Installation

Before you start, check the System requirements: PHP 8.1 or newer (tested on 8.1 to 8.4), WordPress 6.6 or newer and WooCommerce 8.0 or newer.

From version 1.0.63 this is a single plugin. The booking engine — our free Rentals & Bookings Lite plugin — is included inside it, so there is nothing else of ours to install. If you already run the free Lite plugin, leave it where it is: your products, settings and bookings are used exactly as they are, and the separate copy is switched off for you during activation. You can delete it afterwards.

1. Install WooCommerce. Go to Plugins > Add New in your admin, search for "WooCommerce", then install and activate it.
2. Install Secure Custom Fields. Search for "Secure Custom Fields" on the same screen and activate it. It is free, from WordPress.org, and it stores the rental settings on your products. WordPress will normally offer to install it for you when you activate our plugin, because it is declared as a requirement.
3. Upload our plugin. Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, choose the zip you downloaded, then activate it. If you upload by FTP instead, the folder inside wp-content/plugins must be called sibooking.
4. Enter your licence key. It is in your order email. Go to Rentals > Settings and paste it into the Licenses tab (under Advanced), then click Activate. The other settings tabs stay locked until the licence is active. If this is a staging copy of your store, tick This is a staging site before you click Activate (see Live and staging sites).
5. Install the plugins your package includes. Regular, Pro and Ultimate come with more plugins than the Rentals & Bookings plugin itself (Bundles & Composites and Delivery by Distance in every package; more in Pro and Ultimate). You don’t need to download them one by one. Open Rentals > Settings > Quick Installer (there is a link to it on the Licenses tab, under your package). It lists everything your licence includes. Click Install all and it downloads, checks and installs each one, then switches them on. See Installing the included plugins with the Quick Installer below.
6. You are ready. A Rentals menu appears in your admin, with the dashboard, bookings, calendar, inventory and settings, and every product gains a Rentals & Bookings tab in its product data panel.

Upgrading from an older version #

Upgrade in place from the Plugins screen as usual. Two things changed in 1.0.63 and are handled for you: the plugin no longer carries its own copy of Advanced Custom Fields Pro, using the free Secure Custom Fields plugin instead, and a separately installed Lite plugin is deactivated because this one now carries its own copy. Your products, settings, bookings and orders are untouched.

Installing the included plugins with the Quick Installer #

After your licence key is activated, go to Rentals > Settings > Quick Installer. You can also get there from the Quick Installer button under your package on the Licenses tab, or from the Quick Installer link under Rentals & Bookings on the Plugins screen. It lists every plugin your licence includes, with what is already on your site.

• Install all installs every plugin that isn’t on your site yet and updates any that are behind. Untick a plugin to leave it out.
• Activate them after installing is on by default. A plugin that shows something to your customers before it is set up (for example the chat window) is installed but left off until you switch it on. Its row says why, with a link to its setup guide.
• Keep the page open while it runs. It installs one plugin at a time, so a slow host doesn’t time out. If the page is closed, the plugins already done stay done, and the screen offers to resume where it stopped.
• Each plugin is checked before it is installed. If one can’t be installed, the reason is shown with a Try again button; the others are not affected.
• Changed your mind? After a run, Remove what this run added deletes the plugins it installed that are still off.
• If WordPress asks for FTP or SSH details, your host needs them to install plugins. They are used for this run only and never saved.
• If your licence has expired, the list still shows what your package includes, but installing and updating need an active licence. Everything already installed keeps working.
• If your site doesn’t allow installing plugins from the dashboard (some hosts turn this off), download the plugins from My Account > Downloads on rentalbookingsoftware.com and install them the way your host allows.
• On a multisite network, your network administrator runs the Quick Installer.
• Bought an add-on on its own, with its own key? Add and activate its key under Bought on their own on the Licenses tab. The Quick Installer then lists that add-on too, and installs and updates it with its own key.