1. Location, location, location!
For a bike rental shop, the location will be one of the most defining factors in your business’s success. Locals tend to normally have their own bikes so your customers will mostly be made up of tourists. Therefore, if your location has no or little tourist traffic then you should reconsider.
Other factors to consider when picking your location could be other bike rental shops in the area, biking trails and routes, local events and competitions, and landmarks of interest.
2. Competitor analysis
Find out how strong the competition is in the local area and understand their strengths and weaknesses. You can then start to get a good idea of what type of business you want to run. For example, what type of bikes and equipment you are going to offer, for what price, as well as what marketing and suitable promotional activities you need to undertake.
3. Bikes
This is the most obvious requirement when starting up a bike rental business, but it’s another crucial component of your plan you need to get right. After analysing the local area, you should decide on what type of bikes you are going to rent out and how many you want to start off with. You might just want to specialise in mountain bikes if you’re based in a mountain district, or e-bikes and hybrids if you’re in the city. Start with a small number of bikes as business could be slow to start with, then when you notice that business is growing you can easily bring in some more.
4. Rates
Bike rental stores usually charge by the hour, half-day, day, weekend or week. Understand what others are charging around you then evaluate what pricing strategy you want to adopt; most newcomers will look to undercut their competition in price. Your pricing structure should also aim to encourage customers to rent bikes for longer periods of time, by offering better value for day and week rentals.
5. Bike rental software and website
Last but not least you need a website and some suitable software to manage all your bookings, prevent double bookings and save you time from phone calls and spreadsheets. Your website is your other storefront and it would be a mistake to start a bike rental business without a website and an online booking system. More and more people are online and therefore more people are booking their bikes online.
Booking YoYo is the best software available to ensure your fleet of bikes is managed efficiently. We can also take care of designing and developing your website to ensure you are making the very most of the online market making sure both are also mobile responsive.
Are you looking to start a bike rental business? Click here to find out more about YoYo and why your business needs it.