Box Rental & Box Shop
The box rental / box shop lets a guest rent or buy from a physical box or locker device at the property, entirely self-service from their own device. A guest can collect a rented item from a locker, or buy something from a stocked box. It is part of the LIKE MAGIC shop family: same catalog-and-cart pattern as the honesty shop, but tied to a piece of hardware. Where the honesty shop just needs a catalog, the box shop also needs a provisioned box device.
This article is written for the operator/administrator who enables and configures the box shop, not for guests. For the wider shop family and how catalogs work in general, start with Shops Overview.
1. Who Can Use This
Configuring the box shop is an administrator task: the shop is enabled per property by LIKE MAGIC (section 3), its catalog is authored in your property's Prismic repository (section 4), and it needs a provisioned box device (section 5). The guest-facing shop appears for the main guest on the reservation; a travel buddy does not see it. The box shop reaches guests only on Properties that run on Apaleo and have the Häfele box integration set up by LIKE MAGIC. On any other Property it cannot be offered at all, whatever the catalog says.
2. What the Guest Sees
On a property where the box shop is available, the guest reaches it from My Stay:
- They open the box shop and browse the product list. Once they hold a rented item, a second box rental tile appears for it.
- They add an item to a cart and pay with the property's configured payment provider.
- After payment they see a per-device payment-success screen, and the box is released to them.
The product list, prices, and translations all come from the property's catalog (see section 4). The box shop does not have a code-fixed assortment.
3. Enabling the Box Shop
The box shop is enabled separately per property by LIKE MAGIC, independent of the honesty shop, the dynamic shop, and the self-pouring station. Enabling one does not enable another. If the box shop is missing for a property that should offer it, request its activation via a Support Ticket; if it should apply to all properties of your account, say so in the ticket.
ℹ️ Note: Enabling the shop is not enough on its own. The box shop also needs a catalog (section 4) and a physical box device provisioned (section 5). If it is on but either is missing, guests cannot complete a rental.
⚠️ Not available on every Property. The box shop is built on the Häfele box integration, which exists only for Properties running on Apaleo. On a Property with another PMS there is nothing to switch on, so ask about the box shop before you plan around it.
4. Authoring the Product Catalog
The box shop's assortment is content, authored in Prismic, not code. In the property's Prismic content you define the items a guest can rent or buy for the box catalog: name, description, price, image, and translations. Publishing a change in Prismic flows to the guest app without a release.
To add or change what the box shop offers:
- Author the box items in the property's Prismic catalog.
- Provide translations for each language the property serves.
- Publish: the guest app reads the updated catalog.
For how Prismic content is structured, translated, and published, see Content Management with Prismic.
5. The Physical Box Device
Unlike the honesty shop, the box shop is bound to physical hardware: a box or locker unit at the property. The catalog decides what guests can buy, but a guest can only complete a rental when a real device backs the shop and the platform can command it to open on payment.
Because the box shop is device-driven:
- A box device must be provisioned for the property before the shop can fulfil a rental. The hardware is the Häfele box and locker system, managed through the Property's box integration alongside its door-access setup (see Third-Party Integrations).
- Each box is addressed individually. Guests reach a specific unit through its own box rental route, and the payment-success confirmation is per device.
- An enabled shop ≠ a working box. An enabled shop with a published catalog still needs hardware. If no box is provisioned, or the device is offline, the guest cannot collect.
ℹ️ Note: Box/locker hardware is provisioned and managed as part of the property's device and door-access configuration. This how-to covers the shop side (activation, catalog, payment); provisioning the physical unit is a device-management task.
6. Payment & the Guest Folio
Guests pay for a box rental through the property's payment configuration: the same provider and VAT presentation as the rest of the guest journey (see Payment Configuration). There is no box-specific payment setup; if payments are configured, the shop can charge.
A box purchase touches the guest folio. When the guest pays, the platform records a charge against the reservation's folio, and the box is released only after that charge is confirmed for the item. The device validates the purchase against the folio before it opens. The item the guest rented appears on their folio like any other in-stay purchase.
7. Rental Expiry & Reminders
A box rental is time-bound. The guest has the box for a period, after which the rental expires. To help guests return or vacate a box on time, the platform can send a box-rental expiry reminder: a notification a configurable number of minutes before the rental lapses.
You set it on Settings → Guest Journey → Guest Notification, where Box Rental Expiry Reminder sits in the Time Based Notifications table. Switch it on and set how many minutes before expiry it fires. See Guest Notification Settings.
ℹ️ Note: The row is shown only on Properties running on Apaleo that have the box integration set up, which is the same condition as the box shop itself. A Property without a box never sees the notification, and it is never configured on the shop screen.
8. Conclusion
Offering the box shop is three moves, not two: have LIKE MAGIC enable it for the property, give it a Prismic catalog, and provision a physical box device. Payment rides on the property's existing configuration and posts a charge to the guest's folio, and you can warn guests before a rental expires with the box-rental expiry reminder. If the box shop is missing, it has not been enabled for the property yet (Support Ticket); if it is empty or a guest cannot collect, check the catalog and the device. For the other shops and the shared catalog model, see Shops Overview.