Mark Erikson runs Auckland by Bike in Auckland, New Zealand, a business that grew directly from real demand at the local bike shop where he works. As a mechanic, alongside his business partner Dan who owns the shop, Mark kept hearing the same question from customers: do you offer rentals?
After enough of these conversations, they decided to start a separate rental company focused on road, gravel, and e-bikes. Their main customers are visitors arriving in Auckland, often at the start of a longer trip around New Zealand, looking to fit in some quality riding. Early on, one of their biggest challenges was getting found online.
Competing for visibility pushed them to look for a reliable bike rental software that could also support a bike rental website. They chose Booqable for its combined approach to handling bookings, payments, and website creation. This gave them a way to take upfront orders while also building a strong online presence, helping them launch and grow their business through better visibility and search performance.
Automated online bookings with Booqable’s website builder
Before using Booqable, Mark needed a straightforward way to present their rental offering online and accept bookings without adding complexity. Building a bike rental website from scratch felt like too much work, especially while running day-to-day operations alone. Here’s how it works with Booqable.
As the website builder comes with ready-to-use templates that can be quickly adapted, Mark was able to get his online store up and running in a few easy steps, and was able to apply a custom domain. He chose a template, dragged-and-dropped his images and products on the page, and adjusted the styles, colours, and fonts to suit his branding. Customers can now browse available bikes, see real-time availability, and complete payments directly through the site.
This setup made a noticeable difference in how Auckland by Bike handles bookings:
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Customers can reserve bikes in advance with clear availability shown
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Payments are taken upfront through the Stripe integration.
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The site reflects accurate inventory without manual updates
And that means fewer back-and-forth messages and less uncertainty around bookings. Instead of relying only on walk-ins, Mark now captures demand ahead of time through his bike rental website, making day-to-day planning much easier.
Improving online visibility with Booqable’s SEO tools
Getting noticed on Google was one of the biggest early hurdles. With many options available to visitors searching online, Auckland by Bike needed a way to improve its ranking and attract the right audience. Booqable’s bike rental software includes built-in tools that help optimize product pages and site structure for search engines.
Booqable automatically generates a sitemap for every website, which can be uploaded to Google Search Console to speed up indexing. Alongside this, Booqable also supports their visibility efforts with the following:
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Product pages are structured to be easily indexed by search engines
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Meta titles and descriptions can be adjusted to target relevant keywords.
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Offers built in AI text generators for product descriptions.
These changes helped Auckland by Bike appear more often in search results when visitors look for rentals in the area. And over time, that has led to more organic traffic and more bookings without relying entirely on paid ads. It directly addresses the earlier challenge of low visibility and gives the business a steady stream of new customers.
Growing with the right tools in place
Today, Auckland by Bike runs with a mix of online bookings and walk-ins, with Mark managing most of the operation himself. The combination of a bike rental website and bike rental software in one system means less time switching between tools and more focus on customers and bikes.
Looking ahead, Mark plans to grow the fleet and introduce guided tours, building on the foundation already in place. Reflecting on the experience, he keeps it simple: having everything in one package just works. And that’s really the takeaway. With the right setup, Auckland by Bike has moved from reacting to demand in a shop to running a focused rental business that continues to grow.
