Passion for what you do is essential for creating a successful business. Without passion, your offering can lack soul, and people can sense that. Mark Glaister and his family are obsessed with all things mountain biking, which led them to create MTB & Beyond. A mountain bike experience and gravel bike rental business. After several successful years, they started using Booqable to manage their inventory, bookings, and payments.
MTB & Beyond
Mark started MTB & Beyond with the help of his wife, family, and friends in 2018. They have explored the world together and experienced the best mountain biking trails the world has to offer. However, they believe they are lucky enough to live and work in one of the greatest mountain biking areas - Hope, in the heart of the Peak District. This belief and their passion for mountain biking led them to start MTB & Beyond.
MTB & Beyond’s mission is to provide customers with a hassle-free way to have their own mountain biking adventures. This is achieved by offering guided mountain biking tours and gravel bike rentals. They use their wealth of knowledge and experience to plan, prepare, and oversee their customers’ adventures. Meanwhile, they provide what is, in their belief, the best bikes for making these adventures possible.
So far, they have guided over 1,000 groups from all over the world on tailor-made experiences. They do everything they can to make these adventures as enjoyable as possible for each customer. They have served everyone from solo riders and families to large corporates, stag dos, hen dos, and complete novices to highly experienced riders.
Managing bookings, inventory, and deposits
As with any successful business, while bookings grew, it became more difficult to keep track of everything. They faced challenges when managing their bookings, inventory, and security deposits. So, Mark began looking for an all-in-one solution to make managing and automating much of the process easier. His search led him to Booqable, and he has been able to save a lot of time with day-to-day management.
The first step towards this was Booqable’s calendar, which gives them an overview of all upcoming bookings so they can prepare for upcoming adventures. Meanwhile, inventory management and real-time availability allow them to manage their inventory efficiently. In addition, by connecting to Stripe, they can take security deposits when customers make a booking. This was previously a much more involved process.
They have also found a mobile app to check bookings while away from their desktop. This allows them to stay on top of new and upcoming bookings, even on the trails. Finally, they have used Booqable’s website builder to create a sub-site where customers can book their bikes online. This allows customers to see the availability of bikes and make an informed decision.
More guides
Mark and his family have achieved a lot over the past six years with MTB & Beyond. However, they are now looking forward to what they need to do to continue to grow the business. They hope to be able to hire many guides and coaches to expand the number of adventures they can offer. Alongside this, of course, they will invest in more bikes to cater to this growing demand.
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