Deactivating Renters

Deactivating Renters

There are a handful of reasons you might want to take a renter out of circulation without wiping their history: they returned a trailer badly damaged, they had a chargeback, they're a former commercial account that closed, or they simply haven't rented in years and are cluttering your roster. Deactivating is the right tool for all of those.

What deactivation does

A deactivated renter is:

• Hidden from the renter search used when staff start a new reservation. They will not appear in autocomplete dropdowns.
• Blocked from online booking. If they try to book through your portal using their existing email, they see a message asking them to contact you directly.
• Flagged with a grey "Deactivated" chip on their profile so anyone looking at the record knows their status.

What deactivation does not do:

• It does not delete the renter or any of their data.
• It does not affect existing reservations, invoices, or payments tied to them.
• It does not hide the renter from reports or exports.
• It does not prevent staff from manually opening the profile and creating a reservation (useful when you want to allow an exception).

Think of it as an on/off switch for self-service access and search visibility.

How to deactivate

1. Open the renter's profile.
2. Click More in the header.
3. Select Deactivate.
4. Pick a reason from the dropdown (or type a custom one) — this is logged for audit purposes but never shown to the renter.
5. Confirm.

The profile immediately gains the grey chip, the renter drops out of online search, and the activity log records the action with your name and timestamp.

What the renter experiences

If the renter visits your booking portal and tries to proceed with a deactivated email, they see a polite message: "We're unable to process this booking online. Please contact us to continue." The message text is configurable in Settings > Booking Portal > Messages.

They are not told why they are blocked and they cannot see a deactivated flag — the status is internal. If they call you, you can decide whether to reactivate, explain, or keep the restriction in place.

Reactivating

To bring a renter back:

1. Open the profile (deactivated renters still appear in the Renters list when you toggle the Include deactivated filter).
2. Click More > Reactivate.
3. Confirm.

The grey chip disappears immediately and the renter rejoins autocomplete and online booking. All prior history remains intact — ratings, notes, tags, documents, and trust score are exactly where you left them.

When to deactivate vs. delete

• Deactivate when you want to block future interactions but keep the record for audit, tax, or historical reporting.
• Delete (under GDPR / data-subject-request workflows in Settings > Privacy) when the renter has legally requested their data be removed. Deletion is irreversible and should only be used when required.

For most cases, deactivation is the right call. It gives you a reversible "not right now" without touching the history that ties every reservation, invoice, and payment together.