Our Collective Opportunity for Better
Island Outfitters is a golf cart and beach gear rental business in Port Aransas, Texas. The company was founded by former Cinnamon Shore GM Matt Lawson, and senior business technology executive, Jeff Hall. The two partners saw a distinct opportunity to build a better and safer experience for vacationers planning their visit to the island and do so in a way that drives more profitable and repeat business for the company and for their property management partners.
Reserving a beach home is where visitors looking to come to Port Aransas begin their travel planning. This is almost exclusively done via online rental sites like vrbo, Airbnb, Expedia and so forth. These sites streamline the property searching, evaluation and reservation processes, making for an easy and compelling customer experience.
Renting a golf cart is often the next step in the planning effort. According to the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Board, 70% of visitors to the island rent a golf cart for their vacation. Unfortunately, this process is completely disconnected from the beach house rental experience and considerably more fragmented as it requires searching for and visiting individual company websites to understand rates and availability.
Compounding this, almost all of the Port Aransas golf cart rental websites are antiquated, offering dated information and a broken rental process that entails the customer completing a reservation form that doesn't actually guarantee a cart for them when they arrive.
Island Outfitters aims to change this experience and make renting a golf cart as easy and efficient as renting a beach house. In fact, thru partnerships with area property management companies, we are making it a part of the process!
We have partnered with local leading property management companies who are interested in offering the option of renting a golf cart to the guests of the beach homes they manage. This increases their brand value to their guests, simplifying what is often the second step in the vacation planning process, with the assurances that with us as partners, the guests will receive exceptional customer service.
For Vacation Planners
We've just eliminated the effort required to research rental options and given them an hour or two of their time back. As well, they are renting a well-equipped and regularly maintained near new golf cart at one of the lowest rates on the island.
For Our Property Management Partners
We've extended their customer's experience with their brand in a very positive way, giving them the ability to offer a golf cart from a trusted and reliable provided who isn't just doing a one-off rental and who has a vested long-term interest in the partnership. Supporting a positive customer experience means better reviews and more profitable and repeat business.
For Island Outfitters
This approach gives us the ability to secure cart rentals at the pivotal moment when the vacationer is in planning and booking mode, and to do so in a way that is efficient and positive for them, increasing their likelihood to rent with us. Additionally, with some of these property management partnerships, a portion of the properties that they manage commit to increase their daily rate so that they may include a golf cart in their rental and attract more renters. This means we commit a cart to these properties for this purpose in exchange for an annual revenue commitment, (100% of the cart revenue is maintained by Island Outfitters).
This is a win for the property owner, the property management company, and for Island Outfitters. In addition to this partner-centric model, for customers that are not renting thru our property management partners, customers will use the same clean and compelling online rental experience.
