Smarter Booking Period Controls for Rentals
SMBcrm has improved how Booking Periods work in Rentals so date and time behavior is clearer and easier to manage at the listing level.
Businesses can now choose whether a listing uses dates only or dates and times without relying on hidden global settings. This makes booking logic more visible inside each listing and helps reduce confusion around pricing, duration, and rental start and end times.
What’s Changed
Clear booking period options
Listings now show three defined Booking Period modes:
- Date & Time Selector
- Date Selector
- Fixed Durations
Each mode now behaves in a more visible and predictable way.
Date & Time Selector
This mode always shows date and time pickers in the booking widget.
It is useful for hourly rentals or bookings where customers need to choose both a start time and an end time.
Date Selector
This mode lets customers choose start and end dates only.
Default Rental Start Time and Rental End Time are now visible in listing settings and are used to calculate duration. This setup fits vacation rentals, overnight stays, and other date-based pricing models.
Fixed Durations
For listings with predefined booking durations:
- Customers can optionally select a start time
- If time selection is turned off, the default Rental Start Time is applied automatically
- The end time is calculated from the selected duration
- Monthly bookings roll over to the next calendar month with date handling built in
Compatibility Rules
To prevent unsupported setups:
- When Booking Period is set to Date Selector, hourly pricing is disabled
- When Booking Unit is set to Hour, Date Selector is disabled
These rules help ensure only valid combinations can be selected.
Configuration Improvements
The previous Disable Time Selector behavior is now shown directly within each listing and has been removed from global settings.
This makes booking behavior self-contained inside the listing and easier to review when configuring rentals.
Migration for Existing Listings
Existing listings were mapped to the appropriate booking period mode.
Default rental start and end times were also populated where needed to support the updated behavior.
Why It Matters
This update helps:
- Reduce accidental multi-day charges
- Make rental start and end times easier to understand
- Let businesses control time selection per listing
- Improve clarity for admins and customers
- Better support vacation rentals and flexible pricing models
Need Help Applying This Update?
If you’d like help rolling this out in SMBcrm, visit Support or request a demo.