Why Self-Service Pickups and Cold Rentals Are the Secret to Rental Efficiency

How automation and self-service save real money in rental businesses

Even small inefficiencies can have massive financial impact when you operate at scale. In one customer case, reducing the pickup process from 8–10 minutes per customer saved €250,000 per year.

1. Quantifying the cost of time

For every rental, staff spend minutes verifying identity, locating items, handing them over, and giving basic guidance. Multiply that by thousands of orders per year, and even single-digit minutes quickly become six-figure annual labor costs.

By measuring:

Average handling time per rental
Average employee hourly cost
Annual rental volume
you can calculate the true ROI of automation.

2. Investing in automation

Automated or “cold” pickups — where customers collect pre-prepared items from lockers or secured areas — drastically cut staff involvement.

Implementing systems like smart locks or automated lockers can reduce manual handovers, queue times, and peak-hour stress.

A €100,000 automation investment can often pay itself back within the first year through saved labor.

3. Partner solutions

One Twice Commerce partner, Click & Share, helps rental businesses deploy smart locker systems for bikes, trailers, and equipment.

These integrations work seamlessly with Twice’s rental management software, ensuring a smooth, trackable experience for both customers and staff.

4. Enhancing the customer experience

Automation isn’t about offloading work to customers — it’s about empowering them.

You can make the process feel premium by sending:

A friendly confirmation email or video showing how to use the product
PDF guides that prepare the customer before arrival
Messaging that frames self-service as flexibility and convenience

When customers can pick up and return items anytime, skip queues, and feel confident using the product, the experience improves while your costs drop.

5. The dual benefit

Automation benefits everyone:

Customers enjoy flexibility and control
Operators save on labor and boost throughput
Sustainability improves as staff time, transport, and idle hours shrink

It’s a classic win-win that transforms operational efficiency into customer satisfaction.

Click&Share

If you are looking to enable self-service pickups or fully automated cold rentals, check out Click&Share, TWICE Commerce Partner specialized in automations.

Tuomo: So we have, for example, one customer case that has such a high volume of rentals that it took them, I think, approximately eight or ten minutes per employee just for the handover process. A customer comes in, says, “Hey, I’m this person, here’s the code,” they get the item, and they’re on their way. That process alone took about eight minutes per customer.

Tuomo: Over a year, that eight-minute process cost them €250,000 — a quarter of a million — in employee time. By setting up a fully automated pickup, which was possible for this product, they can save that amount or a significant part of it.

Tuomo: It becomes quite easy to justify investing €100,000 or so to establish that auto-pickup infrastructure when the payoff is clear.

Tuomo: Again, it all comes back to having a system that lets you see these details — how many minutes things take, what an employee hour costs — so you can make informed investment decisions.

Karri: So now you’re referring to the IKEA model where you enable the customer to do a part of the operation themselves — what some call cold rentals.

Karri: These don’t have to be complex smart-lock systems, but I know Twice also integrates with some partners for this.

Tuomo: Yeah, exactly. We can mention one: Click & Share is one of our partners enabling automated setups for customers, whether it’s bikes or lockers. Definitely worth reaching out to if you have these use cases.

Tuomo: And there are many ways to make the self-service experience positive. For example, include PDFs or videos in the booking confirmation to teach customers how to use the item. Present it positively — “Here’s all the cool things you can do” — instead of making it feel like work.

Tuomo: Customers don’t rent items to listen to a half-hour lecture — they want to use them. With a bit of proactive education, you make them confident and excited.

Karri: There are clear benefits too — no waiting in line, flexible pickup times, and easier returns even after store hours.

Tuomo: Yeah, definitely. It gives flexibility to the customer and efficiency to the operator — the perfect combination.