Documentation

Introduction

Simple Bike Rental is a WordPress plugin designed to offer a lightweight, functional and user-friendly bike rental system.

With this plugin, any WordPress site can:

  • Let users book a bike by selecting a date and time.
  • Manage all reservations from the admin panel.
  • Send email notifications to both the admin and the customer.

The system is built to be easy to use, quick to set up, and fully translatable, ready for multilingual websites.

Two Available Versions:

Lite (Free) – Includes all essential features: bike management, booking form, admin calendar, email notifications and basic options. Ideal for small rentals with no need for online payments.

Pro (Paid) – Adds advanced features: Stripe online payments, currency settings, dedicated payment pages, advanced booking status, accessory rentals (if enabled), and more. Perfect for automating the entire rental process.

Minimum Requirements

  • WordPress 5.8 or higher
  • PHP 7.4 or higher
  • A theme that supports shortcodes (any modern theme)

Installation

Method 1: Install from WordPress dashboard (for the free version)

  1. Go to your WordPress site’s dashboard.
  2. Navigate to Plugins → Add New.
  3. Search for “simple bike rental”.
  4. Click Install Now, then Activate.

Method 2: Manual installation (for Pro version or downloaded ZIP)

  1. Download the plugin .zip file.
  2. Go to Plugins → Add New and click Upload Plugin.
  3. Select the .zip file and click Install Now.
  4. After installation, click Activate Plugin.

Note for the Pro version:
After activation, go to the plugin’s Settings section and open the “License” tab to enter your license key and unlock advanced features like online payments.

If you’re upgrading from the free version to the pro version, read this post first.

Initial Setup

After installing and activating the plugin, you can set it up in just a few simple steps. You can refer to this detailed guide for the initial setup.

Shortcodes

Simple Bike Rental Pro provides several shortcodes to integrate the booking system into your WordPress pages and posts.

Start by placing the required shortcodes in the appropriate pages:

[simpbire_bike_rental]

Displays the frontend booking form, allowing users to rent bikes.

You can add this shortcode to a public page called, for example, “Book a Bike”, or create a new page in WordPress and paste the shortcode into the editor.

[simpbire_pending_confirmation]

Shows a message to users who submitted a booking but still need to confirm it by clicking the link sent to their email address.

  • Create a page called “Waiting for Confirmation” (or similar)
  • add the shortcode, and set this page in the plugin settings as Post-booking redirect page.

After submitting the booking form, users will be redirected to this page and see a message like:

“Thank you for your booking! We have sent you an email with a link to confirm your booking. To complete the rental, please click the link within a short time.”

This default message works well for most cases. If you prefer a custom message, you can skip this shortcode and simply add your own content to the page.

[simpbire_token_messages]

Handles and displays messages related to verifying the confirmation token sent by email.

  • Create a page called “Booking Confirmation” (or similar)
  • add the shortcode, and set this page in the plugin settings under Page for confirmation messages.

When users click the confirmation link in the email, they will be taken to this page. It will show either a success or error message depending on the result.

Shortcodes Pro

This section documents the Pro shortcodes. Below you’ll find the mini availability calendar shortcode with options, examples, and styling tips.

Mini Availability Calendar

Display a compact month grid showing when a specific bike is available. Works in posts, pages, and widget areas.

[simpbire_mini_calendar bike_id="1" months="1" legend="1"]

Attributes

  • bike_id (required) – The target bike ID (see the Bikes list in WP Admin).
  • months (default: 1) – How many consecutive months to display.
  • start (default: first day of the current month) – Start month in YYYY-MM-01 format (e.g., 2025-10-01).
  • legend (default: 1) – Show the legend (1) or hide it (0).

You can consult this page to see some examples of use.

Notes

  • The start value must point to the first day of the desired month (YYYY-MM-01).
  • If nothing appears, double-check bike_id and that the bike exists in your catalog.
  • You can place multiple calendars on the same page for different bikes.

Shortcodes for Online Payments

If you enable online payments in the Pro version, you’ll need to set up two additional shortcodes:

[simpbire_payment]

Displays the payment page (Stripe integration).

  • Create a page called “Payment”
  • add the shortcode, and set this page in the plugin settings under Payment Page.

This page shows users their booking summary and a button to proceed with Stripe payment.

[simpbire_success]

Shows a confirmation message after a successful payment.

  • Create a page called “Payment Confirmed”
  • add the shortcode, and set it in the plugin settings under Post-payment “Thank You” page.

This page will show the success message when the payment has been completed.

Frontend Booking Form

The plugin includes a shortcode to insert the booking form anywhere on your site.

How to use it

Place the following shortcode where you want the form to appear:

[simpbire_bike_rental]

This form allows the user to:

  • Choose the rental type (hourly or daily).
  • Select the date (and time, if needed).
  • View which bikes are available for that period.
  • Enter name, email, and phone number.
  • Submit the booking request.

The system will only display bikes that are actually available for the selected time range.

With payments enabled (Pro)

If online payments are enabled (Pro version), the user will be redirected to the payment page after submitting the form to complete the transaction.

If payments are not enabled, the user will be redirected to the confirmation page (if configured).

Pro Version: Advanced Features

The Pro version unlocks advanced features for a more complete and professional rental experience.

Activating the Pro License

After purchasing the Pro version, go to Settings → License and enter your license key to activate all premium features.

The license is valid for one domain and has no expiration date.

Enabling Online Payment

Once your license is active, you can enable online payments:

  • Go to Plugin Settings.
  • Enable the option “Enable online payment”.
  • Configure Stripe settings to start receiving card payments.

Stripe Settings

To enable Stripe payments, you’ll need to configure:

  • Public Key: used to identify your account on the frontend.
  • Secret Key: used to securely authorize transactions.
  • Payment Page: shows the booking summary and the “Pay Now” button.
  • Success Page: displayed to the user after a successful payment.

You can choose these pages using the dropdown menus at the bottom of the Settings → settings tab.

Configure the Stripe Webhook

This guide explains how to properly configure the Stripe webhook for the Simple Bike Rental Pro plugin.

The Stripe webhook allows your website to be notified when a payment has been successfully completed.

Although Simple Bike Rental Pro works even without enabling the webhook, we strongly recommend activating it. Why?

Because in rare cases — for example, if an error occurs during the redirect from Stripe back to your site — the booking might not be updated correctly, even if the payment was successful. This could leave the reservation in a “pending payment” state.

By enabling the webhook, you ensure:

  • The booking is automatically marked as confirmed once Stripe processes the payment.
  • Email notifications are sent without depending on the user returning to the site.
  • Greater reliability and accuracy in booking management.

Requirements

  • Stripe payments are enabled in the plugin settings.
  • Your Stripe Public and Secret Keys are entered correctly.
  • You have created a thank you page (post-payment) and a payment summary page.

1 – Copy the Webhook URL

https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=simpbire_webhook_stripe

Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain.

2 – Log in to Your Stripe Dashboard

  • Go to dashboard.stripe.com.
  • Select the project used for your plugin.
  • From the left sidebar, navigate to Developers → Webhooks.

3 – Create a New Endpoint

  • Click “Add endpoint”.
  • Paste the Webhook URL copied in step 1.
  • Under Events to send, select only: checkout.session.completed
  • Click “Add endpoint” to save.

4 – Copy the Webhook Secret

Once the endpoint is created, Stripe will show you a Signing secret.

  • Copy it.
  • Go back to your WordPress dashboard → Plugin Settings > Payments tab.
  • Paste it into the Stripe Webhook Secret field.
  • Save the settings.

5 – Test the Integration

Make a test booking and complete the payment. Verify that:

  • The booking is marked as completed in the admin panel.
  • The user is redirected to the thank-you page.
  • Stripe does not remove the webhook anymore (as long as the server returns HTTP 200).

Test Mode Tips

You can use Stripe test mode with the test card:

4242 4242 4242 4242
Expiration date: any future date
CVC: any 3 digits

Booking Management

The plugin lets you easily view, edit, and delete bookings from the WordPress admin panel.

Calendar View

  • Go to the plugin’s Bookings section.
  • View bookings in an interactive calendar.
  • Click on a booking to open a modal window with all its details.

Edit or Delete a Booking

  • From the modal, you can update the booking information or delete it.
  • Changes are applied immediately and reflected in the calendar.

Manual Booking

  • You can add bookings manually by clicking “Add Booking” from the admin panel.
  • The form allows you to choose rental type, time range, and bike, while checking availability.

Email Notifications

The plugin automatically sends notification emails when a booking is made.

Notification to the User

When a booking is confirmed, the user receives a summary email with:

  • Bike name
  • Rental period
  • Submitted info (name, email, phone)

Notification to the Admin

  • The admin also receives an email with full booking details.
  • The admin email address is the one configured in the plugin settings.

Custom Email Content

The plugin automatically sends two types of email notifications:

  • A confirmation email to the customer after booking.
  • A notification email to the admin.

You can enable or disable each notification, customize the subject and message content, and set the recipients (for admin emails). The email body is fully customizable thanks to a built-in visual editor, allowing basic formatting and a live preview.

You can also use the following placeholder tags, which will be automatically replaced when the email is sent:

  • {name} – User’s name
  • {email} – User’s email 
  • {phone} – User’s phone number 
  • {rental_period} – Rental period 
  • {bike_name} – Bike name

Custom Sender Info

In the plugin settings, you can set:

  • The sender name
  • The sender email address

Uninstall and Cleanup

The plugin can be safely uninstalled at any time.

  • Safe removal: deactivating and deleting the plugin from WordPress will not remove your data by default, to prevent accidental loss.
  • Optional table deletion: if you want to remove the database tables (bicycles and reservations), you can enable the “Remove tables on plugin uninstall” option, located under the Settings tab in the plugin settings page.

Plugin options and settings (such as configuration and notifications) are not deleted, even when this option is enabled.

Warning: table deletion is irreversible.