When Galen Licht from Sea Trek in Sausalito visited his friend Graham at work in Santa Barbara, Paddle Sports Center had just launched the first version of ARS called NFC, which stood for the type of technology we were using to start and stop the clock. Galen reached out and expressed interest in using this system for his rental operation in the San Fransisco Bay. He too was frustrated with paper systems and was eager to see how technology could help solve the issue of checking customers in and out of rentals.

We met at his rental location next to the Bay Model on the Northwestern side of the San Fransisco Bay, in Sausalito. Sea Trek is set-up on a large floating dock platform with some amazing paddling options available. They run camps and day trips to Angel Island, but the bulk of their business is rentals. He was interested in learning about our membership model, which we started in 2010 in response to a shrinking retail market. We sipped on French Press coffee on Galens floating home just steps away from his shop and chatted about our business's and the challenges/solutions. We went over his requirements and chatted about why we built the software initially... the synergy was tangible. Over the next few months we help Galen get set-up with Mindbody and ARS, configuring rentals as service items and attaching them to equipment in ARS.

Here is a little feedback directly from Galen:

"We started using the Adventure Rental System in the Spring of 2016 and it has made a significant positive impact on our rental operation. We rent between 100-400 kayak and SUPS daily during our peak season. Before ARS we had customers fill out a paper waiver every time they came paddling with us. We used the waiver to keep track of how long they were on the water. The ARS now lets our clients sign waivers once and tracks the time they are on the water. This does several things for us. We've completely eliminated the need for paper saving us time and money. We no longer have to manually enter client emails to our system and the ARS allows us to accurately calculate the time and and cost for each rental. We estimate that we are collecting  10%-15% more money now that we are using the Adventure Rental System. Our clients spend less time in line and more time on the water. This system allows us to rent to more people with less staff. I would recommend this tool for any company offering hourly or daily rentals." - Galen Licht CEO/ Co-Owner Sea Trek - Celebrating 35 years in business!

Since using the system over a year ago, Galen has provided valuable feedback and software feature requests. We are deploying "gratuities" primarily on his request. We have also developed the newest version of ARS with maximum flexibility, since our model and Sea Trek's model were slightly different, although both renting kayaks and SUPs. ARS has been truly built from two high volume rental companies and real world feedback.

Galen and Sea Trek have been a great first customer and we're excited to keep the synergies flowing!