With eleven footballers you have a football eleven, but not yet a team. To turn a football eleven into a good team, the players need to pass the ball to each other, coach each other and go through fire for each other. In other words, the players have to work together.
The same applies to rental software. Regardless of the industry you operate in, your rental software needs to work together with other software. This can be done through an API (Application Programming Interface).
What is an API?
An API is a software connection that allows two (software) applications to communicate with each other. This lets data be transferred between systems.
In this 2019 blog by Salesforce, an API is compared to a waiter in a restaurant. He acts as the connection (link) between you and the kitchen (systems): he takes your order, passes it on to the kitchen and when the food is ready the waiter brings your dish to your table.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the waiter is increasingly being replaced by an actual API. Via a QR code on the corner of the table you can place an order directly with the kitchen. Your order is placed via the API of the restaurant's till software.
Another frequently cited example is the airline industry. In the airline's booking system you can see straight away whether there is enough room on the flight you want. You can then book and pay directly through the booking system. In the background, that same API is called for this.
Why does rental software need an API?
Depending on how extensive rental software is, there will be more or fewer connections between software systems. Having an API therefore seems a necessity, but that is not necessarily the case.
With rental software there are usually 'inbound connections'. External software - for example a payment provider such as Mollie) – is connected to the rental software, but not vice versa. For this the API of the external software is used.
Still, I believe one type of API really is necessary: the so-called REST API. It lets you connect your website to your rental package, which the end customer expects these days.
Example - The power of a REST API
As indicated above, a REST API lets you connect the rental software to your website. The biggest advantage of this is that you can show your customers directly whether, for example, certain rental items are in stock, a rental car is available or an aircraft seat is free.
This means you never have to turn customers away after the fact (which saves time and irritating discussions with customers), and at the same time showing 'only 1 left' has a positive effect on the number of conversions. Just think of websites such as booking.com, which has made a lot of money showing this kind of (in their case misleading) advertising.
Another good example of the power of the REST API comes into view when you talk about displaying your rental items. I have seen many websites that contain a manually created page for every rental item/rental vehicle, but whose information is no longer up to date. The prices have already changed, for example, or the rental item/rental vehicle is no longer rented out at all.
Using the REST API you can relatively easily call up all rental items with their associated attributes such as prices, images and specific characteristics. This not only gives the customer a clear structure and transparent information, but also helps your online findability in the search engines (SEO).
REST API response (JSON) for All Rental Vehicles and a Specific Rental Vehicle
Conclusion
Good rental software has at least a REST API to connect the rental software to your website. This enables you to build a real-time rental website with which you can guarantee the availability of your rental items, publish search-engine-friendly content on a simple website and retain full flexibility to build everything the way you want.
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