A booking made on your public page arrives as a request, not a confirmed booking. It lands in Fleetola as a draft contract, holds the car, and waits for you - you confirm it by getting it signed, or turn it down with Decline.
The renter has not paid anything. The booking page takes no card - the total they saw is an estimate. Payment is arranged with you after you confirm, the same way you take any other payment.
Where it lands
Everyone who can open Contracts gets an email naming the renter, the car and the dates (and a push in the app). It shows there as a bar on the Calendar view and a row on the Draft tab. The renter is emailed a link to follow their request. Nothing invites them to your portal yet - a new renter is asked to set up a login when they sign.
If it is not signed by pick-up
A request holds its car until its pick-up day. If it is not signed by then, it is declined automatically the next morning, the customer is emailed, and the car is freed. The Draft card says when (Expires 22 Oct), and on the pick-up day your bell and your team's email warn that it expires tomorrow.
A day hire is held for a set time instead - Hold the car for an unanswered request under Settings → Renting → Booking requests, 48 hours unless you change it. A request nobody answers in that time, or a signing link left unsigned that long, lapses the same way, and the card and your bell give the time (Lapses 9 Oct, 2:15 pm).
Confirm it
- Open the request - click its bar on the Calendar view of Contracts, or open the Draft tab.
- The contract wizard resumes with everything the renter entered: the car, the dates, the rate and any extras they ticked.
- Check the details, set the bond, and change anything agreed with the renter.
- Finish on Sign: Send sign link (labelled Send sign-up & sign link until the renter has set up their login) emails the renter, or Sign in person now does it on your device.
- Signing is the confirmation: the rental appears in the renter's portal and starts on its date (a day hire with a return date, at pick-up).
Where to find it: Contracts → Draft
Decline it
On the Draft tab, click Decline - the circled X in list view. It moves to Ended, freeing the car, and any signing or invite link you sent stops working.
Tip: Declining emails the customer that you can't take it, with any reason you give. Your own drafts offer Delete, which emails no one.
A pending request holds the car
A request you have not dealt with blocks its dates: your booking page shows the car Not free on those dates, and a contract for the same car and dates is refused, until the request is signed or declined. An open-ended request has no return date, so it holds the car from its start date onwards.
Someone who already rents from you
A request whose email matches an existing customer attaches to their record, and nothing typed into the form overwrites what you have saved. Your email flags the match - check it really is the same person before you send the sign link.