Outdoorphoto Rentals is based in South Africa and run by Hedrus van der Merwe, whose background in safari work and photographic trips shaped the business from day one. While hosting trips, Hedrus and his team began loaning out their own gear to clients heading into the field. That experience revealed a clear gap in the market.
Many photographers needed access to specialist equipment without committing to ownership. Super telephoto lenses were especially hard to justify buying, yet essential for safari and wildlife work. Renting offered a practical alternative for photographers who needed long lenses for specific trips.
From those early rentals, the business expanded. Outdoorphoto Rentals now offers camera bodies, lenses, accessories, and video equipment, covering a wide range of creative needs. Their customers include wildlife photographers, private production houses, and wedding and event companies.
To support both online and in-store bookings, the team needed a professional camera rental website. Booqable’s rental website builder, online availability pop-up calendar, and quotes and invoices helped them launch their camera rental business with a clear booking flow and fewer manual steps.
Building a camera rental website with Booqable
Before switching to Booqable, the team relied on trying to build rentals into their existing Shopify site, which can often require technical support, higher costs, and longer turnaround times when manually managing rental orders.
The Booqable rental website builder offered a more practical solution. Now, they are able to link from their existing Shopify website straight to a new rental store created with the Booqable website builder.
For this, they chose the ‘Shine’ theme out of the large selection of Booqable’s pre-built rental website templates, which provided a clean and structured layout specific to the camera rental industry style. With the drag-and-drop editor, the team were able to adjust colours, fonts, and styling without writing code.
They’ve created multiple pages for product categories, rental policies, and customer information. Built-in widgets, including the pop-up availability calendar, are added directly to product pages. When needed, additional widgets such as an Instagram feed or an AI-powered chat can be added through the Booqable App Store.
By using Booqable for their online rentals, Outdoorphoto can:
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Show their full camera rental inventory with live availability
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Make quick updates without relying on developers
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Keep online and in-store rentals connected in one system
Showing real-time availability with an online pop-up calendar
Managing availability was one of the biggest challenges before Booqable. Customers could request equipment without seeing what was already booked. This often led to double bookings and time-consuming follow-ups.
Booqable’s online availability pop-up calendar solved this issue. Customers visiting the camera rental website can now select their rental dates and instantly see what equipment is available. Availability updates in real time, once a booking is placed.
This makes the booking process clearer for customers renting cameras, lenses, or accessories. It also reduces the need for staff to manually confirm dates or adjust orders.
The online availability pop-up calendar helps the business:
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Prevent double bookings through real-time inventory checks
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Reduce back-and-forth emails about availability
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Allow customers to book with confidence at any time
As a result, the original problem of unclear availability has been resolved. Customers self-check dates, and the team spends less time correcting bookings.
Handling quotes and invoices without delays
Quotes and invoices were another challenge before Booqable. Booking requests came through a basic contact form, and creating documents involved manual steps. Approval times for new clients were slow, which sometimes delayed rentals.
With Booqable, quotes and invoices are generated directly from each booking. Customer details, rental dates, and pricing are automatically filled in. Documents can be created and sent in a few clicks using built-in email templates.
Invoice due dates are set automatically, and all documents remain linked to the order. This makes it easier to track communication and payments across both online and in-store rentals.
Booqable’s quotes and invoices help the business:
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Respond faster to camera rental requests
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Reduce errors in pricing and documentation
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Keep booking communication clear and organised
These tools remove delays from the booking process and allow staff to focus more on advising customers and preparing gear.
Scaling a camera rental business with confidence
Looking ahead, the team plans to expand into multiple locations across South Africa. This will give customers more flexibility when collecting and returning equipment. Booqable’s support for multiple locations already plays an important role in those plans.
As Hedrus explains, “Booqable gives us confidence that our systems can grow with us. It supports how we actually work, both online and in-store.”
From building a dependable camera rental website to showing real-time availability and managing quotes and invoices, Booqable supports every stage of the workflow. For Outdoorphoto Rentals, it’s the foundation of a camera rental business built for steady growth.
