Getting started - Plugixa Car Rental

This page takes you from a fresh install to a first booking made through your own website. It takes about fifteen minutes. Each step links to the page that covers it in full.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.5 or higher
• PHP 8.2 or higher
• The WordPress REST API reachable by visitors who are not signed in. The booking form talks to your site through it.

1. Install and activate

From WordPress.org

1. In WordPress go to Plugins -> Add New.
2. Search for “Plugixa Car Rental”.
3. Click Install Now, then Activate.

From a ZIP file (this is also how you install Pro)

1. Go to Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugin.
2. Choose the ZIP file and click Install Now.
3. Click Activate.

A new item, Plugixa Car Rental, appears in the WordPress menu with a car icon. Everything in the plugin is inside it.

What activation does

• Creates the plugin’s own database tables for locations, the fleet, rates, bookings, payments and the rest.
• Saves the default settings.
• Gives the plugin’s permissions to the Administrator role, and to no other role.
• Schedules an hourly job that marks bookings whose hold ran out as Expired.

It does not add example cars, locations or pages. You start with an empty desk.

If your database user may not create tables, the Plugins screen says so and offers to try again once the problem is fixed. See Troubleshooting.

2. Set your currency

The currency starts as US dollars. Open Plugixa Car Rental -> Settings and choose yours, for example EUR, with where the symbol goes and how many decimals to show. Every price in the plugin is stored and shown in this currency. See Settings.

Set it before you enter prices. Changing it later does not convert amounts already entered.

3. Add a location

A location is somewhere customers pick up or return a car: a desk, an airport counter, a hotel. Open Locations and click Create.

Field	What to enter
Name	What customers see, for example “Airport Terminal 2”.
Code	A short code for your team, such as LIS-APT.
Pickups, Returns	Whether cars can be picked up here, returned here, or both. A location must allow at least one.
Opening hours	The hours for each day. A new location starts at 08:00 to 18:00, Monday to Saturday, closed on Sunday. Copy Monday to all weekdays saves typing.
Timezone	Leave empty to use the site’s timezone.
After-hours fee	Leave at 0 to refuse pickups and returns outside the hours, or enter a fee to allow them for that charge.

Leave the status switch on. A switched-off location is not offered on the form. The booking form needs at least one location that allows pickups. See Locations.

4. Add your fleet

The fleet has three levels. Set them up in this order.

1. Categories (optional). Groups such as Economy, Compact, SUV or Premium. Open Categories and click Create.
2. Models. A model is what a customer books, such as “Toyota Corolla Hybrid”. Open Models and click Create. Give it a name, a category, the transmission, fuel, seats, bags and an image. The image is what customers see on the car card.
3. Vehicles. Each vehicle is one physical car with its own licence plate. Open Vehicles, click Create, choose its Model and type the Licence plate.

A model can only be booked as many times at once as it has vehicles. A model with no vehicles is always shown as unavailable.

Home location on a vehicle limits it to one desk. A vehicle with a home location can only be picked up there; a vehicle without one can be picked up anywhere. If your cars do not show as available, check this first.

See Fleet.

5. Give each model a rate

A rate is the daily price of a model for a range of rental lengths. A model with no rate cannot be booked, and is left off the booking form.

Open Rates and click Create.

Field	What to enter
Vehicle model	The model this price is for.
From (days), To (days)	The rental lengths it covers. A To of 0 means “and longer”.
Daily rate	The price per day.
Location	Leave empty to use this rate at every location.

To make long rentals cheaper, add one rate per length, for example 1 to 2 days at €62, 3 to 6 days at €55 and 7 days or more at €48. The whole rental is charged at the rate for its length: a 5-day rental of that car costs 5 x €55. See Rates.

6. Check how customers can pay

Pay at pickup is switched on from the start, so customers can book without paying online. Bank transfer can be switched on too. Both are in Settings, under payments. See Payments.

With Pro you can also take cards through Stripe PRO and payments through PayPal PRO.

7. Put the booking form on a page

1. Create a page, for example “Book a car”.

2. In the block editor, add the Car rental booking block. In the classic editor, or anywhere shortcodes work, add:

   [plugixa_car_rental_booking]
   

3. Publish the page and link to it from your menu.

To let customers view and cancel their booking later, add a second page with the Car rental: manage booking block or the [plugixa_car_rental_account] shortcode. See Shortcodes and blocks and Customer portal.

8. Take a test booking

1. Open your booking page in a private browser window, so you see what a visitor sees.
2. Choose a location and dates, and click Find a car.
3. Choose a car, add any extras and click Continue.
4. Fill in a name and an email address you can read, choose Pay at pickup, tick the agreement and click Book now.
5. Note the booking reference on the last step.

Back in the admin, open Bookings. Your test booking is at the top, with the status Confirmed. The confirmation email is in the inbox you used. See The booking form for every step in detail.

The reference starts with CR-, then the year and a number, such as CR-2026-0001. Change the prefix under Reference prefix in Booking rules.

If no car shows as available

Check	Where
The model is switched on and has at least one vehicle that is switched on.	Fleet
The vehicle’s home location is empty or is the pickup location.	Fleet
The model has a rate that covers the rental length, for that location or for all locations.	Rates
The pickup is not sooner than the Minimum notice (2 hours by default) and the rental is within the shortest and longest lengths.	Booking rules
The location is open at the pickup and return times.	Locations

What to do next

• Add Extras such as a child seat, and Coupons.
• Ask customers your own questions with Custom fields.
• Match the form to your site’s colours: Booking form style.
• Review the emails customers receive.
• Switch off what you do not use in the App Manager.