New operator setup checklist: from empty account to your first real booking

Setting up a rental business touches a lot of screens, and the order matters: several steps stay blocked until an earlier one is done. This guide has four parts: the Guide on your Home page and what ticks each of its steps, the full setup in a working order (including what the Guide does not check), a test booking through your own booking page, and a pre-flight list to run before you tell customers you are open.

The Guide on Home: the seven steps and what ticks each item

While your account is being set up, Home shows Welcome to Rentalbuddy!, a short introduction and a Guide with a progress bar and an x/y completed counter. Every new account gets this seven-step Guide, which starts with Account created. Accounts created before it keep the six-step Guide described in the next section. Each step holds one or more items, and some items are marked Optional.

The introduction says "Follow the steps below to start taking bookings. Your progress is saved, so you can stop and come back whenever you like." and points you to help: "Questions? Ask us any time with the button in the bottom corner." (or "Need a hand? You'll find guides behind the help button in the bottom corner."). During a free trial it adds "You won't be charged during your free trial — you choose a plan when you're ready to go live."

The steps and what ticks each item:

1. Account created — Account created is ticked from the start.
2. Your location — "The place where customers pick up and return what they rent, like a beach, a marina or a shop."
   • Create a location: ticked when you have a location. It opens Add location (see step 3 of the full setup below).
   • Add open dates: ticked when at least one location has an active or upcoming time period under Open dates.
   • Put the book button on your website (optional): asks "How will the booking button reach your customers?" — Someone else runs my website (you get a link with the install steps to send them), I'll add it to my website myself (the steps are on the location's Book button tab) or I don't have a website (use a Rentalbuddy booking page or a QR code instead). Ticked once you have answered (choose the Location, then Continue), or once the button has been seen live on your website.
3. What you rent — "What customers can book, like a kayak, a bike or a sauna session."
   • Create a product: ticked when the account has at least one product.
   • Add a photo and Add a description (both optional): ticked when any product has a photo or a description.
4. Locks and access — "Customers open the lock themselves with their booking, so no staff need to be there." Only shown when you have a self-service location (or no location yet).
   • Connect igloohome: only listed when you have Igloohome locks; ticked when your Igloohome account is connected.
   • Add and activate a lock: ticked when at least one lock is placed at a location and switched on (Active).
   • Put a product on a lock: ticked when an active lock has a product and a way to get PIN codes.
5. Get paid — "Take payments online and set the terms customers accept."
   • Connect Stripe: ticked as soon as Stripe says your account can take card payments, or when Disable Stripe Payments is on.
   • Add your terms and conditions: ticked when every active location shows customers some terms text (the account's or its own).
   • Add a tax rate: only listed when Stripe takes your payments; ticked when the account has at least one tax rate.
6. Test booking — "Book once yourself and see what your customers will see."
   • Make a test booking: ticked once you have made one and it went through; at a self-service location the test booking must also have been booked onto a lock. See "Make a test booking" below.
7. Activate and go live — "Choose a plan to start taking real bookings."
   • Choose a plan: ticked once your account is on a plan (for a card subscription: once Stripe has started it, so not while the very first payment is still incomplete), and it stays ticked: a later failed payment or a cancelled subscription does not untick it.

How it works:

• The next thing to do is a filled button with the item's name on it, for example Create a location: the first open required item in the first step that isn't waiting on anything. Everything else is a link.
• A step is done when all its required items are done. Items marked Optional never hold a step open. Press Skip to tick one off without doing it (it then reads Skipped), and Undo to bring it back.
• When an item can't be done yet, it says First: and names what it needs: a location before products and locks, and a product, open dates and (at self-service locations) a product on a lock before the test booking. Everything else can be done in any order.
• Everyone on the account sees the Guide, but its set-up dialogs only open for users whose role is allowed to do that step. If a step doesn't open for you, ask your account owner.
• When every required item is done, the Guide disappears for good and Home shows the dashboard. From then on, problems show as warnings above the dashboard (Locations not taking bookings, product issues, Worth reviewing) — see the guide to the admin menu and Home warnings.

If your Guide shows six steps

Accounts created before the seven-step Guide keep this six-step one; which Guide an account gets is decided when the account is created and never changes afterwards. You have it if the first step is Join Rentalbuddy. It has the same welcome and introduction, a Guide with a progress bar and an x/y completed counter, and the number on the Home menu item is how many steps are still open. The steps, in the order the Guide shows them:

1. Join Rentalbuddy — "Your account is created and ready." Ticked as soon as your account exists.
2. Create your first Location — "The place where customers pick up and return what they rent, like a beach, a marina or a shop." Ticked when you have a location and at least one location has an active or upcoming time period under Open dates. Create a location opens Add location (the same dialog as Locations → Add new location, see step 3 of the full setup below); after Add Location you land on the new location. If the location exists but has no time period yet, the step says "None of your locations have active or future open dates yet. Customers can only book within an open period — set them up to go live." with Go to Open dates.
3. Create a Product — "What customers can book, like a kayak, a bike or a sauna session." Ticked when the account has at least one product. Create a product first asks you to Choose your currency ("Please choose the currency you are going to use for your products."), then opens the product form.
4. Set up locks & access — "For self-service rentals: customers open the lock themselves with their booking, without staff." Only shown when you have a self-service (Unmanned) location; an account with only staffed locations never sees it. The step links to Go to locks (straight to the Locks tab when you have one location). It is ticked when at least one lock is placed at a location, switched on (Active), has a product, and has a way to get PIN codes — and, for Igloohome locks, when your Igloohome account is connected.
5. Configure payments — "Required to take payments online." Connect Stripe starts the Stripe connection (Connect with Stripe). The step asks Stripe directly: it is ticked as soon as Stripe says your account can take card payments. A Stripe sign-up you started but did not finish does not count. Information Stripe will only want later does not hold the step open; Settings → Payments tells you what Stripe still wants. An account that has switched Disable Stripe Payments on counts as done.
6. Activate your account — "Add a subscription to activate your account and start taking bookings." Use Add billing. Ticked once your account is on a plan (for a card subscription: once Stripe has started it, so not while the very first payment is still incomplete). It then reads "Your subscription is active. You're ready to start taking bookings." The step stays ticked afterwards: a later failed payment or a cancelled subscription does not untick it. A failed payment shows as a banner at the top instead.

Steps 3, 4 and 5 are greyed out until a location exists, with hints such as "You need to create a location before you can create a product". As in the seven-step Guide, the next thing to do is a filled button — Create a location, Go to Open dates, Create a product, Go to locks or Connect Stripe, while the plan step keeps Add billing — and the set-up dialogs only open for users whose role is allowed to do that step.

When every step is ticked, the Guide disappears for good and Home shows the dashboard with any warnings above it.

Hints under "Set up locks & access"

When your locks are placed but none is ready yet, the step says "Open the Locks tab on your location. At least one lock must be active and have a product assigned." and lists what is missing:

• "Turn Active on for at least one lock."
• "Choose a product for at least one lock."
• "Fix the lock marked with a warning: it cannot create PIN codes yet."

If you are connected to Igloohome but no lock has come through, it reminds you: "You are connected to Igloohome. Before your locks can sync, add a payment method in Igloo Connect under Settings → Payment Method." with Open Igloo Connect portal.

Warnings shown above the Guide

While the Guide is running, Home does not warn you about things you simply haven't set up yet — the Guide is your to-do list. But anything that has actually failed is shown above the Guide straight away: igloohome connection needs attention, Bookings without PIN codes, Lock units offline, Stripe needs your attention, and a notice when a customer could not pay because no payment method is switched on in Stripe. Don't ignore these during setup: they mean customers can't pay or can't get in. What each one means is in the guide to the admin menu and Home warnings.

The location's checklist: "This location is not taking bookings"

Each location page also shows, under the Save bar, what still stands between that location and its first booking: This location is not taking bookings, followed by a row of steps with a tick or an open circle. Open steps are links to where they are fixed:

• No products to book — create a rental product or event for this location. At a staffed location, Every product has quantity 0 means every rental product is at quantity 0, which takes it off sale.
• The lock step (self-service locations only), worded after the actual problem: No locks added, All locks are switched off, No lock has a product yet or Locks can't create PIN codes (only for old locks typed in by Bluetooth ID that have no way to get codes).
• No session lengths customers can book — none of the products' session lengths fit the location's time slots.
• Book button not set up — finish the Book button tab.
• No time periods set — add a time period on Open dates.
• Configure payments — the account's payment setup (it opens Settings → Payments).

While your Guide is still running the box is blue (a to-do list); after that it turns amber (something is wrong). When the last step is done you see This location is ready for bookings. once, with a Make a test booking button next to it. A lock that customers can book but that gives no code is not one of these steps: the location is still selling, so it is shown in red on the Locks tab and on Home instead. More about locations is in the guide on locations and lock sections.

The full setup, step by step

The Guide checks the essentials. This is the whole journey, including what it does not check: open dates, the booking button, taxes, contact details, terms, emails and a test booking. The order below works; you can connect Stripe earlier than the Guide lists it, and it saves work if you do it before choosing taxes on products.

1. Create your account and verify your email

Sign up on the Create Account page with Name, Email (username), Phone number, Password and Repeat password, and accept the Terms and Conditions.

You then see Verify your email: "Please check your inbox and click the verification link we sent you." You cannot log in before you do — the login page says "Email address not verified, sign-in forbidden." If the email does not arrive, check spam and use Send a new link (there is a short wait between sends).

2. Fill in your company details and check your currency

Open Settings → Account and fill in Company Information and Account Information (contact person, phone and Account Contact E-mail). These details are shown to your customers, and new locations take their contact details from here.

Your currency is under Settings → Payments. Get it right before you take bookings: "You can change currency only while this account has no active or future bookings on any location. If the selection is locked, bookings already exist."

3. Create your location

Use the Guide's Create a location, or Locations → Add new location. Both open Add location, three short steps:

1. Access — "How do customers get what they rent?": Customers let themselves in ("Customers book online and open a smart lock with their own code. No staff needed on site.") or Staff hand it over ("Your staff give out and take back what is rented. No locks are used at this location."). Nothing is preselected, and Next stays greyed out until you pick one. "You can change this until the location has its first booking or lock." After that, the location's Location settings tab shows it read-only and you contact support to change it.
2. Rental type — "What do you rent out here?" Nothing is preselected here either: pick one before Next. It sets the icon customers see, and you can change it later.
3. Details — Name of your location, Address of your location (type and pick an address, or use Use current location; Check the pin on the map lets you check and move the pin), Location email and Location phone, then Add Location.

Above the email field the dialog says "Your customers see the location email and phone in the booking and in their confirmation emails." Location email and Location phone are required and filled in from your account; change them if this place has its own. A valid email and a phone number with at least six digits are needed, and Rentalbuddy's own email or phone is refused: "These are Rentalbuddy's contact details. Enter your own, so customers reach you and not us." Customer emails are sent from Rentalbuddy's no-reply address, so these details are how customers reach you.

If this location should offer other booking languages than your account, switch on Use location-specific booking languages under Language & Timezone on Location settings and choose Languages to show in booking view there.

4. Set your open dates

On the location, open Open dates. Nothing is bookable until a time period exists: "To accept bookings, create at least one time period below. Time periods define when your location is available for rentals."

Press Create new time period, give it a Period Name, a Period start and Period end, and set Pickup hours and Return hours per weekday. To save time, use the copy icon on a day: it copies that day's hours, pickup and return times included, to All days or to one other day. Opening and closing times always fall on the location's Booking interval: on a one-hour interval only whole hours can be picked, and a time typed between two slots is moved (opening later, closing earlier). Nothing is saved until you press Save. Everything else on this tab — booking interval, length limits, blocking time, closed days — is in the opening hours guide.

5. Decide how customers book: the Book button tab

Open the location's Book button tab. Under Where do customers book? choose the Rentalbuddy website (a booking page hosted for you), a Booking link to put on your own site, or Embedded on your website. For the embedded option, fill in URL where book button is implemented exactly — the start, return and extend links in your customer emails are built from it. The two pieces of code and the per-website-builder steps are in the guide on installing the booking button.

Once the button is on your website and someone has opened that page, the tab says "The booking button is live on {your site}". Until then it says "The booking button hasn't been seen on a website yet…". If someone else runs your website, Get a link to send under "Someone else runs your website?" gives you a link with the install steps for them; it needs no login.

6. Connect Stripe

Open Settings → Payments and, under Online payments, click Connect with Stripe to start handling payments (or use Connect Stripe in the Guide). Choose I am new to Stripe → Set up a new account, or I already use Stripe → Connect my existing account — note that a Stripe account can only be linked to one platform at a time. When it works you see Stripe successfully connected!

If Stripe still needs something, the Online payments card says what, in words — for example "Customers cannot pay right now: Stripe is waiting for information from you." or "Stripe will ask for more information later. Nothing is paused, and you can complete it already now." — with Complete at Stripe to finish it on Stripe's guided page. Details are in the Stripe connection guide.

7. Set up your taxes

Open Settings → Taxes and answer Do your prices include tax?. With Stripe connected, the tax rates live in Stripe: Add tax in Stripe creates a rate there, and products can only use taxes that exist in Stripe. The whole tax setup is in the taxes guide.

8. Create your products and prices

Make sure the right location is selected in the Location picker, then open Products → Add new product. Start with Choose a product type — Rental Product, Rental Accessory, Insurance, Event or Membership. "The type decides which settings the product gets and cannot be changed once the product is created." Fill in names, prices, stock and tax, and save. If the account has no taxes yet, the product page offers them above Taxes (Generate default taxes, or Sync from Stripe once Stripe is connected). A new rental product starts on Price per hour; switch Price setup to Structured Pricing for hour and day prices.

At a self-service location, a new product is not bookable until a lock carries it: after saving you see Product created! and "Assign this product to a lock at {location} to make it bookable." with Assign to a lock. At a staffed location, a quantity of 0 takes the product off sale. Product setup in detail is in the products guide.

9. Add your locks and give each one a product

Skip this step for a staffed location.

On the location, open Locks. Two ways in:

• Sync Igloohome locks — for Igloohome padlocks and key boxes. Pair the locks in the Igloohome app first; the dialog lists the paired locks, you tick them, Choose location for each and press Add locks. The Get started with Igloohome guide walks you through the app and the Igloo Connect payment method (without one, syncing stops with Payment method required).
• Add lock — choose Manual lock, Manual storage lock, Igloo lock (which leads you to the sync, or to Get started with Igloohome if you are not connected yet) or Allockate unit. A manual lock can't be saved without its master PIN: that is the code customers get.

Then, in the lock table, pick the Product on each lock and press Save. New locks arrive switched on (Active). If you switched one off, flipping it back asks Activate lock and saves straight away. Only active locks count toward your plan's lock limit. Everything about locks — types, replacing, moving, warnings — is in the locks guide. If you rent saunas with Harvia heaters, connect them next (see the Harvia guide).

10. Check your terms and your confirmation email

• Terms: Settings → Customer flow (or the location's Customer flow tab) → Key settings → Terms & Conditions → Edit terms. Customers accept this text at checkout; replace any example text with your own. Rentalbuddy marks terms that are missing, very short, still contain template text or are the same in several languages.
• Confirmation email: Settings → Emails → Default emails → the row whose Trigger is When the booking is created. Read the introduction and closing texts as a customer would. At self-service locations the Start booking button is how customers reach their PIN code — keep it on. Email setup is in the emails guide.

11. Activate your account

Click Choose a plan on the Guide's Activate and go live step (Add billing in the six-step Guide), or open Settings → Billing. Your trial does not keep you live forever; Need more time? on the trial banner moves your launch date (see the account settings guide).

Test your whole booking before going live

Do not let your first customer be the test. Book once yourself, end to end, and watch every link in the chain: booking → payment → confirmation email → unlock page with the PIN code → the lock opening → return.

Make a test booking (recommended)

Every location page has Make a test booking in its top bar, next to Save, on every tab. It is greyed out while the location can't take bookings yet ("This location can't take bookings yet. Finish the steps in the list below first.") and while the tab you are on has unsaved changes ("Save your changes first. A test booking uses what's saved."). When a location first becomes ready, This location is ready for bookings. comes with its own Make a test booking button, and in the seven-step Guide the Test booking step opens the same dialog. You need permission to manage bookings (account owners and members, Booking staff, and partner owners and members have it).

1. Press Make a test booking — "Book once yourself, through your own booking page, and see exactly what your customers will see."
2. Choose Free test ("Checks the booking, the confirmation email and the access code. Payment isn't tested.") or Test with a real payment ("Also checks that payments reach your Stripe account. Charges Stripe's smallest amount and refunds it right away; Stripe keeps its small fee.").
3. Press Create test link, then Open booking page. The link works for 2 hours.
4. Book as a customer would. Your booking page shows a banner, for example "Test booking — free. Payment isn't tested. It's cancelled automatically."

What to know about test bookings:

• They cover rentals only: on a test visit your booking page hides events, gift cards and memberships altogether. Promo codes don't apply to test bookings.
• The confirmation email's subject starts with [TEST] and the email opens with "This is a test booking made by the business itself. It is cancelled automatically and no money is kept." No reminders or later emails are sent.
• In Bookings, test bookings are hidden by default. Switch on Show test bookings (next to Prolong rows; on a phone under Options) to see them, marked with a Test chip. If one you made in the last hour is hidden, a notice says "A test booking you made recently is hidden from this list." with a Show test bookings link. Hidden test bookings are never selected, so they are not exported or printed.
• Test bookings are left out of the dashboard figures and cancelled automatically 30 minutes after they were made (or at their end, if that comes first). Cancel one yourself to end the test sooner.
• When the link has run out, the booking page says "This test link has expired. Start a new test in Rentalbuddy."

Other ways to test

A 100 % promo code (tests the real customer checkout with a code). Open Promo codes → Create promo code, set Discount type to Percentage and enter exactly 100 in Percent. Set Max usage total to 1 or 2 and a close Valid until date so a real customer cannot use it, and switch Status of the code to Inactive when you are done. This needs Stripe connected. A booking made this way is a normal booking: it counts in your figures until you cancel it. Promo codes in detail are in the promo codes guide.

A staff booking marked as a test payment (quick, but skips the customer checkout). Use the booking button in the admin's top bar to book for the selected location. On the booking, register the payment with Add payment → Manual → Payment type Test payment → Register Payment. The booking then shows Paid with test payment so it is never mistaken for a real payment. It still counts in the dashboard's revenue until you cancel it. Register the test payment before you check the code, so the booking behaves like a real paid one.

The pre-flight list

Check each of these for every location before you go live:

• Home and the location page are clear. No red warning on Home, and the location page no longer shows This location is not taking bookings. These catch missing products, locks, time periods, booking button and payments, and locks that give no code.
• A time period covers today and the coming season.
• Your booking page loads and shows this location's booking flow. On the Book button tab, embedded buttons show "The booking button is live on…" once the button has loaded on your page; adding ?rbCheck=1 to your page address shows a small setup check on the page. Then open your real website page as a customer would.
• Stripe is connected and asks for nothing urgent. The Guide's payments step is ticked and Settings → Payments shows no red or amber Stripe notice. Accounts that deliberately take payment on site are the exception.
• Location phone and Location email are your own — customers see them in the booking and their confirmation emails and cannot simply reply to the email, so these are how they reach you — and your Terms & Conditions contain your own text, not example text.
• Every product you sell is bookable. At self-service locations: on an active lock. At staffed locations: quantity above 0 and a price.
• The access type matches your hardware: Customers let themselves in if customers open locks themselves, Staff hand it over if staff hand things out.
• Igloohome locks came in through Sync Igloohome locks and none is marked red on the Locks tab. Sync this lock from Igloo on a lock tests that it can create a code.
• Manual locks have their code set — it is the code customers receive.
• The confirmation email's Start booking button is on at self-service locations.
• You have made one test booking with Make a test booking.

During the test booking, check

1. The booking appears under Bookings at the right location and time, with the Test chip (switch on Show test bookings to see it).
2. The confirmation email arrives, with your contact details, and its links open your page.
3. Start booking in the email opens the unlock page and the PIN code is shown. For Igloohome locks the code appears 15 minutes before the start, or at the full hour if the booking starts later in the hour, so book a time that starts now — the guide on customers not getting a PIN code has the exact timing.
4. The code opens the physical lock.
5. The return step works and the booking ends up as returned.

A test booking made with Make a test booking cancels itself. A test made another way you cancel yourself afterwards (and refund it if real money was taken), so the lock is free for real customers.

Quick reference

Step	Where
Create account, verify email	Sign-up page
Company details	Settings → Account
Currency, Stripe	Settings → Payments
Location, access type, contact details	Locations → Add new location → Location settings
Open dates and hours	Location → Open dates
How customers book	Location → Book button
Taxes	Settings → Taxes
Products and prices	Products → Add new product
Locks and the product on each lock	Location → Locks
Terms	Customer flow → Key settings
Confirmation email	Settings → Emails
Subscription	Settings → Billing
Test booking	Location → Make a test booking (top bar, next to Save)

Common questions

How do I put the system live? There is no "go live" switch: a location takes bookings once it has a bookable product, locks (at self-service locations), a booking button, a current time period and working payments. When the location page no longer says This location is not taking bookings, run the pre-flight list and a test booking.

Can I test the booking without paying? Yes. On the location page press Make a test booking in the top bar and choose Free test. The booking is marked as a test, left out of your figures and cancelled automatically after 30 minutes.

Is there a test mode for my booking page? Yes: Make a test booking in the location's top bar gives you a link that works for 2 hours. Your booking page then runs as a test, with a banner, a [TEST] confirmation email and no reminders.

Why is Make a test booking greyed out? Either the location can't take bookings yet, or the tab you are on has unsaved changes. Hover over the button to see which, then finish the open steps or press Save.

I made a test booking but can't find it in Bookings. Test bookings are hidden by default. Switch on Show test bookings in Bookings to see them, marked with a Test chip.

Does Make a test booking work for events or with a promo code? Not yet. A test visit of your booking page shows rentals only — events, gift cards and memberships are hidden — and promo codes don't apply. To test a promo code, use a 100 % code and cancel the booking afterwards.

The Guide still says Configure payments although I connected Stripe. The step asks Stripe itself and is ticked once Stripe says card payments work. If it stays open, open Settings → Payments: the Online payments card says what Stripe is waiting for, with Complete at Stripe.

Why is "Create your first Location" not ticked? I created one. In the six-step Guide the step also needs an active or upcoming time period. Use Go to Open dates and create one.

I chose the wrong access type for my location. Can I change it? Yes, until the location has its first booking or lock: on Location settings, pick the other option and save. Test bookings don't count. After that, contact support.

Why can't I save the location without an email and phone? Location email and Location phone are required, because customers see them in the booking and their confirmation emails, and that is how they reach you. They are filled in from your account; Rentalbuddy's own details are refused.

I added locks but "Set up locks & access" is still open. At least one lock must be Active, have a product and be able to create PIN codes; the hints under the step say which part is missing.

My Guide has seven steps and items marked Optional — is that right? Yes. Every new account gets the seven-step Guide; accounts created earlier keep six steps. Optional items can be skipped with Skip; the required ones must be done before the Guide disappears.

Why doesn't a Guide step open for me? Everyone on the account sees the Guide, but its set-up dialogs only open for users whose role is allowed to do that step. Ask your account owner to do it, or to change your role.

My website isn't ready yet — can I still start? Yes. Choose the Rentalbuddy website on the Book button tab and customers book on a page hosted for you; you can switch to your own website later.

Why can't I see the Set up locks & access step? It only appears when you have a self-service location. Staffed locations need no locks.

Where did the setup Guide go? Once every step is done it disappears permanently and Home shows the dashboard with any warnings above it.