HyreKit documentation

Rent or book products by the date range. The whole window stays reserved, so items never double-book.

Overview

HyreKit turns any Shopify product into something a customer can rent or book for a range of dates instead of buying it once. When a customer selects a pickup and a return date, every day in that window is reserved, not just the first, so the same item is never promised to two people at once. The item is held in the cart through checkout.

HyreKit is an embedded app: it runs inside your Shopify admin and needs no separate login. Bookings are date-based (whole days), which suits equipment rental, event and venue hire, and inventory you lend out by the day.

Install & setup

Install HyreKit from the Shopify App Store. It opens on the dashboard.
Open Rental products and add your first product (see below).
In the theme editor, add the Rental date picker app block to your product template and save. This places the booking calendar on the product page.

The calendar only appears on the storefront after the Rental date picker block is added to the product template. If you do not see it, this is almost always the reason.

Rental products

Open Rental products and choose a product to make rentable. Each product has its own settings:

Units you own — how many of this item you have. HyreKit tracks each unit separately, so two customers can book the same product on overlapping dates as long as units remain available.

Bookable how far ahead (days) — how far into the future customers may book. Dates beyond this window are not selectable.

Min hire (days) and Max hire (days) — the shortest and longest rental period a customer may select.

Turnaround buffer (days) — a gap automatically reserved after each booking for cleaning, inspection, or preparation before the item can be booked again.

Late return fee (per day) — a per-day rate you can apply if an item comes back late (Premium). Configurable here; applied from the Bookings view.

Long-hire discount (%) and …for hires of (days or more) — an optional discount that rewards longer rentals once the hire reaches the day threshold you set. The discount is applied automatically at checkout on every Shopify plan.

Rental product marker & the Rentals collection — when you save a rental configuration, HyreKit marks the product with a Rental product (HyreKit) metafield and creates a smart collection called Rentals that keeps itself up to date: products flow in when you configure them and out when you remove them. Rename or restyle the collection freely — the rule keeps working. If you delete it, HyreKit won't recreate it. The booking calendar block also renders only on marked rental products, so you can add it to your product template once and forget it.

The booking calendar (storefront)

On the product page the customer sees a month calendar. They pick a pickup date, then a return date. The whole range highlights, and the summary shows the period and the number of days, for example Pickup: 8 June · Return: 12 June · 5 days.

Days that are already booked, inside a turnaround buffer, or outside the booking window are struck through and cannot be selected.
When all units are taken for a date, that date becomes unavailable automatically.
Add to cart stays disabled until a valid period is chosen (and, on Premium, the deposit box is ticked).

Deposits (Premium)

Set a deposit amount on the product. On the storefront the customer sees a clear notice that a refundable deposit applies and must tick a consent box before Add to cart becomes available. The deposit is added at checkout. Because the customer explicitly agrees first, the charge is never a surprise.

Extensions (Premium)

If a customer needs to keep an item longer, you can extend a confirmed booking from the Bookings view. HyreKit checks that the extra days are still available, then creates a draft order for the additional days so you can bill them.

Late fees (Premium)

Set a per-day late-return fee on the product. HyreKit flags overdue returns so you can apply the fee for the days an item is late. Nothing is charged automatically without your action.

Long-hire discount

Reward longer rentals with an automatic discount. On the product's rental settings, set a discount percentage and a minimum number of days. When a booking meets the minimum, the per-day price is reduced by that percentage in the cart, and the line shows the discounted total for the whole period. Bookings shorter than the minimum are charged at the normal daily rate.

Rental guard (checkout protection)

Storefronts have side doors into the cart that skip the booking calendar — the Buy again button in customer accounts, direct add-to-cart links, and third-party apps. Rental guard closes them: if a rental product reaches the cart without rental dates, adding it or checking out is blocked with a clear message asking the customer to pick the dates on the product page.

Turn it on once — in Shopify admin open Settings → Checkout → Checkout rules → Add rule, choose HyreKit rental guard and enable it. From then on it applies automatically to every product you configure in HyreKit.

Products without a rental configuration — accessories, consumables, regular sale items — are never affected.

Units & serials

A rental product is a listing. A unit is a physical machine. If you own two identical chippers, they are two units under one product.

Each unit carries its own serial or QR code, rental count, engine hours and service log. When a booking is handed out, HyreKit records which unit went out — so service intervals follow the machine, not the product page.

Availability follows your units. If a product has units defined, the number of bookable items equals the number of active units. A machine marked as under repair drops out of availability automatically. If a product has no units, HyreKit works exactly as before — units are optional.

Setting up your units

Two ways, and the second is faster:

In the admin: Apps → HyreKit → Assets → add units one by one, or paste a list of serial numbers to create them all at once.
With the Companion app: stick any barcode or QR sticker on a machine, open Add item, pick the product, and scan. The unit is created with that code. Keep scanning down the row.

You do not need a special printer. HyreKit can export a CSV for label printers (Brother P-touch, Dymo, Zebra) or print a QR sheet for plain sticker paper. QR is recommended — it still reads through scratches, mud and oil.

Companion app

HyreKit Companion is a free Android app that turns a phone into your rental counter. It works only with a shop running HyreKit.

Turning it on

Apps → HyreKit → Companion app → turn the switch on. It is off by default.
Add a device: give the phone a name (“Garage tablet”) and press Get pairing code.
Type the six-character code into the app. It is valid for ten minutes and can be used once.

Every device carries its own key. If a phone is lost or a colleague leaves, revoke that one device from the same page — nothing else is affected. There are no shared passwords.

Handing out and taking back

Hand out: scan the code on the machine. The app finds today’s booking for that product. If there is one, it is picked for you — confirm and the machine is on its way. If several customers are waiting for the same type of machine, choose the right one. Add engine hours if the machine has a meter.

Take back: scan the same machine. The app knows it is out and shows who has it. Enter the closing engine hours and leave a condition note if something needs attention. The hours are added to that unit’s total and its rental count goes up by one.

Confirmations are buffered if the signal drops and sync themselves when it returns.

You can also hand out and take back from the admin, without the app: Bookings → Hand out or Take back, and pick the unit from the list.

Bookings

The Bookings view lists every reservation with columns Product, Customer, Start, Finish, Source, Status, Action. Status is colour-coded: Confirmed (green), Booked (amber), Cancelled (red).

Add booking — enter a reservation manually (for phone or walk-in customers).
Extend — lengthen a booking (Premium; see above).
Cancel — cancel a reservation and free the dates.

Calendar feed (Standard)

HyreKit publishes an iCal feed of your bookings. Subscribe to it in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook to see reservations alongside your other events. The feed is one-way (HyreKit to your calendar). There is also an in-admin calendar view of all bookings.

Plans

Basic

Date-range booking calendar
No double-booking
Cart hold through checkout
Order confirmation with dates

Standard

Everything in Basic
Multiple units per item
Turnaround buffers
Pickup details on order confirmation
Calendar feed & admin calendar

Premium

Everything in Standard
Refundable deposits with consent
Booking extensions
Per-day late-return fees

The booking core (calendar, no double-booking, cart hold, order confirmation) is always on, even on Basic.

Troubleshooting

The Companion app says “Companion is off for this shop”

The switch is off. Apps → HyreKit → Companion app → turn it on, then generate a fresh pairing code.

The pairing code does not work

Codes are valid for ten minutes and can be used once. Generate a new one. Codes contain no zero, O, one, I or L, so a code you cannot read is probably a different character than you think.

Scanning a machine says “not found”

That code is not attached to any unit yet. Open Add item in the app, pick the product, and scan the sticker — the unit is created or filled in.

The app says a sticker is already on another machine

Each code must be unique within a shop. Use a different sticker, or remove the code from the other unit in Apps → HyreKit → Assets.

Scanning says there is no booking for today

The app looks for a paid booking of that product covering today, without a unit already assigned. Check the dates on the booking, or hand out from the admin instead.

Two staff scanned the same machine at once

The second one gets a clear message that the item is already out. Nothing is overwritten. Whoever confirmed first holds the booking.

Engine hours look wrong on a unit

HyreKit adds the difference between the hours entered at hand-out and at return. If hand-out hours were left empty, the return reading is stored as the absolute value instead. Correct a unit’s hours in Apps → HyreKit → Assets.

I lost a phone with the Companion app

Apps → HyreKit → Companion app → find the device and press Revoke. That key stops working immediately. Other devices are unaffected.

Do I have to use units?

No. If a product has no units, HyreKit behaves exactly as it did before — stock is counted per product. Add units when you want per-machine service history.

The calendar does not appear on the product page

The Rental date picker block is not on that product's template. Open the theme editor, add the block to the product template, and save.

A date the customer wants is unavailable

All units are booked for that date, the date falls inside a turnaround buffer, or it is outside the bookable window. Adjust units or the window on the product if needed.

The deposit notice or consent box is missing

Deposits are a Premium feature. Confirm you are on Premium and that a deposit amount is set on the product.

Can customers book by the hour?

No. HyreKit reserves whole days. Reserving the entire range is what prevents double-booking across multi-day rentals.

Need help?

Email hyrekit@offsite.ee. We answer quickly.