Introduction
A hold keeps one vehicle free for a stretch of time, without a customer, a price or a booking behind it. You place it on the Scheduler (the planning board), where it shows as a pale amber bar with your note as its label. While the hold is there, nothing can be booked on that vehicle for those days — not by you, not by a colleague, not through your website.
The hold is edited in a small pop-up headed Hold: the vehicle's registration at the top, the line Keeps this asset free: nothing can be booked over the hold., the fields From, Until and Note, and the buttons Delete, Cancel and Save.
You will use it when:
- a customer on a rental says they will probably extend next week, and you want the car to still be there when they confirm
- a vehicle has to stay in the yard for a photo shoot, a demonstration or a staff trip
- a regular customer has asked you to keep a particular van aside while they decide
- you want to see at a glance which vehicles are being kept free, and why
Words this screen uses
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| Hold | A block that keeps a vehicle (the app calls it the "asset") free |
| Unconfirmed | A booking for a customer that is not yet firm — a real booking, unlike a hold |
| What do you want to add? | The choice that appears after you drag across empty space on the board |
Holds are made only on the Scheduler. Use one when you want a vehicle kept free and no customer is ready to book; when a customer is ready, make a booking instead.
How to use
Configuration
There is nothing to set up: the Hold choice is on every company's Scheduler. The board itself is set up as described on Reschedule bookings on the Scheduler.
Before you start: you need rental staff or company administrator rights. A hold cannot be placed over an existing booking of that vehicle, so check the row is empty for the days you want.
Using holds
From the main menu, click Scheduler (or the Scheduler button on your daily overview).
- Find the vehicle's row. Use the search box above the board to find it by registration.
- Drag across the empty part of its row, from the first day to the last day you want to keep free.
- In the pop-up What do you want to add?, click Hold. The Hold pop-up opens with From and Until filled in from your selection.
- Adjust From and Until if needed; both take a date and a time.
- Type a Note — it becomes the label on the bar, so write what a colleague needs to know: Extension Jansen, call Fri.
- Click Save. The pop-up closes and the amber bar appears on the row.
Nothing is stored until you click Save. Cancel throws the hold away.
To change a hold, click its bar: the same pop-up opens. Change the dates or the note and click Save, or click Delete to remove it. Delete takes effect at once, without a confirmation question.
To make a hold longer or shorter, drag the edge of its bar. The change saves when you let go. A hold cannot be dragged onto another vehicle; delete it and make a new one on the right row instead.
Key details
A hold blocks the vehicle everywhere. For the held days the vehicle counts as not available in every availability check: the booking screens, the availability search, the vehicle overview's availability filter, and bookings made on your website or by partner systems. A customer looking online simply does not get that vehicle.
A hold may not cover a booking. Saving or resizing is refused when a draft, unconfirmed, confirmed or picked-up booking of the same vehicle overlaps the hold:
| You were | The app says | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Saving the pop-up | Booking {number} uses this asset in this period. | The pop-up stays open; change the dates |
| Resizing the bar | Booking {number} uses this asset in that period; the hold was not changed. | The bar jumps back |
| Leaving Until empty or before From | The hold must end after it starts. | Fill in a later end |
| Leaving From empty | Enter when the hold starts. | Fill in the start |
A hold that only touches a booking — the booking returns at 10:00, the hold starts at 10:00 — is fine.
For example: van NL-123-B is out with Jansen until Friday 7 November 17:00. Jansen thinks he needs it until Wednesday 12 November. You drag from Friday 17:00 to Wednesday 17:00 on the van's row, choose Hold, note Extension Jansen? and save. A colleague searching for a van for Monday 10 November no longer gets NL-123-B offered.
A hold also blocks the booking it was made for. If Jansen then confirms, extending his booking over the hold counts as a clash: the No availability popup appears. Shorten or delete the hold first, then extend the booking — see Change a booking's dates. Confirm and ignore availability also goes ahead, but leaves the hold on the board over the booking.
Holds and Unconfirmed bookings are different things.
| Hold | Unconfirmed booking | |
|---|---|---|
| Has a customer, a price and documents | No | Yes |
| Expires by itself | No — it stays until you delete or shorten it | It is a booking, with the booking's own rules |
| Where it is made | Only on the Scheduler | Anywhere bookings are made |
| Can overlap the other | No: a hold cannot be placed over an unconfirmed booking | — |
What to do next: when the customer confirms, delete or shorten the hold, then create or extend the booking. Look along the board now and then for amber bars whose reason has passed — a hold never goes away on its own.
Q&A
Why does a vehicle show as available on my daily overview while it is on hold? The Available assets tile on the daily overview counts vehicles with nothing booked today and does not look at holds. Every booking and availability screen does. Trust the Scheduler for held vehicles.
Why does extending a customer's booking say there is no availability although the vehicle is free? A hold on that vehicle overlaps the new dates — often the very hold you made for this extension. Click the amber bar, shorten or Delete it, and extend again.
Why does my hold not appear after I clicked Save? Check the dates: a hold for next month sits outside the part of the board you are looking at. Move the board to those dates. If you got a message instead, the hold was not saved — see the table under Key details.
Can I drag a hold to another vehicle? No. Holds stay on the vehicle they were made on. Delete it and make a new one on the other row.
Who can see and change my holds? Everyone in your company who uses the Scheduler. Holds belong to the company, not to you; use the note to say whose hold it is.
Related pages: Reschedule bookings on the Scheduler for the rest of the board; Search for an available vehicle for where held vehicles drop out of the results.