Rental periods and dates

Every listing is priced for a period, not for a night: "$280, up to 7 days." That period is the lender's, anywhere from 1 to 30 days, and seven is where most of them start. Your dates are what you actually book.

How long you can have it

• From one day. Nothing shorter, and a single day is a real booking.
• Up to her period, at the price on the listing. Every day inside it costs the same one price, so a five-day stay on a seven-day period is the seven-day price.
• Some lenders set a shortest and a longest stay of their own: a piece that only makes sense for a weekend, or only for a week. Dates outside them are refused before you get to the till, and they bind an offer exactly as they bind a booking.

You can book up to 90 days ahead. A dress for something in three months is a booking you can make now.

Longer than her period

Those days are hers to say yes to. Jelly prices them at the same rate (the price divided by the period, per extra day) and sends the whole thing to her as a Longer offer at the quoted total. Her acceptance is the approval and the booking happens at that price. Nothing is charged while it is open. See Making an offer.

This is the one place instant book does not carry, and the reason is her calendar rather than her price.

Choosing your two dates

• The start date is the day the piece should be with you. If it is for a particular evening, start the rental the day before rather than on the day: a delivery lands somewhere inside its day, not at an hour you pick.
• The end date is the day it goes back. The return is booked on or before it, whichever way the piece travels, and late fees start the day after it where the lender has them switched on. A courier or a handoff return is handed over by the end date; a shipped return is dropped off with the carrier by the next business day after it. See Returning a piece.
• On a shipped piece, the days in transit are not part of your rental. It travels before your start date and after your end date, and nobody else can book it across those days.
• A stay is counted from the start date to the end date. 1 October to 5 October is four days, and four is the number the date sheet, the price and your receipt all show, so a stay from the 1st to the 8th fits a seven-day period.

If your dates are not available

The calendar will not always take what you want. It is usually one of these:

• The piece is already booked for those days.
• The lender is away, or has blocked that piece out for dates of her own.
• The closet asks for notice: some lenders need a few hours' warning before a start date, and a same-day booking on those pieces is refused with the reason on the screen.
• The delivery cannot make it. A shipped piece has to be able to reach you by your start date. Where no speed can, shipping is refused with the reason: a later start, or a courier if you are in New York City. See Shipping.

There is nothing to negotiate on availability: another set of dates, or another piece. Mona is good at the second one, and a Request puts what you are after in front of the closets that have it.

If you need it longer once you have it

Ask from the order, before the end date. The lender approves or declines, the extra days are prorated at the listing's own rate, and there is no new delivery fee because the piece does not move. An approved extension suspends late fees for the days it covers, and an unanswered ask dies at the current end date. See Extending a rental.

Asking is always better than being late. After seven days late a rental is treated as stolen, automatically. See Late returns.