I’m happy to introduce a new feature in Simple Bike Rental Pro: Date Blackouts.
Sometimes, bike rental shops need to temporarily stop bookings, for holidays, maintenance, or special events. Until now, the only way was to manually manage the availability of each bicycle, which could take a lot of time.
With the new Date Blackouts feature, you can now block one or more days with just a few clicks. Once a blackout is set, customers will see those dates highlighted in red on the booking calendar, and reservations won’t be possible during that period.
Why this matters
Running a bike rental business requires flexibility, but also control. Blackouts allow you to handle exceptional situations effortlessly:
- Maintenance: when bicycles are being repaired.
- Special events: when rentals are suspended for a festival or private use.
- Holidays: when the shop is closed, without worrying about unwanted bookings.
Instead of adjusting the availability bike by bike, you simply define a blackout and the system takes care of the rest.
Blackouts (period closures)
The Blackouts page in the admin panel allows you to set temporary closures for your rental service. This is useful for situations such as holidays, bike maintenance, or special events.
Adding a new blackout
- Apply to all bicycles: Tick this box to make the blackout global, affecting all bicycles at once.
- Bicycle: If you prefer, you can apply the blackout only to a specific bicycle instead of all.
- Full-day blackout (entire days): Check this option to block entire days, without specifying hours.
- Start / End: Select the period of the blackout. You can block one or multiple consecutive days.
- Note (optional): Add a short note (e.g., Closed for holidays, Maintenance).
Click Save blackout to confirm.
Existing blackouts
Below the form, you’ll find a table with all your saved blackouts:
- ID: Internal identifier.
- Type: Global (applies to all bikes) or per bicycle.
- Bicycle ID: The ID of the affected bicycle (if not global).
- Start / End: The blackout period.
- Full day: Indicates whether the blackout covers entire days.
- Note: Your optional description.
- Actions: You can delete an existing blackout.
Once a blackout is created, the affected dates will automatically appear in red on the booking calendar in the frontend. Customers won’t be able to select or book those days.