Childhood memories can be a powerful thing. When you’re living in the moment, you don’t realize that they can change your trajectory in the future. Jonathan Copeland experienced this very thing when childhood memories inspired him to start his own boat rental business. In 2022, he launched Aqua Vibe Rentals and quickly switched to Booqable to manage inventory and bookings.
Aqua Vibe Rentals
When Jonathan was a child, his grandpa would take him and his little brother out on his boat. These were some of his most incredible memories, and he wanted to allow others to create similar ones with their family and friends. So, in the summer of 2022, he sold his house and put every dollar he had into purchasing two boats to start Aqua Vibe Rentals.
He chose Clearwater, Florida, as the home for his boat rental business. It is ideally located within a 30-minute boat ride of 4 spectacular islands: Caladesi Island, Honeymoon Island, Three Rocker Island, and One Tree Island. This has helped him attract many customers who are visiting the area with their family and friends, as well as locals looking for a fun weekend activity.
Simpler, reliable, affordable
For the first year of running Aqua Vibe Rentals, Jonathan used a rental booking platform that was complicated to use, unreliable and felt like the service cost needed to be lowered for the value it provided. So, he started looking for an alternative solution when he was coming up to his second year in business. He wanted rental software that was simple to use, reliable, and affordable.
His search led him to Booqable, which made it easy to set up and integrate with his Squarespace website. This has led to increased bookings, and he now spends much less time on the phone with customers scheduling rentals. He also feels he’s receiving much more value for a fraction of what he was paying previously and hasn’t had a single reliability issue with Booqable.
In addition, the mobile app allows him to create new bookings and check customers in and out of their rentals, all from the waterside. This has been a huge quality of life improvement as he can manage most of his daily tasks with the mobile app. He has also received feedback from customers about how easy and seamless the whole process of renting is.
More boats, more captains
Jonathan currently rents out two boats that allow customers to experience “being their own captain” for a day. Over the next few years, he hopes to expand his fleet to at least ten rental boats and a couple of yachts he can charter. This will allow even more people to experience the beautiful waters around Clearwater Beach and beyond.
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