Halloween is one of those holidays that people go nuts for. In fact, it is second only to Christmas in terms of consumer spending. This year Americans are expected to spent $5.77 billion! Shouldn’t you get a piece of that action?
Think about it – Halloween isn’t even a season – it’s one night! Smart consumers don’t buy costumes or big decorations- they rent them! Renterval merchants can offer a costumes and items to rent and Renterval customers can save a few bucks and rent them here instead of an overpriced costume store that makes most of its money (by price gouging) in the few weeks leading up to the big night. Do yourself a favor – let us save you (or earn you) some holiday dough.
A. Customers will be charged after the scheduled date of the transaction and once Renterval receives an invoice signed by the customer. Once these requirements are met, payment will be collected within 3 days. Merchants will receive payment 2 to 3 days following customer payment collection.
Renterval’s calendar makes it easy for merchants to tell their customers when a listing is unavailable. Simply pick the times when you can’t (or won’t) sell your time, and customers are prevented from scheduling a listing during your “time off”. Be careful, though. The calendar interpretation of your input is very literal. Assume that you want to close your doors from 5pm to 8am the next day (sounds reasonable, right?). But, if you enter your time as unavailable, from 5pm to 8am every day, you’ll never sell a listing where the interval is 1 day (because a portion of every day will be blocked out).
A better way to tell your customers what your standard hours are is in your personal terms and conditions.
If you are unavailable at a given time on a recurring basis (daily, weekly, monthly), or if you are unavailable on weekends, simply use the repeating feature of the calendar. If you don’t want to work weekends (who does?), simply set a weekly recurring unavailability for Saturday, and then do another for Sunday. But here’s one final reminder, in doing so, your customers won’t be able to rent a listing that spans a Saturday or Sunday.
Hope this gives you some ideas of how to make the most of Renterval.
What’s cool about Renterval is that you can sell single blocks of time, or you can sell a recurring (non-sequential) blocks of time. If you teach Spanish lessons, it wouldn’t do much good to require someone to sit for a single 6-hour session. But, you can sell 6 one-hour sessions. In this scenario, you would set your minimum interval at 1 hour, and the minimum number of intervals at 6. Establishing your listing in this manner will ensure the customer schedules 6 meetings that are mutually convenient.
But, if you want require that your rental is for a 6-hour block, set your minimum interval at 6 hours and make the minimum number of intervals at 1. This will accomplish what you’re aiming for.
We’ve made the site to be easy to use. Got an idea to make it easier? Send us a note through the Support page by choosing the “suggestion” option from the drop down menu.
I think we can officially launch the site in about 20 days. October 10th. Not a really memorable date, I guess, but we’re ready to get it going.
Our e-commerce site should be operational by Monday, and the design piece will be put into place soon. Hard to believe we’ve been working on this for 10 months or so, but the process has been great.
We hope to start beta testing soon, so if you want to join us, drop me a note at support@Renterval.com
Who are we kidding - no one works 9 to 5 anymore. By the time you get up, get dressed, and sit in traffic (and reverse the process at the end of the day), 9 to 5 sounds like a dream. Sick of the daily grind? I was. So I started this site to help anyone who can charge for theri time by the hour/day/week. Renterval gives you a calendar to tell the world when you can work and when you can’t. Got a doctor’s appointment? Want to take your kid to the movies? Mark yourself as unavailable and move on. With modest fees and lots of tools to help you merchandise yourself, Renterval is your best place to manage your new career.
Hurricane Ike has pushed a lot of people out of the Houston/south Texas area. I have family staying with me as a matter of fact. Thankfully, the catastrophe wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Now efforts will turn to clean up. If you have talents or skills that can help with getting people back on their feet, Renterval can put you in touch with people who need your help (and who will pay for your services). Do you have a chainsaw? If so, you can help people clear debris off out of their yards. Got a pick-up? Help people move damaged belongings to the dump. You determine what your time is worth, write an ad describing what you do, and Renterval will find a buyer for you.
If you’re in the wake of Ike, no matter what you do, be careful!
There’s an article in the paper today about some unsuspecting users of Craigslist who got tricked robbed at gunpoint.
Evidently, there’s a new scam where robbers will put a “too good to be true” offer on Craigslist to lure customers to a meeting. The robbers will schedule a meeting at a vacant house they’ve broken in to, and then they’ll take the customer’s money, sometimes by force. What a nightmare.
We have put a lot of thought into how to make your experience on Renterval as safe as it can be. There are processes in place to help ensure you don’t get scammed, or worse.
Before we will put a customer in touch with a merchant, we collect verifiable information to be sure we can always trace the transaction if something goes wrong. Remember, We won’t try to restrict communication between our users, but when you transact exclusively through Renterval, you’ll have extra peace of mind.
Also, before a merchant can post a listing on the site, we collect specific location and contact information on them, too.
Of course, you’ll always need to use common sense – if your senses tells you something weird is going on, trust your gut – we’ll be here to do whatever we can to support you.
When we started on this project, I couldn’t find a company out there doing what Renterval does. As I look harder, I’m finding them. But, Renterval is different in a lot of ways, including:
complete access to any merchant – we won’t prevent you from asking questions or even scheduling a meeting directly with the merchant
An easy-to-use calendar tool that let’s merchants show when they’re available, so customers can search, find, and reserve an item or service with just a few clicks.
Fair commissions and fees. If your item doesn’t rent, we won’t charge a thing. And of course, customers can always use the site for free.
We’re an American company.
So, there’s our sales pitch. I hope you’ll give us a shot.
On 12/31/07, my partner and I made a pact to start a business. Nothing too ambitious – just something to get our toes in the waters of being self sufficient. We have a friend who has proven that ingenuity and perserverance can get it done, so we asked “why not us”?
We’re enjoying the process and have had the great fortune of meeting some exceptionally talented, honest, patient, and generous associates (most notably, the good guys at Figaro Interactive). I’ve never commissioned a site before (or worked with web developers before), but I know that the guys are unique in that they are collaborative and helpful in every aspect of launching the site. If you have a need, give them a call.
More updates to come – I’m meeting with the attorneys tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.
