In 2020, Rodolfo Ulate started a car rental business in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Over the past few years, he and his team used Excel spreadsheets to track reservations manually, but this became challenging. They implemented Booqable earlier this year to take control of their booking management.
La Fortuna Rent A Car
Rodolfo started La Fortuna Rent A Car in 2020 when global events made using public transport and taxis challenging. He saw this as an opportunity to cater to professionals by renting out sedans and 4x4s. Soon, he started his car rental business and recruited a couple of staff members to handle the bookings and maintenance of the cars.
He likes to keep his inventory up to date, so he regularly refreshes it with new models. Currently, he offers the following models: Chevrolet Beat, Toyota Yaris, Hyundai Tucson, and Mitsubishi Montero. This selection allows customers to choose the vehicle they need, whether for urban or rural travel.
From calls and emails to online reservations
Initially, Rodolfo and his team used Excel spreadsheets to manage bookings and inventory. They would take booking requests via phone or email and manually enter them in the sheets. Of course, this worked like a charm in the early days of the business. However, as the number of bookings grew, it became challenging to manage everything.
So, Rodolfo asked his team to find a solution that would improve day-to-day operations and allow customers to book online. After searching everything from general solutions to niche software, they found that Booqable was the most suitable solution for their needs. The onboarding was straightforward, it was affordable, and most importantly, it allowed them to accept online bookings.
They integrated Booqable into their Webflow website, which uses a custom solution to make the booking components match the website’s styling. Now, his team only has to manually enter bookings on the rare occasion someone calls. This has saved them hours of team manual information entry and means that the whole rental process is more accurate and frictionless.
More vehicles and new offices
With stability brought to bookings and inventory management, Rodolfo is now planning to expand with more vehicles. He would also like to open new offices in other parts of Costa Rica. He can easily manage inventory across all locations from within Booqable, making it much easier to set up shop in new areas of the country.
