From Paper Reservations to a Fully Digital Operation: How Urban Kai Scaled with Resmark

When Urban Kai first opened its doors as a paddleboard and kayak rental shop in Florida, every reservation was taken by hand. Every reservation was filled out on paper. Every inventory count was tracked manually. For a small, owner-operated business, it worked - until it didn’t.



As demand grew and a second location came online, the cracks began to show. Voicemails piled up overnight. Reservations slipped through the gaps. Staff scrambled to keep pace with a business that was simply outgrowing its systems.

Beyond missed calls, the manual process created friction at every touchpoint: hand-tracked inventory across multiple vessels, phone-based payment processing, paper waivers filled out on-site - often soggy in the Florida heat - and no reliable way to capture guest data beyond a name and a reservation time.

After evaluating several platforms, Urban Kai chose Resmark because it was purpose-built for experience-based businesses. Unlike simple payment processors, Resmark understood that their product wasn’t a t-shirt on a rack - it was a guided experience on the water, complete with safety requirements, liability documentation, and real-time inventory across multiple vessel types.



The shift to Resmark gave Urban Kai something they’d never had before: a fully online reservation system that let customers book 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without a single phone call. Secure payment processing, digital waiver collection, and automated inventory management all came with it.

Sam estimates that reservation volume increased at least fourfold after the switch - not because demand suddenly spiked, but because the business was finally able to capture all the customers who had been trying to reach them.

What set the Resmark experience apart, according to Sam, wasn’t just the software - it was the people behind it. From day one, Urban Kai worked closely with Candace, their dedicated Resmark account manager, who helped build out every product and workflow from the ground up.

That relationship extended beyond initial setup. When Sam identified gaps or limitations in the platform, Candace relayed them to the development team - and features were built. It’s the kind of partnership that turns a software vendor into a genuine operational ally.

For day-to-day questions, Resmark’s support team became an extension of Urban Kai’s own staff. Open 362 days a year, 11 hours a day, with a rotating team of younger seasonal employees, having reliable after-hours support was critical.

Onboarding was handled carefully and deliberately. Rather than rolling out the full platform to all staff at once, Urban Kai started with the basics - simple rental products, set hours, day-of-week scheduling - and built from there. The transition was smooth because Candace matched the pace of the business, not the other way around.

Over four years, the team steadily adopted more of Resmark’s capabilities. Cruise Control automated follow-up emails and SMS reminders, alerting guests about upcoming reservations, unsigned waivers, and outstanding payments - all without manual effort. SMS texting was added later, giving beachgoers a more natural channel for notifications than email.

QR codes became another key part of the walk-in experience. Urban Kai placed QR codes on their shop windows, linking directly to their Resmark booking page. Instead of 15 people standing in line in the Florida sun, guests could scan, book, and find shade - all before they ever reached the counter.

Resource management tools gave Sam the ability to zero out inventory across all locations in minutes on weather-closure days - a process that previously required individual calls to every guest. Refunds, reschedules, and updated order confirmations could all be processed in a few clicks.

The numbers tell a clear story. Reservation volume quadrupled. A third location was opened. Payment processing has been seamless throughout, with no site outages or transaction issues in four-plus years of operation. Staff time that was once consumed by manual admin is now redirected toward the guest experience.

Even operational edge cases - like a 24-hour full-day rental that spans two calendar days - were solved through collaboration with Candace. The system now pulls inventory correctly across both days and displays the accurate checkout date to the guest on their receipt. Small details, but the kind that build trust with customers.

Before Resmark, the guest experience at Urban Kai was defined by friction. Returning customers - some of whom paddled weekly - had to fill out handwritten reservations every single visit. There was no way to store or recall their information. Every transaction started from scratch.



With Resmark, that changed entirely. Everything was stored on file after the first visit. Returning guests are recognized in the system. Order confirmations include location-specific directions, parking details, and links that open directly in Apple Maps or Google Maps. For a business with three locations and a dirt parking lot, a beach parking area, and a paid garage, those details matter.

For walk-in guests, the QR code experience transformed the busiest moments of the day. Instead of sweating through a long check-in line, guests could complete their reservation on their phones, in the shade, before approaching the counter.

The result is a guest experience that feels effortless - because behind the scenes, Resmark is handling every detail automatically.