Rental duration options
There are two modes you can use for rental durations in Rentshelf — Predefined and Manual Selection.
Predefined rental durations: The customer picks from duration options you’ve set up (such as 7 days, 14 days and 28 days), then picks their start date. The end date is calculated automatically and displayed on the page.
Manually-selected date ranges: The customer picks a start date from the availability calendar, then picks their end date. They can pick any duration they like within the min/max you’ve set on the rental settings screen.
This mode can be changed later from the Quickstart guide on the dashboard, or from the rental settings screen.
Comparison
Section titled “Comparison”| Predefined durations | Manual selection | |
|---|---|---|
| How does a customer select a duration? | Picks from the durations you’ve set up (e.g. 3, 7, 14 days). | Picks any number of days. |
| Can they pick any duration? | No — only the durations you pre-defined. | Yes, within your min/max window. |
| Price display | One price per duration, shown as variants. | Per-day × days, plus optional longer-duration tiers. |
| Customer experience | Native Shopify variant picker — very familiar. | Calendar with two date inputs — a bit more involved. |
| Cart quantity | Quantity = 1 (one rental package). | Quantity = number of days (so line total = day × days). |
| Discounts | Full Shopify discounts & gift cards apply to each variant. | Work, but line-total relies on quantity × per-day. |
| Best for | Rental shops with clear packages (bike rental, tool rental, camera gear). | Venues, event rental, anything priced strictly by day. |
How they look on the storefront
Section titled “How they look on the storefront”Predefined durations
Section titled “Predefined durations”A segmented control at the top of the rental picker shows your packages. The customer picks one, then picks a start date. The end date is computed.
Manual selection
Section titled “Manual selection”Two date fields (start and end) with a calendar popup. The customer picks both dates. The picker shows the computed duration, subtotal and total.
How they look in the cart
Section titled “How they look in the cart”Both modes show the same line-item properties on the cart and order:
- Rental pickup — start date
- Rental return — end date
- Rental duration — number of days
- Rental quote — total price formatted in your currency
- Selected add-ons — comma-separated list, if any
- Due today — deposit amount, if any
Days calculation for manually-selected date ranges
Section titled “Days calculation for manually-selected date ranges”In Manual mode, days are counted inclusively — a rental from Oct 3 to Oct 5 is 3 days, not 2 nights. This matches how rental businesses count days in practice and how customers expect pricing to work.
If the picker is configured with minDays: 1, you can even book single-day rentals (pickup and return on the same day).