Once you have your Depots set up, it's time to add and configure vehicles. Instead of adding vehicles manually, the vehicles are "sychronised" into your dashboard from the reservation system, saving you a lot of time.
Follow the steps below to synchronise the vehicles from the reservation system to the Carcloud dashboard:
- Navigate to the staging site.
- In the booking widget, conduct a search using a rate code, a depot, and a date range where the new vehicle should be available
- Select an age range, if it has been configured.
- Run the search, selecting any available car and then going to the Extras page. This will also synchronise the Optional Extras into the dashboard.
*Note: if Multi-rate (with different payment types) has been configured, the steps above might need to be repeated multiple times, depending on the number of configured payment types to ensure that all vehicles will be "called" by the reservation system. A different tier with a different payment type should then be selected for succeeding calls.
Once you've completed this, go to your Carcloud dashboard and select Vehicles. You should see a list of vehicles with the word "draft" in the title. You are now ready to configure your vehicles.
Click the vehicle title to open the editing screen. Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
1. Title - enter a title for your vehicle as you want it displayed to the customer.
2. Description - add a vehicle description in the large text box.
3. SEO Fields - more information can be found here.
4. Page Header - from the drop down, select how you want your header to look. Select if you want to show/hide Category Tabs and Breadcrumbs.
5. Make & Model - these are mandatory fields.
6. Or Similar - enable/disable this depending on the vehicle and if you want "or similar displayed to customers.
7. Vehicle Code/ID - this is for display purposes only and is not linked to your reservation system. Leave this blank if you do not want to display the vehicle code to customers.
8. Short Description - add a short description to be displayed above the main description on the vehicle page. This field can also be left blank.
9. Vehicle Attribute Fields - these fields can be configured as required and will be displayed on the vehicle page if configured/enabled: Doors, Seating Capacity, Vehicle Type*, Air-conditioning, Transmission, Body Type, Small Luggage, Large Luggage, Engine Size, Engine Description, Fuel Type, Drive Type, Emissions, Fuel Consumption, Adjustable Steering, Cruise Control, Traction Control, Electronic Stability Control (ESC), ABS, Bluetooth, MP3 Player, USB, CD Player, Smoking, Power Steering, Power Windows, Remote Locking, NCAP Rating, Airbags, Fog Lamps, Sat Navigation, License Type, Length, Width, Height, Gross Vehicle Weight, Capacity.
10. Featured Image - select an image for your vehicle from the Featured Image box on the right.
When you have finished editing your vehicle, click "Update" and use the "Preview Changes" button to view the vehicle on your staging site.
*Vehicle Type - this needs to be set to "Passenger" unless the Passenger/Commercial booking flow and booking button is in use (depending on your reservation system). If you are wanting to group your vehicles, please use Vehicle Categories.