by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
As the beaches prepare to swell this weekend with people celebrating the Fourth of July, one Jacksonville Beach couple is prepared to serve them if they forget something along the way.
Tom and Gina Baker moved to Jacksonville Beach about eight years ago and discovered that they had a lot of friends that wanted to visit them more often after they settled into their new home near the ocean.
“When people would visit, they wanted to do all the things at the beach like biking, kayaking and surfing,” said Tom, an engineer who grew up in Green Cove Springs. “We started developing a collection of gear for when friends would visit, and we thought, ‘If we are having this kind of problem supplying equipment for our families, there has to be other families that are in the same situation.’”
The Bakers started to rent equipment to property managers about five years ago. The managers wanted to stock their properties with items requested by their renters, and by contracting with the Bakers they could avoid maintaining the equipment.
“We took away work from the property managers,” said Baker. “We would drop off surfboards, kayaks and bikes for people down on vacation. Once the business took off, we started to get calls from hotels.”
The hotels also saw an opportunity to relieve themselves of having to maintain equipment requested by guests by hiring Baker.
“Tom took it over and made it easier, more convenient for us and our customers,” said Ofelia Bush, director of sales and marketing for Quality Suites Oceanfront in Jacksonville Beach. “It’s nice to have Tom because if we need anything for the beach, we just call him and it’s here. People love it.”
Convenience is provided through portable kiosks located in the hotel lobby that hold the more popular items and can be rented at guests’ leisure. At first the service was rudimentary with a bunch of beach chairs stacked on a luggage dolly.
“That didn’t look too appealing, so I started thinking about designing a better case to hold the gear,” said Baker, who utilized his engineering education to design a more professional display. “We went through some trial and error, but we have a good kiosk that’s easy to maintain.”
The self service kiosks are on wheels, so they can be moved out of the lobby and the sand can be cleaned out while the equipment is being serviced. The kiosks current supply umbrellas, beach chairs, lounge chairs, boogie boards and skim boards. The first successful prototype cost about $4,000 to build due to trial-and-error, but, now that the design has been tested, the kiosks can be built for about $1,800.
Customers go to the front desk of a partner hotel, request an item and it is charged to their room.
“That’s the good thing about this business,” said Baker. “We aren’t in the collection business and it meets everyone’s needs. Customers get what they want, it’s convenient for the hotel and we operate a good business.”
The kiosks are located at oceanfront hotels on First Street including: Comfort Inn, Quality Suites and Best Western. Bike rentals are available at Holiday Inn Express on Beach Boulevard and Days Inn-Neptune Beach on Atlantic Boulevard.
Guests who want a little more personalized attention can visit equipment stands on the beach that are open on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. at two locations, Quality Suites south of the Jacksonville Beach Pier and at the Casa Marina Hotel at 691 N. 1st St.
The beach stands are staffed with attendants who bring the equipment wherever the guests want to be on the beach. Baker converted hurricane anchors to be used as drill bits to make umbrella installation quick and easy despite the hardness of the compacted sand.
“They provide great service,” said Brittney Smith, of Jacksonville Beach. “The chairs are very comfortable and the employees are very friendly.”
Part of the service is continuously adjusting the position of chairs and umbrellas to account for the tide. That can be a lot of work for 20 “pods,” Baker’s term for two lounge chairs and an umbrella.
“The people who work for us enjoy being able to hang out at the beach all day and get paid, but it’s also a lot of hard work,” said Baker. “They are constantly moving equipment for customers and at the end of the day everything has to be cleaned off, packed up into a trailer and stored.”
Entering his second year with the beach stands — the Quality Suites location opened last year and the Casa Marina location opened this summer — Baker isn’t sure he will continue to manage the stands.
“They need a lot more attention than I can give them,” said Baker, who is a mechanical engineering expert with CED Investigative Technologies, Inc. “I’ll probably end up selling them.”
Baker may be looking to get out of the vendor business on the beach, but likes the future of the lobby kiosks.
“People are really starting to get used to the idea of self-service,” said Baker. “We are always looking for new locations.”
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Items available at RentBeachStuff.com
• Beach cruiser bikes
• Surfboards long/short
• Skimboards
• Boogie boards
• Kayaks single/tandem
• Metal detectors
• Fishing poles
• Umbrellas
• Canopies
• Beach chairs
• Lounge chairs
• Snorkel sets
• Beach towels
• Beach blankets
• Baby playpens
• Barbecue grills
• Coolers
• Beach carts
• Jogging stroller
• Horseshoes
• Bocce ball
• Volleyball
• Frisbee
• Football
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