Dan Whitehead opened Bike Station Ballater after graduating, while riding for manufacturer teams. Based in Ballater, Scotland, the shop offers a high quality, large choice of bikes for hire at competitive prices. Customers come from all over, locals, visitors from across the UK, and travelers from overseas, all looking to explore the area on two wheels.
Dan and his small team of three try to push customers toward pre booking, though walk-ins are still part of the day to day. To support that, Dan turned to Booqable, linking a pre built booking page to the shop’s existing website and pairing it with the mobile app for checking bikes in and out.
Linking an existing website with a pre-built booking page
Before Booqable, Dan was managing rentals through a different system that came with its own inventory limits. Customers booking ahead, especially for larger or more complex orders, didn’t have an easy way to see what was available and lock it in themselves.
With Booqable, Dan linked a pre built booking page directly to Bike Station Ballater’s existing website. This let him keep using his own product images and layout while giving customers a way to complete a full reservation right from the site, no separate booking platform to navigate to.
Dan described the result as a logically laid out rental management system with a well organized product choice that makes booking easier for customers.
This has helped Bike Station Ballater in a few ways:
-
Online booking completions have gone up, even for larger and more complex orders
-
Customers can see real product choices and availability instead of guessing
-
The team can quickly add products after a customer enquiry, so future bookings for that same request become straightforward online bookings instead of back and forth emails
For a shop that wants more people booking ahead, that means fewer enquiries that stall out and more bikes reserved before customers even walk through the door.
Checking bikes in and out with the mobile point of sale
With a small team split between the front of shop and the workshop, and nobody working full time, Dan needed an easy way to keep track of which bikes were out, which were back, and what was ready to go.
Dan uses the Booqable mobile app for check out and check in. As bikes go out the door or come back at the end of a hire, the app updates availability right away, so anyone on the team can see what’s actually on the shop floor without checking a separate list.
This has made a difference for the shop:
-
Check in and check out happen right at the point of handover, on the spot
-
Product availability updates automatically as bikes move in and out
-
The whole team, even part time, can see what’s happening with stock without extra communication
That means less time spent figuring out what’s available and more time getting customers out the door on the right bike.
A shop set up to grow
Dan says things are starting to improve already, with online booking completions up and customer enquiries turning into straightforward bookings more often, and he expects the full impact to show as the system gets completely set up.
Looking ahead, Dan sees Bike Station Ballater growing, building on a setup where customers can book easily online and the team can manage check in and check out without missing a beat.
With a booking page built into its own website and a mobile app handling the daily handovers, Bike Station Ballater has a system that fits how the shop actually works, pre booked or walk in.
