Karyn Vorhees is the founder and “Chief Adventure Officer” of Rivers Edge Outfitters, a camping equipment rental business in Oregon. The idea came to her during a family spring break in Florida last year. She was researching SUP and kayak rentals and thinking about starting something similar back home. But the more she looked, the more she noticed a different gap. After 18 years of camping in Oregon, she knew how much gear and planning stands between people and a good weekend outdoors.
So she built a complete, turnkey camping setup. Competitors rent out a tent here and a camp stove there, but Rivers Edge Outfitters delivers everything a campout needs and picks it up at the end. Karyn can also help customers find and book a campsite, plan meals, stock the cooler, and suggest hikes, restaurants, and roadside stops near where they’re staying.
Her customers range from busy families and once-a-year campers to visitors flying into Oregon, family reunions, festival-goers, summer interns, and moms joining her Camp Insanity community. Karyn has used Booqable from day one. Her husband and son, who handle IT, built the website with Booqable’s website builder, and the platform became the back office for bookings, inventory, and payments. Two features made it the right fit: online deposits and digital waiver forms.
Collecting deposits without the hassle
In a lot of camping equipment rental setups, customers pick gear up in person. Karyn’s setup is different. Every order means a full camping kit gets dropped off at a customer’s site and left with them for the whole trip. That’s a lot of gear out of her hands, and she needs some protection if something comes back damaged or doesn’t come back at all.
Karyn sets her security deposit rules once in the Booqable backend. When a customer checks out on the online store, the deposit is charged automatically based on those settings and processed through Stripe. Once the gear is back and checked over, she refunds the deposit to the customer’s card straight from the backend.
Karyn says she appreciates “how easy it is to collect deposits,” and that the system makes sure she doesn’t miss a step.
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Deposits are collected at checkout, so there’s no separate payment request to send.
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Every order follows the same deposit rules, no matter who books.
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Refunds go back to the original card in a few clicks.
Karyn doesn’t have to remember to ask for a deposit before gear leaves the house. It’s already paid by the time the kit is packed for delivery.
Getting contracts signed before the trip
Camping comes with real risks, from campfires to hiking trails, so Karyn needs every customer to sign a waiver before heading out. And with orders coming from groups, out-of-state visitors, and first-timers, collecting signatures in person isn’t realistic.
With one click in the Booqable backend, Karyn creates a contract for an order. It fills in automatically with the order details, and the customer receives it by email to sign digitally. The signed copy stays with the order.
“I really appreciate the way the back end works,” Karyn says, pointing to how easy it is to have customers sign the waiver and other important paperwork in the system.
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Contracts are generated from the order, so details don’t need to be typed out.
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Customers can sign from their phone or laptop before the trip.
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Signed paperwork is stored with each order for easy reference.
Karyn knows every group using her gear has signed before delivery day. Nobody has to hunt for a pen at the campsite.
From a Florida spring break to Oregon campsites
“I appreciate having an all-in-one solution to booking, inventory management, payment collection, forms/e-signatures, etc.,” Karyn says. She also uses the contact form on her website to answer customer questions before they book.
Next, Karyn wants to scale Rivers Edge Outfitters and franchise the concept, with the goal of semi-retiring alongside her husband in seven years. While most camping equipment rental businesses in Oregon focus on single pieces of gear, she’s building hers around the whole trip. With deposits and waivers handled inside Booqable, her small family team can spend their time cleaning gear, planning trips, and helping more people get outside.
