slots will happily sell you both. Picktime gives each item its own diary and holds the date as the deposit clears, so nobody gets told a Saturday that is already somebody else’s.
It splits by what goes wrong most in your week. If it is stock levels, contracts and depot paperwork, that is a full rental platform and a bigger purchase. If it is two customers holding the same date, that is the diary, and it is the cheaper thing to fix: every item gets its own calendar, a hire block runs as long as the job rather than as long as the party, and the deposit takes the date off the page.
Booqable sets and publishes its own prices, and a number we have not read today is worth nothing to you when you are budgeting, so take it from booqable.com. What is worth lining up beside it is what each one charges for. Picktime charges by how much kit you list and how many of you are out on jobs, never by how many dates get booked.
Inflatables Each castle on its own date, with the disclaimer signed before the van loads.
See bounce house scheduling
Sets and dates Dates held against a deposit, with the set times agreed in writing.
See DJ booking software
Hire by the event One booth, one event, and the details taken while the date is booked.
See photo booth schedulingFree forever for one van and one lock-up. No card, no trial clock, and your catalogue can be bookable tonight.
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