Steamboat Ski Touring Center and Haymaker Nordic Center, established in 1980, is part of a family-owned ski rental equipment business based in Northern Colorado. Located five miles apart, both locations offer a premium skiing experience, including season passes, lessons, and the full range of ski rental equipment. The facilities have also been drawing athletes to help them achieve their dream of competing in the Olympics. With a history of hosting several national and local competitions, the centers promise a unique adventure for ski enthusiasts.
Centralizing rental operations online by switching to EZRentOut
Traditionally, both centers operated on a paper-based manual tracking system. A single individual would log thousands of rental transactions which was not an efficient or scalable solution. Crucial workflows such as bookings and reservations were negatively impacted and lack of real-time tracking was causing equipment loss.
To keep up with current trends and competitors, the centers needed to operate from a centralized digital platform.
As the everyday operational challenges mounted, the management started testing rental software. After careful consideration, they chose EZRentOut as an optimal choice for their operational workflows. It offered a feature-rich solution with a key added benefit – ease of use.
Kajsa Wiik-Lindgren, one of the business owners, said that she had one meeting with the EZRentOut team and that was enough to satisfy her that she had made the right choice.
“For the most part everything was answered upfront. I had all my questions answered. It was very forward-focused”
Gaining real-time visibility into thousands of assets
Now they are using EZRentOut to track their entire inventory comprising thousands of items including Nordic skis, boots, poles, bindings, gloves, and any accessories that may be required by their customers.
Kajsa explains that the teams at both centers are fulfilling multiple responsibilities and EZRentOut keeps everyone on the same page.
The intuitive interface means adoption has been easy and the teams maximize the benefits of the automation offered by EZRentOut. Now, with everyone able to see the availability and whereabouts of their equipment, the team can collaborate better on satisfying incoming or expected orders.
With a large volume of equipment rented out at a given point, the centers must have a system where they can reliably track equipment, especially to confirm availability and schedule maintenance.
“[EZRentOut] has saved the team from a great deal of chaos”
Labeling and scanning for efficient, accurate tracking
Since they serve a closely knit community, equipment returned to the centers is often mixed up as families participate in the sport together. This means that their customers often end up returning equipment rented out by some other family.
EZRentOut has helped the centers address this daily pain point through the powerful labeling and scanning functionality. By labeling individual items with a unique identifier they can accurately link equipment to the customers who rented it out. Now, when an order is returned, they can do a quick scan to determine which items have been exchanged or are missing.
Seamless management of flexible rental durations
Given the nature of their business, the centers offer both seasonal and daily rental services. The management for these periods varies significantly, but EZRentOut has enabled them to seamlessly manage both workflows. Kajsa explains that their daily rentals have picked up pace while the seasonal renting process has become “more consolidated” due to digitized management of their equipment.
Also, in cases where customers borrow equipment for the entire season, there is a greater chance of missing or incomplete returns. However, now with every item logged in EZRentOut, the centers can easily check the system to see the items expected from their customers. This has led to far fewer instances of lost and missing equipment saving the business significant cost on replacements.
EZRentOut ensures that Kajsa and her team do not lose track of their equipment while catering to the specific needs of a seasonal or daily rental.
“[Nordicski has] increased productivity while cutting down employee costs”
Both centers have also been able to cut down on employee costs while increasing operational efficiency. Kajsa says that they can handle over 100 customers in one hour after switching to EZRentOut. This is a considerable shift since they were only able to handle 15 previously.
Alerts ensure smoother workflows with no missed deadlines
The sheer volume of equipment rented out each season has the potential to cause a lot of operational problems if it is mismanaged. Areas of concern include customers who forget to return the rented equipment, or the center could lose track of return dates and any monetary penalties that would be required.
The sheer volume of equipment rented out each season has the potential to cause a lot of operational problems if it is mismanaged. Areas of concern include customers who forget to return the rented equipment, or the center could lose track of return dates and any monetary penalties that would be required.
With the highly useful Alerts feature in EZRentOut, their team members get timely reminders about their equipment’s reservations, return dates, and maintenance schedules. Moreover, their customers receive confirmation emails and alerts which ensure that they are aware of what items are in their possession. They also ensure that no return deadlines are missed.
Recommending EZRentOut to ski equipment rental businesses
Kajsa concludes that she knows many Nordic ski centers not only in Colorado but worldwide, who are not efficiently tracking their assets. EZRentOut can easily address their daily operational workflows and enable growth.
“I recommend EZRentOut to every Nordic center that is having difficulties tracking their equipment. It could save so much time and hassle for the business and the customer.”
