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The best POS systems for rental business have features like rental inventory management, rental tickets and quotes, and online rental bookings.
Nicolette began writing on small business topics in 2020. After hundreds of hours researching, testing, and assisting small business owners with web building and point of sale software, she is now an expert on all things eCommerce and point of sale. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh and resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Nicolette KierNicolette began writing on small business topics in 2020. After hundreds of hours researching, testing, and assisting small business owners with web building and point of sale software, she is now an expert on all things eCommerce and point of sale. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh and resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Matt has been helping small businesses make decisions since 2017. He has written reviews and articles across many different channels but specializes in the point of sale, payroll, and small business insurance categories and has been quoted in articles for Fox Business, Forbes, and other publications. Prior to joining Merchant Maverick, Matt was a journalist and editor for 14 years for a pair of weekly newspapers. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and currently resides in Gladstone, Oregon.
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Matt ShermanMatt has been helping small businesses make decisions since 2017. He has written reviews and articles across many different channels but specializes in the point of sale, payroll, and small business insurance categories and has been quoted in articles for Fox Business, Forbes, and other publications. Prior to joining Merchant Maverick, Matt was a journalist and editor for 14 years for a pair of weekly newspapers. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and currently resides in Gladstone, Oregon.
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A POS system for rental businesses helps with moving inventory, fluctuating reservation dates, and building a customer base. We reviewed several of the best POS systems with reservation and rental capabilities based on pricing, features, ease of use, and user reviews to help you find the rental POS software that’s right for your business.
To find the best rental POS software, our team at Merchant Maverick independently reviewed 11 different POS systems with rental management capabilities based on a strict set of editorial guidelines. We evaluated based on a 62-point rubric in four categories: pricing, feature set, ease of use, and customer reviews. You can read more on our methodology below.
Get a free card swiper from Square at no cost when you create a free account. Claim your card reader.
Pros
Free and low-cost plans available
Free online booking features
Affordable rental integrations for niche rental businesses
Affordable POS hardware
Cons
Must use Square payment processor
Occasional fund holds
No intuitive way to enable multi-day bookings
Why We Picked Square For A Low-Cost Option
Square Appointment free contract builder with template settings. (Source: Square)
We like that Square is one of the best free POS systems and can work as a standalone rental POS software for smaller businesses. You can use Square to accept deposits, book rental appointments online, build contracts and waivers, manage your inventory, and send invoices for free. Low-cost paid plans offer more advanced features like automated cancellation fees and resource management.
Square also integrates with affordable rental apps for niche businesses like sports equipment and room or campsite rentals.
Payment processing rates are 2.5%-2.6% + $0.10 for in-person transactions, 2.9% + $0.30 for online transactions, and 2.9%-3.3% + $0.30 for online invoice payments.
Note: All POS systems require a payment processor to accept payments. You will be charged payment processing fees no matter which rental POS software you choose.
POS hardware, which you need to accept cards in person, costs between $59 (Square contactless card reader) and $1,959 (the full Square Retail Register kit). There are many options in between and no-interest financing is available on all hardware.
Free website builder for customers to fill out inquiry forms, self-book item reservations, schedule a consultation, and purchase retail items
Online booking calendar to manage rental appointments
Rental contract builder and digital signature capture
Accept deposits and charge late fees with a card on file
Automated text and email reminder notifications for their reservation
Social media and Google Business Profile integrations to advertise and sell on other platforms
Paid Square features include more advanced inventory management, multi-location management, resource management to ensure items aren’t double-booked, custom contract fields, and more business reports.
Rental-specific apps such as Checkfront allow accommodation rental businesses to:
Create dynamically priced rental packages based on the season, holiday, group size, and rental length
Cross-sell rentals with tours and activities
Confirm rentals through email or text (great for venue/lodging rental businesses)
Manage more resources with a more specialized rental management calendar
Give customers the option to check themselves in
Promote on platforms like GetYourGuide
Square Is Best For
Single-location businesses looking for free software
Why We Picked Clover POS For Renting Out Items By The Hour
Create new order on Clover Rent Item app. (Source: PayPlaxe)
We like that Clover offers a low-cost rental item management app that allows business owners to rent out bicycles, shared spaces such as game tables, or sports equipment by day, hour, and minute. Businesses can create predetermined rental periods or pre-authorize a card and charge it when customers return the items or leave the shared space.
More: Read our Clover POS pricing guide for information on how Clover hardware and payment processing are connected.
Pricing
Clover software pricing ranges from $14.95/month (the Clover Essentials plan) to $69.90/month (the Clover Register plan). The Rental Item app costs $1.99/month.
Your Clover POS hardware and payment processing rates depend on your Clover merchant services provider. For an idea of hardware pricing, these options are listed on Clover.com:
Clover Go: $49 for contactless card reader
Clover Flex: $599 for handheld POS system
Clover Mini: $799 for compact countertop POS
Clover Station: $1,699-$1,799 for full register setup
Must use Shopify payment processor to avoid transaction fees
No offline functionality
Why We Picked Shopify For Online Rental Reservations
Shopify example online car rental shop with IzyRent integration. (Source: Shopify)
We like that Shopify offers one of the best POS systems with eCommerce features such as online rental reservations and in-store rental choices for local delivery and shipping. Shopify offers excellent inventory and asset management, plus great shipping and return tools to monitor online rental shipping status. There are several rental-specific software integrations for niche businesses like vacation rentals, bike rental and repairs, and clothing rental businesses.
If your high-volume or large business needs an enterprise-level solution
All of Shopify’s software pricing plans include an eCommerce store builder and the Shopify POS Lite app:
Rental-specific Shopify apps cost $0-$99/month.
Payment processing rates are 2.4%-2.6% + $0.10 for in-person transactions and 2.5%-2.9% + $0.30 for online transactions.
POS hardware ranges from $49 (Shopify card reader) to $459 (Shopify register kit).
Rental POS Features
We recommend an app such as IzyRent, which integrates well with a professional-looking Shopify website and offers a $0 and $25/month plan. The app includes:
Clothing, lodging accommodation, rent for fixed period, and rent by the hour onling booking solutions
Item or location rental availability date filter
Add-on choices like vehicle insurance or a bike helmet
Rent and purchasing options
Set item delivery and return dates
Create terms and conditions contracts, waivers, shipping and return policies, and care instructions
In-store pickup availability
Manually create rental item or room reservations at the POS for walk-in customers
Track rental and supply inventory
Shopify Is Best For
Online and in-store clothing, electronic, and equipment rentals
Vacation and accommodation rental bookings
Online car and bike rental reservations
Online reservations for by-the-hour rental items and spaces
Promo: Get 20% off of hardware and plans from Lightspeed when you sign up with Lightspeed Payments. Offer valid through 11/30/2024. Claim your discount.
Pros
Optional rental shop software integrations
Built-in appointment/reservation scheduling
Built-in rental item management for no added fee
Work order management for repairs
Cons
Expensive for smaller businesses
Must use in-house payment processor
Early termination fee
Why We Chose Lightspeed Retail For Multi-Purpose Businesses
Lightspeed Retail Bike Rent Manager software integration. (Source: Lightspeed)
We like Lightspeed Retail for multi-purpose businesses because the software offers great inventory management and easily syncs together retail, rental, and repair sales types. Lightspeed's built-in features allow you to rent by the hour or for a predetermined amount of time and manage work orders for repairs. For features like online reservations, holistic rental status views, and rental item delivery management, you will need one of Lightspeed's well-developed software integrations.
Flexible POS hardware and payment processing options
Mobile app available
Cons
POS functions are not available on lowest-tier plan
Moderate learning curve
Why We Picked EZRentOut For B2B Rental Businesses
EZRentOut POS order dashboard. (Source: EZRentOut)
We appreciate that EZRentOut is not just a POS provider, but a large-scale rental management software. Any business that rents its products out to other businesses, such as real estate agencies, party planning companies, universities, medical equipment lenders, or construction companies, will find the customer and vendor management functionalities they need with EZRentOut.
Pricing
EZRentOut software plans:
Essential: $89/month for up to two users ($79/month with annual billing)
Growth: $179/month for up to four users ($149/month with annual billing)
Premium: $349/month for up to six users ($299/month with annual billing)
Note: You must pay an additional $20/month/user if you have more users than the number allotted by your subscription plan.
EZRentOut supports Stripe, Square, and PayPal for payment processing, so you’ll pay around 2.6% for in-person payments and 2.9% for online payments.
Rental POS Features
EZRentOut is designed for midsize rental businesses, which is why it offers these highly unique features in addition to your standard rental POS system features:
B2B Customer Management System: Add all information related to a business’s location, contact info, billing information, payment terms, documents such as order agreements, and customer group pricing rules.
Location-Based Settings: Rent out items based on a customer’s location, monitor routes for efficient deliveries, and set delivery restrictions so that no customer who is too far away will request items from you.
Leasing & Sub-Rentals: Create recurring invoices for customers leasing an item such as an RV. Set up sub-rental rules to manage items your midsize business borrows from partners to sub-rent to your customers.
Inventory Management: Manage items as single items or as a single group of individual items. Depreciate equipment, order services to internal inventory and external rental items, take stock and receive low-stock alerts.
Webstore: Allow certain customers to view an up-to-date catalog of your available items. Allow them to purchase rental items, digitally sign forms, get invoices with line items, and monitor their own orders with their own customer account that they can log into from the webstore.
EZRentOut Is Best For
Renting out furniture to real estate companies
Medical and construction equipment rentals
Renting out equipment and supplies to event planners
A full-scale B2B rental businesses management software
We like Paradise POS for remote locations because the system allows your business to continue taking payments without WiFi. We also like the system's rental-specific features such as ID scanning, rental customer accounts, and rental time tracking. It's an easy-to-use iPad POS system that's affordable and has just enough for the remote sports equipment or campsite rental business to manage.
Pricing
Paradise POS is available for a custom quote, but sources report you’ll pay around $50/month for the software. The entire register setup plus a local router and ethernet cables cost a one-time fee of around $1,300.
Rental POS Features
Paradise POS is designed for rental business owners who may not always have a steady WiFi connection. The following features are included in every Paradise POS plan:
Offline payment processing
Employee scheduling and time tracking
Customizable gift cards
Hourly, daily, and by-the-minute rental timeframes
Rental deposits
Customer account management
ID scanning and age verification
Rental pickup and dropoff at any of your locations
Product costing and vendor management
Intuitive upselling
Paradise POS Is Best For
Sports equipment rental businesses without steady WiFi
Merchant Maverick has been researching and reviewing POS providers since 2012. Our writers have tested over 100 different point of sale systems, evaluating pricing, features, ease of use, customer service, and user reviewers. Read more about how we rate POS providers.
Weighted Rating Breakdown
Pricing 40%
Features 30%
Ease Of Use 15%
Customer Service 10%
User Reviews 5%
When comparing different POS software systems, we consider many data points, including relative pricing, the depth of niche features offered, the price of hardware, and any associated payment processing fees. Our lists of the best providers include only apps we’ve deemed worthwhile from multiple vantage points. The POS vendors we pick share qualities such as widespread availability, accessibility, user-friendliness, and reasonable pricing. We also look carefully at niche features, such as check-splitting, inventory management, eCommerce, loyalty programs, gift cards, and more.
We spend an average of 10-15 hours researching and updating each one of our lists, making sure the providers included meet our internal standards for quality and reputation.
80+
Vendors evaluated
65+
Attributes assessed per vendor
20+
Features weighed
30+
Combined years of experience
What Is A POS System For Rental Businesses?
A POS system for rental businesses is software that, combined with a card reader and other POS hardware such as an iPad or tablet, allows you to take payments, manage rental inventory, and schedule item or venue bookings. You also need a payment processor to move digital customer payments into your business bank account.
The best point of sale systems for inventory management will either have built-in advanced inventory management or an upgrade that’s not overly expensive. The ability to track a wide variety of products and keep tabs on what’s in stock in real time is crucial in most rental establishments.
Scheduling Functions
Rental agreements are, by nature, time-sensitive. It’s a little tedious for a potential renter to have to call you, then you look in your rental bookings, call them back, and try to work out a rental time, all the while trying to track what will be available and when.
Instead, find a POS that shows you (as well as customers) when a certain piece of equipment or a location is available. Include a calendar online so that customers already have an idea of when they can rent.
Since your POS should also have real-time inventory/scheduling updates, your booking availability should update as soon as your inventory levels or expected location occupancy changes.
Reservation Time Tracking
If you rent out a boat for six hours and don’t track whether six hours have passed, then you won’t know if you’re supposed to collect overdue fines. If you don’t enforce your rental periods, customers could take advantage of you.
A POS system that tracks rental time from the minute a customer checks out takes out the extra step it takes to write down (or worse, try to remember) when a piece of equipment leaves your facility and when it comes back.
ID Verification
If you rent out equipment that requires some level of skill, such as tools, or if a customer has to be a certain age to rent something out, which is the case for many car rental places, you’ll need to check and store your customer’s ID beforehand.
Even if you don’t have those specific kinds of rental businesses, you should know exactly who you’re renting out to. It’s also important that the person who signs the rental agreement is the same person who returns your rental products.
Many POS systems allow you to scan an individual’s ID, driver’s license, or passport.
Pre-Authorizations
You wouldn’t want to loan something out to someone without knowing if they can pay for it. If you have a POS system that pre-authorizes a buyer’s payment method, you won’t have to worry about collecting your dues later on.
Rental Deposits
Many rental businesses charge a down payment or a deposit on high-ticket rentals. Your POS system should allow you to charge either a refundable deposit or a deposit that can be used as partial payment later on.
Card-On-File
If a piece of lighting equipment is broken or someone shatters a window in your rental property, you are within your rights to charge the renter (as long as you included it in a signed rental agreement, of course).
Storing a customer’s card information guarantees you will be able to collect payment for damages, even if a renter will not acknowledge their mistake.
Website Integration
People want to trust the business they’re renting from. The easiest way to build that trust is to build a reputable website. Ideally, customers should also be able to complete bookings and checkout online with an added eCommerce functionality.
Some POS systems, including Square For Retail and Shopify, come with eCommerce functionalities, depending on your payment plan. Other systems, such as Lightspeed Retail and Clover, integrate with most eCommerce website builders.
Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs are an excellent way to retain your customer base, especially if they are likely to use your rental services often.
Automated Billing
If a renter takes something out for an unspecified amount of time, or they decide to add on an extra day, hour, etc., to their rental period, an automated billing system will allow you to automatically bill for that extra time.
Mobility
Most modern POS systems can run on an iPad or tablet. Some providers have even built smartphone apps to increase mobile transaction capabilities.
Rental business owners will find mobile POS systems very useful, as they can take payment on-location, at events, or just around their store.
How To Choose A POS System For Your Rental Business
Decide How To Charge For Rentals: You can charge for your rental items or spaces (lodging, office space, etc.) in a rental window for hours or days. Or, you can rent out by the hour/day.
Consider Scheduling Needs: If customers can schedule rentals ahead of time, you can manually create bookings during customer calls or meetings, or allow customers to self-book online.
Make A Budget: Figure out how much you can spend on POS software per month and how much you plan to spend on one-time hardware purchases.
Decide Must-Have Software Features: Look for software that matches how you’ll charge for rentals and the time of scheduling you need.
Sign Up For Free Trials: Once you’ve narrowed down your options based on price and features, sign up for free trials or software demos to get a sense of how the software would work for your business.
Sign A Contract & Purchase Hardware: Read through your contract for any undisclosed fees, early termination requirements, and hardware warranty requirements. Then, purchase your hardware and get ready to sell.
Related: If you’re not sure what your POS budget should be, read our post on POS system costs.
Key Takeaways
A POS system for your rental business requires niche features like deposits, time tracking, and rental item scheduling online and in person.
Square stands out as a low-cost option, while Shopify is an affordable and powerful POS for online rentals. Lightspeed Retail offers the most expansive retail and rental item management, especially if paired with a rental-specific software integration.
FAQs: 6 Best POS Systems For Rental Businesses In 2024
What is the best car rental software?
Lightspeed and Shopify are the best car rental POS software. Both have vehicle rental management software integrations and built-in payment processors to accept payments in-store and online.
What is the best POS system for construction equipment rental companies?
The best POS system for construction equipment rentals is Lightspeed Retail or EZRentOut. Both offer B2B and B2C customer management, excellent inventory management, and service order issuing for tools and machines that require repairs.
What is the best party rental software?
The best party rental software is EZRentOut because you can send party supply catalogs to potential customers, create party rental packages, monitor supply delivery, and monitor the condition of your rental inventory over time.
Nicolette began writing on small business topics in 2020. After hundreds of hours researching, testing, and assisting small business owners with web building and point of sale software, she is now an expert on all things eCommerce and point of sale. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh and resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
View Nicolette Kier's professional experience on LinkedIn.
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We Recommend Square POS For Your Business 🏆User-friendly & feature-rich point of sale system with affordable pricing.Square POS is an intuitive and simple point of sale platform. It offers customizable tools and a variety of add-ons to fit your business needs and reach your goals.Get StartedNo credit card required
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
We Recommend Square POS For Your Business 🏆User-friendly & feature-rich point of sale system with affordable pricing.Square POS is an intuitive and simple point of sale platform. It offers customizable tools and a variety of add-ons to fit your business needs and reach your goals.Get StartedNo credit card required
Square POS is an intuitive and simple point of sale platform. It offers customizable tools and a variety of add-ons to fit your business needs and reach your goals.
Get Started
