What do you do when you know something should exist but you can’t find it anywhere? Dirk Ottenheijm wanted to host a casino night for his friends but couldn’t find a roulette table to rent at an affordable price. So, he built his own from scratch and started renting it out. Since he started using Booqable, he has spent 80% less time managing inventory and bookings.
Roulette Tafel Huren
In 2015, Dirk wanted to end the year with a bang and planned a casino night with his friends to make it more fun. He needed decorations and a big roulette table to create his own casino at home. Of course, buying one just for one night was not an option, so he started looking online to rent one. To his surprise, there were only commercial ones available at €750 per day.
Of course, this was not affordable, so Dirk decided to build his own roulette table. It cost him a few hundred euros to make, but at least he had a table, and he could use it again in the future. After a successful New Year’s Eve celebration, he found himself wondering what to do with the table while he wasn’t using it and decided to offer it online for people to rent.
He was convinced that there would be a market for it if he could offer it for an affordable price. He decided to let people rent it for a week, so they could pick it up and return it at their own convenience. Seven years later, he still designs, builds, prints, and sews his own roulette tables. He has more than 16 available to rent out, which he does so alongside his regular day job.
The challenges of email
When Dirk started renting out his first roulette table, he created a website with a simple email form where potential customers fill in their requested dates. At first, this worked well as the number of requests was low, and he could easily book customers in. However, as his business grew, it became more and more challenging to deal with requests from the email form.
With no inventory management system, Dirk had to go through each request to check if he had a table available for the specific date and time. He would often get customers making requests for the same period and had to call and email them to find an alternate date and time that worked for them. As you can imagine, this made his side hustle very difficult to manage.
He would spend a lot of time communicating with customers about their orders, managing inventory availability, and chasing payments. This began to take its toll on Dirk, and it became challenging to keep on top of everything alongside working full-time at his regular job. So, something had to change, and he decided to start looking for software to help manage everything.
Automated management
Dirk decided that Booqable was the best solution for his needs as it enabled him to add online bookings to his website and easily manage his inventory. All without the need to communicate with customers as they can see the availability of the roulette tables before they make a booking. He now spends 80% less time managing inventory and orders than he did previously.
When Dirk started using Booqable, he took the opportunity to refresh his website now that he can accept online bookings. He has been to create a beautiful website with an excellent user experience. By integrating Booqable into his WordPress website, he is able to show live availability for his roulette tables, so customers know exactly when they are available while browsing.
In addition, he no longer spends time checking his email inbox and communicating with customers. Thanks to the Booqable iOS app, he can access all his orders from his iPhone. He will glance at it throughout the day to keep an eye on his business. This has saved him a lot of time and allowed him to focus more without the distraction of responding to customers.
A unique experience
Over the past few years, Dirk has built a thriving rental business around his roulette tables. His unique approach to building and renting them out, mixed with excellent customer service, has proved to be a winner. Plus, with Booqable, he can now spend less time managing the business and more time focussing on other important aspects of his life.
As for the future, he doesn’t have any plans for big growth. He’s happy to keep his business small as it is a side hustle, and he has no plans to take it on full-time. It’s quite amazing how an idea for a casino night turned into a business that allows everyone to affordably create their own special nights.
