FAQ

Here you can find a list of questions and answers relating to BookCars.

Is BookCars free to use, or are certain features restricted?

BookCars is free and open source. BookCars is licensed under the MIT License. The license is permissive. This means that you have lots of permission and few restrictions. You have permission to use the code, to modify it, to publish it, make something with it and sell it, etc.

There are no locked or restricted features. If you deploy BookCars on your server, you can access all features available.

On demo links provided on GitHub, some features are locked. If you want to unlock these features, contact the project owner by email.

Is it normal that even when the car is booked for a certain period of time, another person can still reserve it?

When the customer pays and books a car, the booking will be marked as Paid.

When he takes the car, the admin or supplier has to manually mark the booking as Reserved and the car as Fully booked from the admin dashboard.

Once the car is marked as Fully booked, it will no longer be listed in search results. And thus, another person can no longer still reserve it.

Once the customer returns the car back and the car is available for pick up again, the admin or supplier has to manually mark the car as Available by unchecking Fully Booked from the admin dashboard.

For some suppliers, they have for example a car named SUV or Similar. So the same car refers to many vehicles, it can be 2, 3 or even more. In this case, they don't mark the car as fully booked until the number of cars they have is reached.

Is there a link to make donations?

Yes, of course. You can donate through GitHub Sponsorship (one-time or monthly), PayPal, or Buy Me a Coffee. Even a simple star on the GitHub repository helps spread the word and is greatly appreciated.

How can I hide suppliers from the frontend?

VITE_BC_HIDE_SUPPLIERS setting allows to toggle supplier visibility in the frontend.

To hide suppliers from the frontend, simply set it to true in frontend/.env:

VITE_BC_HIDE_SUPPLIERS=true

Then re-run the frontend if you are in a development environment or redeploy the frontend if you are in a production environment.

How Do I Set Minimum Rental Days for a Supplier?

You can set the minimum rental days for a supplier from the Supplier page in the admin dashboard. This setting ensures that customers can only book rentals that meet or exceed the specified minimum rental period.

If the minimum rental days for a supplier is set to 3, only rental periods of 3 days or more will be allowed. Rental searches with a duration less than 3 days will not display available vehicles from that supplier.

Example:

• Minimum Rental Days: 3
• Customer searches for a 2-day rental: ❌ No results will be shown.
• Customer searches for a 3-day or longer rental: ✅ Available vehicles will be displayed.

How Can I Enable Pay at Counter and Pay Deposit Checkout Options?

To enable the Pay at Counter and Pay Deposit checkout options, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Supplier page in the Admin Dashboard.
2. Locate the option "Authorize Payment Later".
3. Toggle this option ON to allow customers to:
   • Pay at Counter (pay the full amount in person).
   • Pay Deposit (pay a partial amount upfront and the rest later).

Important Note:

• If "Authorize Payment Later" is disabled, only the Pay in Full Online option will be available at checkout.

This feature gives suppliers flexibility in how they handle payments, allowing customers to choose their preferred payment method. 💳✅

How do I set up brevo as email provider?

First sign up on brevo: https://www.brevo.com/products/transactional-email/

Second, enter your information, check "I don't have a website" if you don't have one.

Third, enter your address.

Fourth, enter info about your organization and check "I don’t want to receive product updates, marketing tips, or promotional content from Brevo. "

Fifth, enter and validate your phone number.

Finally, you will enter the brevo dashboard.

Click on your organization name on the top right corner, then SMTP & API.

Copy your STMP login email (ex: 8627f6003@smtp-brevo.com), and your master password.

Paste your smtp login and master password in api/.env:

BC_SMTP_HOST=smtp-relay.brevo.com
BC_SMTP_PORT=587
BC_SMTP_USER=your-smtp-login@smtp-brevo.com
BC_SMTP_PASS=YOUR_MASTER_PASSWORD
BC_SMTP_FROM=your-email-used-in-sign-up@gmail.com

Once you finished with .env, restart bookcars.service:

sudo systemctl restart bookcars.service