How to Add Recurring Charges at Checkout

You have the ability to add a recurring charge for online rentals on your StoragePug website when using Sitelink.

Let's take a look at how the setting works and how to use it.

This setting applies a recurring charge at the time a unit is rented on the website. This charge is pulled from SiteLink via their API, including both the name of the charge and the value.

Recurring charges can be turned on on a per-location basis. This means that you may have it turned on at one facility but off at another.

The recurring charge is displayed to your customer during the checkout process on a separate line from the rental rate. It is also included in their receipt.

Because of SiteLink API limitations, the charge will be applied as a separate transaction from the main rental. This means a second transaction for both you and your customer.

Please be aware of the second transaction when it comes to your bookkeeping and any charges related to your payment processor.

The primary use of this setting is to apply a recurring charge during your checkout process. While there is some flexibility, there are some things it should not be used for:

There is a setting in Insights that allows you to "Disable extra charges for parking of office units" via a toggle:

If this toggle is turned on, the recurring charge will not be applied for units that include the following terms in their unit type name:

There are three places your customer will see the recurring charge:

The first place your customer will see the recurring charge is during the checkout process. They will see all charges before even renting the storage unit, and the recurring charge is included on that screen:

Once renting a unit, the customer will receive a confirmation email that serves as a receipt for their rental. This email will also include their one-time lock charge.

Finally, when your customer checks their bank or credit card statement, they will see the charge reflected there.

You need to set up the charge in SiteLink before you’ll be able to use it in Insights.

To do so, log into SiteLink and navigate to Setup:

On the next screen, click on Charges:

Click Add or Edit on the right-hand side of the screen and set up or edit all of the relevant details for your charge:

To turn on the recurring charge for your website, you’ll need to navigate to the Location Editor in Insights.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

Step 1. Log into Insights and click on Locations on the left side of your screen:

Step 2. Click the Edit button beside the location where you want to use the feature:

Step 3. Navigate to the Software tab:

Step 4. Click the toggle beside Enable One-time Lock Charge at website checkout.

Note: The toggle should turn purple to indicate the setting is turned on.

Step 5. Select your charge from the dropdown menu beside Charge to enable:

Step 6. Click Save Updates at the bottom of the page, and then click Publish changes at the top to finish up!

If you ever experience a situation where the recurring charge was not processed during an online rental, it is likely that the charge was either removed from Sitelink or there was a price change to the charge.

When the recurring charge is not successfully processed during an online rental, we call this out on the rental notification email that both the tenant and you as the operator get stating the charge was not processed:

If the recurring charge in Sitelink is removed, or if the name or pricing details of the recurring charge are changed, you need to re-add the charge in Insights by following step 5 as described above.

In Insights, if we do not see the recurring charge in Sitelink, a warning message pops-up and states that we cannot find the recurring charge. To fix the issue, you must select a valid charge on the dropdown menu and then click Save Updates:

If we see the price has changed on the recurring charge, a warning pop-up message appears. In this case, the charge is not removed and we simply ask you to click Save Updates so the new price is charged during an online rental.

If you need more help turning this feature on or want to know if it’s right for your facility, reach out to our Client Success team today at help@storagepug.com!