Introduction
A key box lets a customer collect the keys without meeting anybody. You grant access against their booking, and for a window around their rental they can open the box with their phone.
That convenience comes with a sharp edge worth knowing before you rely on it: when key access fails, nothing tells you. The button reports no error, the booking looks normal, and the first sign of trouble is a customer standing next to a vehicle they cannot open. So the routine below ends with checking the access is really there, not with pressing the button.
Access is also tied to the exact vehicle and the exact dates on the booking. Change either and the access you granted stops matching reality — RentVisie notices, but it needs you to finish the job.
How to use
Configuration
Before you start: setting up the connector needs Company admin. Granting, updating and revoking access for a booking is open to the counter roles as well. You will need an account with your key box provider and the credentials they issue.
Set the connector up once per company:
- Open Settings from the main menu, then KeyCafe.
- Fill in Username and Password — the credentials from your key box provider.
- Fill in Key URL and Access URL with the addresses they gave you.
- Set Buffer time in minutes. It starts at 15.
- Turn Active on. It starts off, and nothing works until it is on.
- Click Save.
Buffer time is applied at both ends. With the default 15, a customer whose rental runs 09:00 to 17:00 can open the box from 08:45 and until 17:15. Set it to 30 and they get half an hour either side. There is no way to pad only one end.
An inactive or missing connector fails silently. If Active is off, or the connector was never created, pressing Create Access on a booking does nothing at all — no message, no error, no access. Check this first whenever key handover "just doesn't work".
The same Settings → KeyCafe area holds a list of every access your company has issued, with an Update and a Revoke button on each row and a link through to the booking it belongs to. That list is the place to work through accesses that have been flagged after a booking changed, rather than opening each booking one at a time. Anyone with a counter role can use it, not just administrators.
Using key box access
Everything for one booking happens on the booking itself:
- Open the booking.
- Click the Keycafe tab.
- Click Create Access.
RentVisie looks up the key by the vehicle's registration number. If exactly one key matches, access is created immediately. If none matches, or several do, a key picker opens filtered by the vehicle's internal number — choose the right key and confirm.
The tab then shows the Access information: the Key, the Start date and End date of the window, and the E-mail the invitation went to.
Two messages stop you before anything is sent:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| Please select a customer first. | The booking has no customer, and the customer's name, email and phone are what the key box needs |
| Booking status is invalid. | The booking is not far enough along. Access can be created on a Confirmed or Picked up booking |
The same tab carries Update, which pushes the current dates to the key box, and Revoke, which withdraws access and asks "Are you sure?" with Proceed and Cancel first. Create Access and Update have no such confirmation.
Always look at the Access information after pressing the button. If the Key, Start date and End date are filled in, the access exists. If the section is empty, it silently failed — check the connector is active, then try again.
When the booking changes
RentVisie watches for two kinds of change and flags the access rather than fixing it:
- You change the dates. The access is marked as needing an update. Go to the Keycafe tab and press Update to push the new window.
- You swap the vehicle. The access is marked as needing deletion, because it opens the box for the old car. Press Revoke, then Create Access again to issue access for the new vehicle.
Cancelling a booking withdraws access automatically — but only if the key box accepts the request. If it refuses, the access stays live and the customer can still open the box.
A worked example
Booking B-10432, a Golf on registration 12-ABC-3, runs Friday 09:00 to Monday 17:00. Your buffer is the default 15 minutes.
You open the booking, click Keycafe, click Create Access. One key matches 12-ABC-3, so access is created straight away. The Access information shows the key, a start of Friday 08:45 and an end of Monday 17:15 — the rental times padded by 15 minutes at each end.
On Thursday the customer asks to start at 11:00 instead. You change the pickup time on the booking. The access is now flagged as needing an update, so you return to the Keycafe tab and press Update; the window becomes 10:45 to Monday 17:15.
On Friday morning the Golf will not start and you move the booking to a Polo. That flags the access for deletion, because it still opens the box holding the Golf's keys. You press Revoke, then Create Access again, and the Polo's key is issued.
Key details
Access does not follow a vehicle swap by itself. Changing the vehicle only marks the old access as needing removal. Until you revoke it and create a new one, the customer holds access to the wrong car's keys and none to the right one.
A failed grant leaves no trace on the booking. There is no error banner and no failed state on the tab — the Access information is simply empty. Treat an empty section as a failure, not as "still processing".
A failed revoke leaves the access live. If the key box refuses the withdrawal, the local record stays and so does the customer's access. Check the access is really gone after cancelling a booking that had a key box on it.
The window comes from the booking, not from the counter. Start and end are the booking's pickup and drop-off times padded by the buffer, so an early return does not shorten the customer's access — only changing the booking and pressing Update does.
Your customer's details go to the key box provider. Their first name, last name, email address and phone number are sent so the provider can invite them. Tell customers this if you are asked.
The times use the timezone of whoever presses the button, not the timezone of the location the vehicle sits at. If your staff work across timezones, have the person at the pickup location grant the access.
What to do next: confirm the Access information is filled in, then check the customer received their invitation on the email shown there. If you change dates or vehicle later, come back to this tab — the change alone does not reach the key box.
Q&A
I pressed Create Access and nothing happened. Most likely the connector is off. Check Settings → KeyCafe and make sure Active is on and the credentials are filled in. A missing or inactive connector produces no message at all.
I get "Please select a customer first." The booking has no customer on it. The key box needs the customer's name, email and phone to send an invitation, so add the customer and try again.
I get "Booking status is invalid." The booking is not at a stage that allows key access. Confirm it first — access can be created on a Confirmed or Picked up booking.
A key picker opened instead of just granting access. Either no key matched the vehicle's registration or more than one did. The list is filtered by the vehicle's internal number to help you; pick the right key and carry on.
The customer says the box will not open, and their booking starts now. Check the Keycafe tab. If Access information is empty, the access was never created — create it now. If it is filled in, check the start time: the window opens at the pickup time minus the buffer, so a booking whose time was changed without pressing Update may still be on the old window.
Can the customer get in early? By the buffer time, yes — 15 minutes before pickup by default, and the same after drop-off.
I changed the dates. Do I need to do anything? Yes. Press Update on the Keycafe tab. Changing the booking flags the access but does not send the new window.
I swapped the vehicle. Is the access still valid? It is valid for the old vehicle's keys. Press Revoke, then Create Access again.
I cancelled the booking. Is the customer's access gone? It should be withdrawn automatically, but if the key box refused the request it will still be live. Open the booking's Keycafe tab and check, and revoke by hand if the access is still shown.
Is there a quicker way to find accesses that need fixing? Yes. Settings → KeyCafe lists every access with Update and Revoke on each row, so you can work through the flagged ones in one place instead of opening each booking. Each row also links back to its booking.
Can I give one customer access to two vehicles? Not from one booking — a booking carries a single access. Grant access on each booking separately.