Answers to common questions about Summit & Spokes Rentals, our Shopify app for shops that rent and service ski, snowboard and bike gear. Don’t see your question? Contact us and we’ll answer it.
Getting started
What is Summit & Spokes Rentals?
A Shopify app for shops that rent ski, snowboard and bike gear and service it. Online reservations, staff bookings, gear tracking by serial number, pickup and return, waivers, a service workshop and reports all run inside your Shopify admin, for one store or many.
Who is it for?
Rental shops of any size, from one store to several. Ski, snowboard, mountain bike and e-bike rentals work out of the box, and you can add your own activities for other gear.
Do I have to change how I use Shopify?
No. Your rental gear is your Shopify products, reservations are ordinary Shopify orders with Shopify’s own order numbers, customers are your Shopify customers, and payments run through Shopify. The app adds rental settings on top of what you already have.
How long does setup take?
A shop with one store and a few dozen products is usually set up in an afternoon. If your gear is already in a spreadsheet, the CSV imports cut that to about an hour. A setup checklist in the app walks you through each step in order: activities and categories, locations, rates, gear and packages.
Can I move my data over from another rental system?
Yes. CSV imports cover gear (products, sizes, inventory and serial-numbered units in one file), categories, rate rules, packages, services and past orders. Each import shows a preview with any errors before anything is written.
Reservations
How do customers reserve online?
You add the app’s reservation block to a page in your Shopify theme. Customers pick their dates, enter each person’s details and sizes, choose packages or single items, sign their waivers and check out. The page uses your logo, fonts and colors.
Can staff take reservations too?
Yes. Staff book phone and counter reservations from the admin, with customer lookup and the customer’s saved family members and sizes filled in for them.
What about walk-in customers?
Kiosk mode turns a tablet in your store into a self-service reservation station. It is set to that store, skips online checkout so customers pay at the counter, and clears itself for the next customer. Staff are alerted when a walk-up reservation arrives.
Can customers rent for a whole season?
Yes. You set up seasons by store and activity, and a separate seasonal reservation page books season-long rentals at a flat season price.
Can customers return gear to a different store?
Yes, if you allow it. Each store decides whether it accepts returns from other stores and what drop-off fee applies.
Can customers change or cancel a reservation?
Every confirmation links to the customer’s own order page, where they can see what happens next, pay a balance, sign an unsigned waiver or cancel. Staff can change dates, people and gear right up until the gear is picked up.
Pricing and payments
How are rentals priced?
With rate rules: hourly, half-day and daily prices with multi-day discounts, flat season prices, and late fees with a grace period. One rule can price many products. A Pricing Test page shows exactly what any product will cost for any dates before a customer ever sees it, and coupons are built in.
How do customers pay?
Every reservation is a Shopify order with payment pending. Customers pay online through Shopify’s checkout, or at the counter in Shopify POS. Stores that prefer Stripe can connect a Stripe account per store for online payment, payment links and card readers.
What happens to reservations that aren’t paid?
Each store sets how long an online reservation is held. Customers are told the deadline when they book and are sent a reminder before it passes. If it still isn’t paid, the reservation is cancelled and the gear goes back into availability. Reservations taken by staff don’t expire.
Does it handle deposits and damage waivers?
Yes. A store can collect a refundable deposit at pickup, set as a share of the rental, and release it at return, keeping part of it if gear comes back damaged. A damage waiver can be offered as a per-person, per-day option.
How much does the app cost?
Each plan is a monthly fee that includes a set number of rentals, with a per-rental rate beyond that. Shopify bills it on your regular Shopify invoice. There is a free plan for getting set up, and you can change plans at any time from the app’s Billing page.
Gear and inventory
How does the app keep track of gear?
Every physical item is a unit with its own serial number, barcode, store and condition. A reservation holds specific units for its dates, so the same pair of skis is never promised twice. Staff confirm or swap units before pickup, print barcode labels from the app, and scan gear out and back in.
How do packages work?
A package, such as skis, boots and poles, is built from categories rather than fixed products, so each piece can come from any matching gear in stock. A package is available whenever all of its pieces are. There is no separate package inventory to keep up to date.
What about sizing and binding settings?
The app collects each person’s height, weight, age, skier type and shoe size. A DIN calculator suggests a binding setting, and a bike fit calculator suggests frame sizes. The DIN chart shipped with the app is a starting point that your certified binding technician reviews in the app, and staff confirm every binding setting at the bench.
Can I track maintenance on my own fleet?
Yes. Maintenance schedules by category, based on rental days, rentals, hours of use, miles or months, open a workshop order automatically and take the unit out of availability until it is serviced. A quick inspection at return records the gear’s condition and opens a repair order when needed.
Service workshop
Does it handle tunes and repairs?
Yes. Service orders cover customer work such as waxes, tunes, binding mounts and bike service. Each service has a price, a member price, a time estimate and the staff skills it needs.
How is the ready date worked out?
From your bench schedule: the hours of bench time each store has each day, by staff skill. The app books each job into that time, so the date you promise is one your bench can keep. Technicians sign off every job, and binding work records the DIN setting.
Can customers request service online?
Yes. A service request page lets customers choose services, describe their gear, pick a drop-off date and see when it will be ready.
Waivers, messages and staff
Are liability waivers included?
Yes. Customers sign digital waivers for each activity, and for service work, on screen at the counter, during online booking, or through an emailed link. The app ships starter waiver text and an editor; your waivers remain your shop’s legal responsibility, so have them reviewed by your own attorney before customers sign them.
What emails and texts does it send?
Booking confirmation, payment reminders, ready for pickup, pickup and return reminders, picked up, returned, cancelled, and service order updates. You edit every message, add your logo, and set a sender name for each store. Texts go only to customers who opted in, and texting is turned on once your shop’s text program is registered.
Can I control what each staff member can see?
Yes. Roles decide which pages each staff member can open and which stores they see. The store owner is an administrator from the start.
What reports are included?
Sales, customers, gear usage, bookings and cancellations, and service orders, each filterable by date, store and activity, with CSV export. The Home dashboard shows what is due today.
Data and support
Where is my data stored?
Your rental settings are stored in your own Shopify store. Reservations and other day-to-day records are kept in the app’s secure database. Customer data is handled under Shopify’s privacy requirements, including data requests and deletion.
How do I get help?
A Help button on every page of the app answers how-to questions. You can send suggestions from the app’s Feedback page, or contact us directly.