Quick answer: Connect your mailbox and your rental software to the same AI assistant, ChatGPT or Claude. For each inquiry, the assistant reads the dates and car class, checks which cars are free, quotes from your price list including location fees, and then either sends your online booking link with the dates filled in or creates the booking and sends its customer link. With Nomora's connector every change waits for your approval, and the routine can run on a schedule, for example every hour.
Most booking inquiries at a small rental company are the same email with different dates. Do you have a car from the 14th to the 18th? How much with airport pickup? Each one means opening the calendar, working out the price, adding the airport fee and writing the reply. Forty of those in July and the evening is gone. And a customer who emailed three companies will often book with whoever answers first with a clear price.
This post walks through how an AI assistant handles that email when it can see both your inbox and your rental software, using Nomora's ChatGPT and Claude connector. It is a workflow guide. If you have not connected anything yet, start with how to connect your car rental software to ChatGPT and Claude.
What you need before you start
- A Nomora admin account. Only organization admins can connect. The connector is in every plan, see pricing.
- ChatGPT or Claude. In ChatGPT, custom connectors and actions that change data depend on your plan. Not sure which to pick? Read ChatGPT vs Claude for a car rental business.
- Your mailbox connected to the same assistant, through its own Gmail or Outlook connector. Nomora never reads your email. The assistant does.
- A complete price list in Nomora. If the airport fee only exists in your head, the quote will be wrong.
The short version of setup: add a custom connector with the URL https://app.nomora.io/api/mcp, sign in with your Nomora account, and pick your organization.
A worked example: one inquiry, start to finish
Here is an example email, invented for this post:
Hi, do you have a compact car from 14 to 18 November? I land at Vilnius Airport at 10:30 on the 14th and fly home on the 18th, so I would return it at the airport around 16:00. How much would that be? Thanks, Anna
Step 1: read the request
The assistant pulls out the facts: 14 November 10:30 to 18 November 16:00, compact, airport pickup and return, Anna and her email address.
This is where AI goes wrong most often. "Next Friday" or "03/12" can be read more than one way, so tell the assistant to ask the customer when dates are unclear, not to guess.
Step 2: check availability and booking rules
The assistant asks Nomora which cars are free in each class for those dates. The same check also says whether your Guest Book, the online booking page, would accept those dates under the booking rules you set.
So you get two answers. Is a compact free, and could Anna book it herself online?
Step 3: quote from the price list
Next it gets a quote from your Nomora price list for a compact on those dates, with the airport as pickup and return location, so the location fee is included. If you add VAT on top of your prices, the quote shows it.
Add-ons are not in this quote. They are priced when the booking is created. If Anna had asked for a child seat, the reply should say so and explain that its price is added when the booking is made.
Step 4: link or booking
Now the assistant has a choice:
- Send the Guest Book link with the dates and class filled in. Anna clicks, sees the compact cars, and finishes the booking herself. Nothing changes in Nomora until she does.
- Create the customer and the booking, then reply with the booking's customer link. Anna opens it, fills in her details, signs and pays.
Here a compact is free and the Guest Book accepts the dates, so the link is the right call.
Step 5: draft the reply
Here is the kind of reply it drafts. The price is made up for this example.
Hi Anna, thanks for your message. Yes, we have a compact car free from 14 November 10:30 to 18 November 16:00, with pickup and return at Vilnius Airport. The total is €172, including the airport fee. You can book it here, with your dates already filled in: [Guest Book link]. If you need a child seat, just tell us and we will add it. See you in November.
You read it, fix anything that sounds off, and approve. Whether it is sent or saved as a draft depends on your mail connector. Start with drafts if you can.
On the booking path, the assistant shows you the new customer and booking for approval first, and the booking history records who made it, for example "Tomas (via Claude)".
Handling booking requests
The other half of the job is booking requests, the bookings customers submitted that wait for you to accept or decline. Ask "Accept today's booking requests" and the assistant lists them and can check each customer's history first. You have three answers:
- Accept with a payment link. The booking stays pending until the customer pays. Good for new customers.
- Accept and confirm. The booking is confirmed right away and Nomora sends the usual confirmation messages. Use it for returning customers or when payment is already sorted.
- Decline with a reason. The booking is cancelled with one of your cancellation reasons. Ask the assistant to also draft a short email offering other dates or another class.
Each of these is a change, so each one waits for your approval.
Running it on a schedule
Claude and ChatGPT can run this routine on a schedule, for example every hour. Each run reads new inquiries, checks Nomora and prepares replies. Changes still ask for your approval, unless you chose "always allow" for that action.
My advice: let lookups run freely, since they change nothing. Keep approval on for creating bookings, answering requests and sending emails for the first few weeks. Once you have seen fifty replies you would have sent yourself, decide what to loosen.
Here is a sample instruction for the scheduled routine. Edit it to fit your business.
Every hour, check my inbox for new emails asking to rent a car.
For each one, read the dates, times, car class and pickup and return location. If anything is missing or unclear, draft a reply asking for it and do nothing else.
Check availability in Nomora for those dates, including whether the Guest Book would accept them.
Get a price quote from the Nomora price list with the right pickup and return location.
If a car is free and the Guest Book accepts the dates, draft a reply with the quote and the Guest Book link with the dates and class filled in.
If the customer has rented from us before, or the Guest Book would refuse the dates, ask me before creating a booking.
Do not answer complaints, damage questions or unusual requests. List them for me at the end.
Then list the booking requests waiting in Nomora and suggest accept with payment link, accept and confirm, or decline for each, with a one-line reason.
Ask me before changing anything.
For more prompts like this, see ChatGPT prompts for a car rental business.
Link or booking: how to choose
Send the Guest Book link when the customer is new, is still comparing, and the Guest Book would accept the dates. It writes nothing to Nomora. The downside is that some people never click. If that is your problem, read why customers abandon car rental bookings.
Create the booking and send the customer link when the customer clearly said "please book it", has rented from you before, or agreed something with you by phone. Also use it when the Guest Book would refuse the dates but you are happy to make an exception. The booking goes into your calendar straight away. The downside is that a booking the customer never completes is one you cancel later.
Inquiry types and the best response
| Inquiry | Best response |
|---|
| Dates and class, car free, Guest Book accepts | Quote plus Guest Book link with dates and class filled in |
| Dates and class, car free, Guest Book would refuse the dates | Ask the owner. If you make an exception, create the booking and send the customer link |
| Requested class fully booked | Offer a free class for the same dates, or nearby dates in the same class |
| Returning customer asking to book again | Create the customer's booking and send the customer link, after approval |
| Price question without clear dates | Reply asking for dates, times and pickup location before quoting |
| Booking request waiting in Nomora | Accept with payment link, accept and confirm, or decline with a reason |
| Change to an existing booking | Look up the booking, draft the reply, and update only after approval |
| Complaint, damage dispute or refund argument | Flag for a human. No automatic reply |
| Unusual request, such as driving abroad or a long-term rental | Flag for a human |
What still needs a human
Angry customers. A complaint about a dirty car or a deposit deduction needs someone who can make a decision and own it. A polite AI reply to an upset customer usually makes things worse.
Unusual requests. Driving to another country, a two-month rental, delivery to a hotel, a specific car instead of a class. None of that is in the price list, so the assistant has nothing to quote from.
Add-on totals. The quote covers the car, the location fee and VAT if you add it on top. Child seats and other add-ons are priced when the booking is created. If a customer wants an exact all-in total, create the booking and check the price before you reply.
Misreads. The assistant can misread a date or a location, which is why changes wait for approval. Nomora refuses a booking for a car that is already booked, but it cannot know that Anna meant December, not November.
Everything that happens at the car. Pickup, return, invoices and sending documents for signature stay in the Nomora app.
One more thing. The assistant's provider, OpenAI for ChatGPT or Anthropic for Claude, receives what the assistant reads from Nomora, including customer names and contact details, under your account with them. The same goes for your emails. For more, read is it safe to connect ChatGPT to rental software.
Is it worth setting up?
For a company with 5 to 50 cars, booking email is the most repetitive job in the business, and the easiest to check. One glance tells you whether a reply has the right dates, price and link. That makes it a good first job to hand to an AI. It saves you the typing, not the judgement.
With a handful of inquiries a week, asking by hand ("answer this morning's inquiries") is enough. With dozens a day in season, the hourly routine is worth the half hour it takes to tune the instruction.
For the wider picture, see AI for car rental companies. New to MCP? Read what MCP is for rental businesses. For the booking flow itself, see how to automate rental bookings. To see it in Nomora's car rental software, book a demo.
Frequently asked questions
Can ChatGPT or Claude reply to car rental booking emails?
Yes, if your mailbox and your rental software are both connected to the same assistant. With Gmail or Outlook connected through the assistant's own connector and Nomora connected through its MCP connector, the assistant can check free cars, quote from your price list and draft a reply with a booking link or a customer link.
Will the AI quote the right price?
It quotes from your Nomora price list, including location fees and VAT if you add it on top. Add-ons are priced when the booking is created, so they are not in the email quote. The quote is only as accurate as the prices you have set up in Nomora.
Can the assistant double-book a car?
No. Changes go through the same checks as the Nomora app, and a booking for a car that is already booked is refused. Every change waits for your approval unless you chose "always allow", and the booking history shows that it was made via the assistant.
When should the assistant send the booking link instead of creating a booking?
Send the Guest Book link with dates and class filled in when the customer is new, still comparing, and the dates fit your booking rules. Create the booking and send the customer link when the customer has clearly asked to book, is a returning customer, or needs an exception to your rules.
See what the Nomora ChatGPT and Claude connector can do
