What is the best practice in this scenario?

One solution to this problem is to use a job queue system like Laravel's built-in Queue system. When a rental is created, you can dispatch a job to the queue that will handle the payment process. This way, the rental will remain in the queue until the payment is completed. If the customer closes the browser without paying, the job will eventually fail and you can handle the failure by deleting the rental.

To implement this solution, you can create a new job that handles the payment process. Here's an example:

<?php

namespace App\Jobs;

use App\Rental;
use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\Dispatchable;
use Illuminate\Queue\InteractsWithQueue;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;

class ProcessRentalPayment implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Dispatchable, InteractsWithQueue, Queueable, SerializesModels;

    protected $rental;

    /**
     * Create a new job instance.
     *
     * @param Rental $rental
     */
    public function __construct(Rental $rental)
    {
        $this->rental = $rental;
    }

    /**
     * Execute the job.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function handle()
    {
        // Handle payment process here
        // Update rental status to paid
        $this->rental->update(['paid' => true]);
    }

    /**
     * Handle a job failure.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function failed()
    {
        // Handle job failure here
        // Delete rental if payment not completed within 10 minutes
        $this->rental->delete();
    }
}

Then, in your controller where you create the rental, you can dispatch the job to the queue like this:

use App\Jobs\ProcessRentalPayment;

public function createRental(Request $request)
{
    // Create rental
    $rental = Rental::create($request->all());

    // Dispatch job to queue
    ProcessRentalPayment::dispatch($rental)->delay(now()->addMinutes(10));
    
    // Redirect to payment website
    return redirect('payment-website');
}

In this example, we're delaying the job by 10 minutes to give the customer time to complete the payment. If the payment is not completed within 10 minutes, the job will fail and the rental will be deleted.

To run the queue, you can use the php artisan queue:work command. You can also set up a CRON job to run the queue automatically.