=== VikRentCar Car Rental Management System ===
Contributors: e4jvikwp
Tags: car rental, rent a car, vehicles, rental management, vehicles booking
Requires at least: 4.7
Tested up to: 7.0
Stable tag: 1.4.6
Requires PHP: 7.1
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Robust Car Rental Management System for any kind of vechicles. The most reliable booking solution for managing vehicles rentals through your website.

== Description ==

= Vik Rent Car for WordPress =

The popular car rental management system is now available also for WordPress as a Native Plugin!

If you are looking for a reliable reservation system for renting cars, scooter, motorbikes, boats or any other vehicles, then you have found the right plugin. In fact, Vik Rent Car is a famous piece of software used by thousands of car rental companies worldwide every day.

Vik Rent Car was born in 2008 for a different web-software (CMS) than WordPress, and that's how it became popular. The same powerful framework is now at the service of all webmasters, designers and web-agencies that work with WordPress. It's definitely the car rental plugin that you, or your client, were looking for.

This is the **free** version of the plugin, but you can upgrade to the **Pro** version at any time from your *wp-admin* section. Experience the power of a robust vehicles rental management system!

Works with any car rental theme for WordPress, or any other kind of theme.

Visit [VikWP.com](https://vikwp.com/) for more details.

= Some of the unique features =

* The most flexible pricing system that follows the OpenTravel Standards for any pricing model
* Custom Rate Plans (Refundable, Flexible, Non Refundable rates, Insurances, Damage Waiver etc.)
* Neat vehicles management functions with distinctive features for the sub-units
* Availability Overview with monthly calendars
* Pricing Calendar Overview
* Rental orders management functions for pros
* Feature-rich back-end section
* Front-end customizable booking process
* 8 different Views for the front-end (7 types of Shortcode for your pages)
* Multi-language support with built-in translation functions

= Some of Pro version features =

* Seasonal Pricing and Rates Calendar with 1-click modification
* Restrictions to define the min/max number of days of rent, weekdays allowed for pick up and drop off
* Custom fields to request specific billing information to the customers
* Options and Extra Services to be added to the rental order
* Fees for out of hours times and for certain combination of locations
* Customers management window
* Graphs and Statistics for the various rental orders
* Custom Payment Methods with real bank gateways to accept credit cards
* Coupon codes to apply discounts to the orders

= Interested in, curious about the Pro version? =

You should take a look with your own eyes at the demo website to see what you can do with Vik Rent Car. Do not stop at the front-end though, make sure to visit the wp-admin section too.

1. [Front-end Demo Website](https://vikwp.com/demo/vikrentcar)
1. [Admin Demo Website](https://vikwp.com/demo/vikrentcar/wp-admin)

== Installation ==

= Installation through the WordPress Plugins Browser =

* Search for "VikRentCar" in the Add Plugin section of your website back-end
* Install the Plugin by clicking on the apposite button
* Activate the Plugin by using the apposite activation button
* A link to access and configure VikRentCar will be visible in the left-menu
* Enjoy it

= Alternative Installation Method =

You can only install the **free** version of VikRentCar, not the Pro version. If for some reasons the WordPress Repository installation won't work, you can contact us to receive the zip installer file and upload it via FTP onto your server.

* Download the installer zip file from [VikWP.com](https://vikwp.com/)
* Unzip the archive on your computer's local drive
* Upload via FTP the unzipped folder *vikrentcar* onto your */wp-content/plugins* directory
* Log in to your *wp-admin* section and activate the plugin

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Is upgrading to Pro mandatory? =

No, not at all. However, it took our company around 8 years to build the *Pro* version and we are willing to spend a lot more years of work on this software. We encourage you to evaluate the free version first, and then upgrade to Pro to unlock its potential.

= Why some functions are not available in the free version? =

We are a software development company that constantly works to deliver professional tools to build up websites. We make money by selling licenses of the Pro version.

= Is it worth upgrading to Pro? =

VikRentCar is not a one-page plugin. You can build websites worth a lot of money with this plugin. You don't need anything else to deliver a complete website, if not a Theme and some experience with WordPress.

= Can I use VikRentCar with my preferred Theme? =

Yes, of course. You are free to install Vik Rent Car on your website with your own Theme. The plugin will adjust to it thanks to its own CSS framework. It is also possible to work on a custom CSS file to adjust some layouts.

= How's the availability of the vehicles calculated? =

You can create several vehicles through the back-end, each with a total number of units available. Optionally, these cars can be assigned to one or more locations for pick up and drop off. The system will calculate the remaining availability at "vehicle level", meaning that depending on how many vehicles have been booked for some days of the year with "Confirmed" orders, the system will be able to determine how many units are left for a certain vehicle. The locations selected for drop off or pick up will not affect this calculation. For example, if you have 5 units availble of a specific car, and if this car is booked for next weekend by one customer, those days/times will have 4 units left for booking.

== Screenshots ==

1. An intuitive and customizable Dashboard to show reservations and much more.
2. Rental Orders List: all the reservations made by your clients.
3. Rental Order Details: keep track of what vehicles will be picked up or dropped off.
4. Availability Overview: all rental orders will build the availability calendars for all vehicles.
5. Pricing Calendar: rental costs for any rate plan kept under control.
6. Damages and logs to keep the details of each sub-unit up to date.
7. Front-end booking process: customise pretty much anything for the best experience of your clients.
8. Rate plans, types of insurance and extra services can be booked via front-end.

== Changelog ==

= 1.4.6 =
*Release date - 25 May 2026*

* Core framework updated.
* Various back-end security improvements.
* Reports framework refactoring.
* New Auto-Exporter cron job implementation.
* Backend style improvements.
* Enforced iCal secret key to be 8-char long when less than 5 chars (if you're using iCal calendars, check new URLs).

= 1.4.5 =
*Release date - 26 November 2025*

* New date format for rental orders history.
* Core framework updated.
* Various back-end security improvements.

= 1.4.4 =
*Release date - 25 June 2025*

* Added new option to Search Form shortcode for forcing a category. 
* Core framework updated.
* Multiple back-end security improvements.

= 1.4.3 =
*Release date - 21 January 2025*

* Various framework fixes.
* Multiple security improvements.

= 1.4.2 =
*Release date - 27 June 2024*

* Fixed issue with type-hinting values.

= 1.4.1 =
*Release date - 27 June 2024*

* Adapter framework updated.
* Field validation controls improvements.
* Minor layout improvements.

= Earlier versions =

For further details about older versions, please refer to the [changelog.md](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/vikrentcar/trunk/changelog.md) file of the plugin.
