You go through many workflow changes when you’ve been in business for almost four decades. As technology has grown, this also leads to trying many different pieces of software. Rhythm Snowsports is one such company that has been through this repeatedly. Last year, after dealing with software reliability and handling complex requirements, they started using Booqable to help them solve the issues they had encountered with previous rental software.
Rhythm Snowsports
Rhythm Snowsports was founded in 1985 at the gateway to the Snowy Mountain in Cooma, Australia. What started as a small shop attached to an existing service station and cafe has grown into one of the largest snow equipment stores in the southern hemisphere. They have two massive locations in Southern Australia, the base of their operations, and a further three in Japan.
They are primarily a retail store that offers everything from snowboards and skis to cross-country clothing. In the past few decades, they have also expanded into renting everything you could need to explore the snowy mountains of New South Wales (NSW). This arm of their operation has grown significantly during this time and is expected to be available in more locations in the future.
During the winter months, they are open 24 hours a day, serving rental customers and servicing people’s skis and snowboards. In this period, they can have up to 150 employees working across both of their locations in NSW. For the rest of the year, they scale down to being open every other day as demand is smaller in low season.
Complex rental requirements
For a while, Rhythm Snowsports has been dealing with software reliability and finding a solution that can handle the complex requirements of running a rental business. They started experimenting with new rental software before the end of their high season in 2022. The solution that fit their rental operations best was Booqable, and they used it for the remainder of the season and into their 2023 high season.
Booqable proved a successful tool in helping them manage their extensive inventory of snowboards, skis, and winter clothing. Something that stuck out was the ability to create product bundles for items that are most commonly rented together. In addition, offering discounts and promotions to customers quickly has been a very useful feature.
While they have integrated Booqable with their website to accept online bookings, most are made in person. Staff find creating and fulfilling orders within Booqable easy and manage returns with the mobile app. This has allowed them to spend more time helping customers and less dealing with the business’s administration side.
Hitting the slopes
Rhythm Snowsports has improved its rental operations with Booqable and extended the reach of its retail business alongside it. They plan to bring their rental service to more locations and have begun partnering with local hotels to offer on-site snow equipment rentals. It is hoped that they will continue to have a strong partnership with Booqable and use it to aid them In their continued growth.
