Kayak & Paddleboard Rentals

Whether you run a beachside paddleboard shack or a multi-location kayak outfitter, Resytech handles your fleet inventory, online bookings, waivers, and payments — so you can focus on getting people on the water.

Why Resytech for Kayak & Paddleboard Rentals

Paddle sports businesses deal with large fleets of interchangeable equipment, high turnover during peak hours, weather-dependent schedules, and a mix of walk-ins and online bookings. Resytech's real-time inventory tracking ensures you never rent out more kayaks than you have, even when bookings are coming in from your website and your front desk at the same time.

Setting Up Your Fleet: Activities & Equipment

The Right Structure for Paddle Sports

Kayak and paddleboard businesses are a textbook case for the one activity, multiple equipment setup. Since all your kayaks and paddleboards typically follow the same schedule, duration options, and blackout dates, they can share a single activity.

Typical setup:

Or if kayaks and paddleboards follow identical rules at your location:

Activity Type

Use Equipment Rental for standard paddle sports. Customers pick a duration option and a time slot:

The buffer gives your team time to collect equipment, rinse it off, and stage it for the next group.

Equipment Configuration

Go to Resources > Equipment and create each equipment type:

• Single Kayak — Quantity: 50, Capacity: 1, Default Occupancy: 1
• Tandem Kayak — Quantity: 30, Capacity: 2, Default Occupancy: 2
• Standard SUP — Quantity: 40, Capacity: 1, Default Occupancy: 1
• Premium SUP — Quantity: 10, Capacity: 1, Default Occupancy: 1

Key settings:

• Custom properties — add "Type" (sit-on-top, sit-in, inflatable), "Size" (10ft, 12ft), or "Skill Level" (beginner, intermediate) so customers can pick the right one
• Add-ons — life jackets, dry bags, waterproof phone cases, paddle upgrades, anchor kits
• Additional price — if premium SUPs cost $10 more than standard, set the additional price on the equipment rather than creating a separate activity
• Leave Exclusive Across Activities disabled — these are interchangeable fleet items, not unique vessels

Activity-Level Equipment Settings

On each activity's General tab:

• Equipment Type Limit — set to 0 (unlimited) so a family can rent 3 single kayaks and 1 tandem in one booking
• Allow Equipment Mixing — enable this so customers can mix kayaks and paddleboards (or singles and tandems) in one reservation

Scheduling

• Year Round with blackout dates for off-season closure or weather events
• Time Slots generated every hour (e.g., 8 AM – 5 PM with 1-hour intervals)
• Set early cutoff to prevent last-minute online bookings if you need prep time (e.g., 30 minutes before the time slot)
• Set future cutoff to limit how far in advance customers can book (e.g., 90 days)

Relevant docs:

• Activities & Equipment — understanding the activity/equipment relationship
• Your First Activity — hands-on setup walkthrough
• Add Equipment — step-by-step equipment creation
• Create Add-Ons
• Configure Scheduling

Guided Paddle Tours

Many paddle sports businesses also offer guided tours alongside self-serve rentals. Use a separate Tour activity for these:

Note the quantity split — 40 of your 50 single kayaks go to rentals, 10 are reserved for guided tours. This ensures tour groups always have equipment available even during peak rental hours.

• Add your guides as facilitators under Location > Facilitators and assign them to the tour activity
• Use Per Person pricing for the tour (e.g., $65/person for a 2-hour guided tour)
• Set Guest Limit on the tour's Manifest tab to cap group size (e.g., 12 people per tour)
• Set Guest Minimum if tours only run with a minimum number of participants

Relevant docs:

• Facilitators & Guides
• Manage Facilitators
• Set Up Activity Manifest

Taking Bookings

Paddle sports typically see a mix of online advance bookings and walk-in customers.

• Online bookings come through your embedded checkout — customers pick their equipment type, duration, date, and time slot
• Walk-in bookings are created by your staff from the dashboard (Bookings > Create in the top navigation) or via the Point of Sale
• Real-time availability keeps both channels in sync — if a walk-in takes the last tandem kayak at 2 PM, the website immediately shows it as unavailable
• Custom fields can collect useful info: experience level, "Can you swim?", group name for large parties
• The dashboard home page shows today's bookings at a glance so your dock staff knows exactly what's coming up

Relevant docs:

• Booking Management
• Create a Booking
• Point of Sale

Payments

• Online payments via Stripe for advance bookings
• In-person payments via Stripe Terminal for walk-ins and dock-side transactions (set up under Company Settings > Card Readers)
• POS system for selling extras at the counter — snacks, sunscreen, waterproof bags, souvenir items (Apps > Point of Sale)
• Pricing modifiers — charge more on weekends or holidays, discount weekday mornings
• Coupons — offer locals a "Paddle Pass" discount code or run seasonal promotions
• Gift cards — popular for birthdays and holidays, redeemable online or in-person

Relevant docs:

• Payments & Billing
• Set Up Stripe
• Coupons & Gift Cards
• Process a POS Order

Waivers

Every paddler needs to sign a waiver before hitting the water. Create your waiver under Resources > Waivers.

• Build a waiver with your liability language, swim acknowledgment checkbox, and signature field
• Link it to your rental and tour activities so it's presented automatically during checkout
• Include waiver signing links in confirmation emails so customers sign before arriving
• For walk-ins, staff can pull up the waiver on a tablet at the front desk
• All signed waivers are stored as digitally signed PDFs with timestamps

Relevant docs:

• Digital Waivers
• Create a Waiver

Customer Management & Marketing

Build a database of every paddler to drive repeat business:

• Automatic customer profiles from bookings and waiver signatures
• Tags — "Local", "Tourist", "Group Leader", "Guided Tour" for segmentation
• Automated workflows — send a "Thanks for paddling with us!" email the day after the rental with a review link
• Seasonal campaigns — email last summer's customers when you open for the new season
• Surveys — collect post-paddle feedback to improve equipment and service
• Abandoned cart recovery — automatically email customers who started a booking but didn't finish (configured under Location > Cart Recovery)

Relevant docs:

• Customers & CRM
• Marketing & Automation

Reporting

• Equipment utilization — see which kayak types are rented most and whether you need more tandems vs. singles
• Revenue by activity — compare rental revenue vs. guided tour revenue
• Peak hours and days — identify when you're at capacity to optimize staffing
• Booking sources — understand whether bookings come from your website, Google, or walk-ins

Relevant docs:

• Reporting & Analytics
• Track Equipment Performance
• Run a Revenue Report

Getting Started

Ready to set up Resytech for your paddle sports business?

1. Initial Setup — company profile and Stripe connection
2. Adding Locations — your launch site or rental shop
3. Activities & Equipment — plan your activity/equipment structure
4. Your First Activity — create your first rental with scheduling, pricing, and equipment
5. Checkout Setup — brand your booking page and set up taxes
6. Go Live — pre-launch checklist and website embedding