It’s common in the film industry to rent your equipment from another company, but what happens when you’re spending more on renting them than buying them outright? This is the dilemma that Caribbean Filmcom faced in late 2014. In response, they set up their own rental company in 2015 called Curaçao Filmcare and started using Booqable a couple of years later for online bookings.
The camera and AV rental industries have seen hard times during the pandemic as production on film projects big and small ceased. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As productions recommence across the industry, camera and equipment rentals are in demand once again. For many rental companies, this has been a time to regroup, and that’s precisely what Curaçao Filmcare has done.
Curaçao Filmcare
Curaçao Filmcare was founded in January 2015 and is managed by Youri Poort. It is a venture launched by Caribbean Filmcom, which Michael Drenthe established in 2004, and services production in the Dutch Caribbean and Surinam. The decision to launch a rental company came after they realized that they were hiring so much gear for their productions that buying it themselves and renting it out made more sense.
This has led them to establish a full presence for their rental company, Curaçao Filmcare, which offers stands, grip gear, imaginers, dollies, sound equipment, butterflies, generators, and electrical gear, as well as some less technical items like tables, chairs, mirrors, clothing racks, and storage boxes. They aim to provide everything that they could need for audiovisual production.
Online bookings
For the first few years of business, customers would view a long .pdf document on Caribbean Filmcom’s website and call or email their requests. They would then be processed and entered manually into Curaçao Filmcare’s calendar, and they would send out an invoice. This process was long and made the ordering process difficult for film crews across the Dutch Caribbean.
So, they had to find a solution that made it both easier for themselves and their customers. They sought rental software to provide them with a hosted online store, real-time inventory management, and invoices templates that looked the part. In Booqable, they found exactly what they were looking for.
A bright future
Curaçao Filmcare is the most extensive equipment rental business in the Dutch Caribbean and services other Caribbean islands like Suriname. Thanks to Booqable, they now have an online store to showcase their rental equipment and take bookings. This has made it easier for customers to browse the equipment on offer and find all the details they need, including if they are available on the day they need them.
They have also taken advantage of the built-in invoicing and email templates that Booqable offers. They now have professional invoices to send to customers without creating them themselves - something they had struggled with before using Booqable. Now that the effects of the pandemic are subsiding and it is more under control, filming has resumed in the Dutch Caribbean. Their primary business is enjoying more customers, and their rental company is expanding.
