Rental Products for WooCommerce expand the default product functionality for WooCommerce products so that customers can also rent them. In this guide, we’ll go through how to manage rental product orders: finding rental orders, adding and editing rentals from the order screen, payments and refunds, and rental inventory.
Find rental orders in the WooCommerce orders list
↑ Back to topIn WooCommerce > Orders, you’ll see a list of all orders. This is standard WooCommerce behavior and includes both rental and non-rental orders.
If an order includes rentals, it will display an “Includes rentals” label next to the order number, making it easy to identify rental-related orders at a glance.
Filter orders by rentals
↑ Back to topYou can also filter the orders list by rentals. Use the Rentals filter dropdown above the list and choose Orders including rentals or Orders excluding rentals.
Latest rental orders
↑ Back to topGo to Rentals > Dashboard to get a quick overview of your latest rental orders. This part of the rentals dashboard displays the latest rental orders for quick access.
Flagged rental orders
↑ Back to topIn the Rentals > Dashboard page, you can also get a quick overview of your flagged rental orders. These are rental orders that may require action, such as rental products that haven’t been returned by the due date. This section of the rentals dashboard displays the flagged rental orders for quick access.
Managing rental orders on the order screen
↑ Back to topOrders containing rentals are managed similarly to normal orders with a few key differences:
- A Managing rental orders box is shown when you add or edit an order. It tells you how that order handles rentals: which order statuses hold and release rental stock, whether setting the order to Completed marks its rentals as returned, which buttons to use to add, change, cancel or return a rental, and how security deposits are refunded.
Note: this box will only appear if Managing rental orders hasn’t been disabled in the screen options. - The box follows the settings you have applied for rentals, so what it says, and the screenshot below, may differ for your store. We don’t repeat its contents in this document to avoid confusion.
Adding and editing rentals from the order screen
↑ Back to topYou can add a rental to an order, and change a rental that is already on one, directly from the order edit screen. The steps below apply when legacy mode is off, which is the default for stores that first installed Rental Products at version 7.0 or later. Stores that upgraded from an earlier version run in legacy mode until it is switched off: untick Legacy mode under Rentals > Settings > Advanced > Handler mode (Handler mode in the Settings document). That section is only shown to stores that upgraded, and switching modes in either direction empties all customers’ carts, so choose a quiet time to do it.
Adding a rental to an order
↑ Back to top- Create the order first. Rental products cannot be added to an order that has not been created yet, and clicking the button on a new order shows a message saying so. Create the order as Pending payment, then add the rentals and change the order status as required.
- In the order items, click Add item(s), then Add rental product.
- Choose the Rental product and, for a variable product, the Variation.
- Set the Quantity.
- If the product uses the Period selection pricing type, choose one of its periods in Rental period. The periods are labelled the same way as on the product page. Once a start date is selected, changing the period moves the end date to match.
- Select the Rental dates. The calendar shows two months side by side, so a rental that crosses the end of a month needs no paging, and it only lets you pick a length the product can be booked for: its pricing period and any permitted multiples of it, its configured rental periods, and its minimum and maximum days. Dates and days of the week the product has disabled cannot be selected.
- If the product uses in-person pick up/return, choose the Pick up time and Return time. A time that carries a fee shows the fee next to it, and the fee is included in the line total.
- Click Add to order.
The rental is priced the same way as on the product page, the order totals are recalculated, and rental stock is reserved for the dates. To add a rental bundle, choose the bundle; the products in it are added as lines with it.
Product Add-Ons fields cannot be chosen in this dialog. If the product has add-ons, the dialog says so; a rental that needs them should be ordered from the product page.
Changing a rental on an order
↑ Back to topEach rental that has not been returned or cancelled has Edit rental, Mark as returned and Cancel rental buttons below it. Edit rental opens the same dialog on the rental’s current dates, quantity, rental period, and pick up and return times, so only what you change is changed. A product inside a rental bundle is changed by editing the bundle.
When you click Update order, the rental’s current reservation is released, the new dates and quantity are checked against availability and the product’s rental rules (for a variation, the rules set on its product), and the line is repriced. A price you entered by hand on that line is replaced by the recalculated one. If the dates changed, an order note records the old and new dates. Collect any difference, or refund it, the usual WooCommerce way.
The product on a rental line cannot be changed. To switch to a different product, cancel the rental with Cancel rental and add the new product.
Booking outside the product’s rules
↑ Back to topFrom the order screen you can book a rental that starts earlier than the product’s booking window (including dates in the past), or more units than are available for the dates. The dialog lists what the booking goes against, and saves only once you tick Apply these changes anyway. Other rules, such as disabled dates, the earliest available date, and minimum and maximum days, still apply.
In legacy mode
↑ Back to topIn legacy mode the order items show Add rental product(s) instead. It opens a window where you go to a rental product and add it to the order from its product page; close the window when you are finished and click Recalculate. A rental is changed by cancelling it with Cancel rental and adding it again.
Payments, security deposits and refunds
↑ Back to topPayments for orders containing rentals are processed the same way as non-rental orders. The customer pays the full order total, including any security deposits, during checkout.
If you wish to issue a refund, you can refund the entire order or partially refund specific items, including security deposits. In both cases, if the original payment method was a card, your payment provider’s usual transaction fees and terms apply, just as with non-rental orders.
For details on processing refunds, refer to the Managing rental orders box shown when adding/editing an order.
Refunding part of an order does not release the stock of the rental it covers. After a partial refund of a rental, use Cancel rental or Mark as returned on it so its stock is released. Setting the whole order to Refunded or Cancelled releases the stock of every rental in it. Security deposits are never refunded automatically: refund one yourself once the rental is back and you are satisfied with it.
When using the security deposits feature in this extension, the customer is charged the full amount (including any deposits) at checkout. This extension does not support payment holds or pre-authorizations for deposits (e.g. temporarily holding an amount and charging it later).
This functionality has been explored but is currently not feasible due to limitations from most payment providers, who typically allow payment holds for only around 7 days. If a customer places a rental order more than 7 days in advance, the hold would expire before the rental begins.
While some gateways may allow extended holds (up to 30 days), this depends on factors such as:
- The payment provider
- Your business’s merchant account setup
- Card types used
- Rental period timing
These dependencies make it too unreliable to support broadly within the extension.
You may wonder how platforms like Airbnb manage this; they use custom agreements and bespoke payment integrations, allowing longer holds and delayed charges. This is not possible with this extension, as payments are taken at checkout, following standard WooCommerce behavior.
If you are using the Deposits & Partial Payments for WooCommerce plugin, payments are handled according to that plugin’s settings.
For card payments, make sure your WooCommerce payment methods are configured to authorize and capture payments immediately. This is usually the default setting. Using an “authorize now, capture later” setup is not recommended, as most providers only allow a short window for capturing payments. If the rental start date is too far in the future, the capture window may expire.
We recommend testing your payment scenarios in a staging or development environment using your payment provider’s sandbox tools. This helps ensure you’re familiar with the process, transaction fees, and behavior before going live.
Rental inventory management
↑ Back to topThe inventory shows the rental stock totals of all published rental products. There are two views available:
- Date view
- Live view
You can search, print, and export the list using the search field and buttons.
To view a product, click the product title button to open it in a new tab:
Date view
↑ Back to topShows estimated rental stock totals for the date set. Rentals are considered when the rental dates (including any return days thresholds) have passed, regardless of whether marked as returned or not.
As the inventory can be used to view rental stock totals for dates in the future, the rental stock totals assume that rentals will have been returned by the expected return dates (including any return days thresholds).
Live view
↑ Back to topShows rental stock totals for the current date and time. Rentals are considered out unless marked as returned or cancelled.
Negative rental stock totals
↑ Back to topNegative rental stock totals can occur temporarily when the product has had rental stock reduced and more than the new level was already reserved. Once those reserved rentals have been returned, the negative rental stock levels will rectify.
Why availability can differ from the inventory
↑ Back to topThere are a variety of factors that determine the availability of a rental product.
This can mean that the totals you see in the inventory do not match the availability a customer sees when choosing a rental on specific dates/quantities, such as accounting for the return days thresholds of rentals prior to the dates they have selected.
In addition to the above, availability may also differ from the inventory due to immediate rental stock replenishment in settings.
More information
↑ Back to topDo you have more questions? Return to the Rental Products for WooCommerce Getting Started table of contents.
You didn’t find what you were looking for? We’d love to hear from you and help you with any questions you have.