How to Start a SUP Rental Business in 2025

Starting a stand-up paddle board (SUP) rental business has never been easier. Whether you’re planning a full-time gig or a money-making side hustle, the opportunities in 2025 are better than ever.

Over 60% of outdoor rental businesses now offer online bookings, making it simpler than ever to reach new customers. And the best part? You don’t need a storefront. Many successful SUP rentals run a flexible model, delivering paddle boards to lakes, beaches, or even customers’ homes before camping trips or vacations.

The secret to keeping things simple is using the right rental software. A platform like Booqable helps you manage bookings, gear, and payments, so you can focus on delivering great experiences.

Choose Your Gear & Rental Setup

To start off strong, build a paddle board collection that suits all skill levels. Include wide, stable boards for beginners - especially inflatable ones, which are easy to carry and more forgiving. Then mix in longer, narrow boards for experienced paddlers. Don’t forget these must-have accessories:

• Life jackets (adult and child sizes)

• Adjustable paddles

• Safety leashes

• Waterproof dry bags

Finding the right supplier matters. Check out water sports expos, trade associations, and platforms like Alibaba. Focus on quality, price, and product variety. Request samples, read reviews, and compare at least three vendors before committing.

SUP rental businesses today have more flexibility than ever. You don’t need a fixed location. Many owners run mobile services, delivering boards to lakes, calm rivers, beaches, campsites, vacation homes, or group meetups.

Of course, to run a mobile business, you’ll need the right setup; meaning a reliable vehicle, proper gear storage, and a solid plan for delivering and picking up equipment. Needless to say, launching a mobile SUP rental business requires investing in the right transportation equipment by having a reliable vehicle, proper gear protection, and a strategic approach to mobile rentals.

Open A Booqable Account

Running a SUP rental business without reliable SUP rental software can be a recipe for disaster. Many new business owners waste time using spreadsheets or clunky systems, leading to double bookings, missed payments, and lost gear.

That’s where Booqable shines. It’s built specifically for rental businesses, offering everything in one place: inventory tracking, flexible pricing, a website builder, mobile tools, secure payments, digital rental agreements, and more.

Getting started is easy. Just sign up for a free trial (no commitment), pick a plan, and you can start taking bookings in just a few hours.

Build Your Brand

Before launching your SUP rental website, you’ll want a polished brand identity. A strong brand builds trust, conveys professionalism, and sets you apart from the competition. Follow these branding steps:

• Pick a business name: Choose something unique, easy to remember, and available online.

• Register your business: Choose a legal structure (like LLC or sole proprietorship) and take care of the paperwork.

• Design a logo: Use AI design tools or online generators to create a professional-looking logo.

• Buy a domain: Choose a custom domain name that fits your brand and gives your website and email a professional edge.

A strong brand gives your SUP rental business a consistent voice across your website, social media, and promotional materials.

Add Your Products Into Booqable

With Booqable’s inventory tracking system, you can easily stay on top of your SUP boards and accessories, with no more double bookings or guessing what’s available. Every item is tracked in real time, helping you avoid mix-ups, run your business more smoothly, and keep your customers happy.

By following the steps below, your SUP rental business becomes a well-oiled machine, with every board and accessory precisely managed and ready for your next adventure:

• Pick a tracking type: When creating a product in your Booqable back-office, you can choose individual tracking for paddle boards, and bulk tracking for items like life jackets.

• Enable product variations: You can create product variations for different sizes, colors, and more - to allow customers to easily select the perfect board from your rental website.

• Add stock items: Precisely manage your inventory by adding as many stock items that you have for each paddle board. Booqable will create a unique product identifier number for each stock item, that you can adjust or replace with our built-in barcode generator.

• Label your products: In Booqable, you can manually label boards with the unique product identifier codes, or barcodes for easy scanning and tracking. You can also use waterproof plastic cases to protect identification tags and attach them to your paddle boards and accessories.

With properly managed inventory, your SUP rental business can scale efficiently - especially during peak seasons.

Choose Your Equipment Prices

Pricing is more than just picking numbers. It affects how often your gear gets rented and how much profit you make. Booqable lets you set up custom pricing with ease.

Smart pricing strategies, powered by your SUP rental software, help maximize revenue while offering value to your customers.

To set base prices for your products, you can choose between:

• Flat rates: Charge by the hour, day, week, or month.

• Fixed prices: One flat price, no matter how long the rental.

• Pricing structures: Set up custom rates to offer discounts for longer rentals to encourage extended bookings.

Other pricing methods include:

• Adjust pricing by season or weekend: You can also set up custom pricing rulesets that automatically adjust your rates based on day of the week, or date of the year. This way, you can create pricing surcharges to maximize revenue during peak seasons or popular days of the week.

• Add a refundable security deposit: You can choose a refundable security deposit rate that safeguards your valuable SUP equipment while giving customers a sense of accountability and trust.

Thanks to Booqable’s flexible tools, your SUP rental business can implement dynamic pricing on your SUP rental website without needing a developer.

Create Your SUP Rental Website

Your SUP rental website is your business’s storefront. A clean, user-friendly design builds credibility and helps convert browsers into customers.

A poorly designed website can turn potential customers away before they even consider renting from you. Many SUP rental businesses lose out on bookings due to confusing or unprofessional online presence.

Thankfully, creating a professional online presence for your SUP rental business is simple with Booqable.

The Booqable Rental Website Builder: If you’re starting from scratch, Booqable’s built-in rental website builder lets you easily create a clean, mobile-friendly site with no design skills needed. It includes everything you need to showcase your gear, manage bookings, and accept payments in one place. You can even use a custom domain, so allowing customers to find you is even easier.

Already have a website? No problem. Booqable integrates seamlessly with popular website platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, and more. You can embed your rental products, a date picker, the shopping cart, and more directly into your existing site to sync it up to your Booqable account. This means your customers can choose their rental dates, browse products with live availability. and book in real time without ever leaving your SUP rental website.

Building your rental website with Booqable takes just a fraction of what you’d pay a developer, plus and you can get it live fast! Whether you’re building from the ground up or enhancing your current site, Booqable makes it easy to create a professional, booking-ready online experience that drives more rentals.

Start Marketing Your Business

Marketing your SUP rental business and SUP rental website is where all your hard work comes to life. This is the stage where you connect with real customers, establish your brand voice, and generate the buzz needed to grow your business.

Whether you’re just starting out or already seeing some traction, a solid marketing plan is what turns a few rentals into a steady stream of bookings.

Easy, low-cost marketing ideas:

• Set up social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, X) and post fun photos, customer stories, and special offers.

• Partner with local tourism boards and outdoor groups. They might even list your business on their websites or in visitor guides.

• Build relationships with local businesses: including nearby hotels, campgrounds, and adventure centers for referral deals or joint promotions.

Use Booqable’s built-in tools to grow faster:

• Automated SEO for your product pages helps your gear appear in local searches and drive organic traffic to your site.

• Booqable’s coupon codes can allow you to offer limited-time deals and attract first-time renters or drive seasonal promotions.

• Tag returning customers in your Booqable account to create loyalty segments in your customer page. With this, you can easily reward repeat renters.

• Apply a recurring discount percentage to loyal customers to encourage repeat business and long-term relationships.

With a mix of hands-on marketing and smart tools, you’ll be able to build a trusted, well-known local brand in no time.

Your SUP Rental Business Awaits

Starting a SUP rental business in 2025 isn’t just a way to make money, it’s a chance to share your love for the outdoors and help others have fun on the water. The business side can feel like a lot. Managing gear, taking bookings, running a website, and marketing can all take its toll. However, with tools like Booqable, you don’t have to do it all on your own.

With the right gear, a powerful SUP rental website, and intuitive SUP rental software like Booqable, launching your own business becomes not only manageable but exciting. From inventory management to booking and marketing, Booqable does the heavy lifting of SUP rental management so you can focus on creating incredible paddle boarding experiences for your customers.

By Catrin Donnelly · Published June 10, 2025

Catrin is a rental software expert with a digital marketing background. She’s interviewed over 1,000 rental businesses to create insightful, actionable content.