200 jetski rentals in one day, a look back in history at Odyssea Watersports
July 5, 2019, the day the 200 rental challenge was defeated!
July 5 of each season has consistently been one of, if not the, busiest rental days of the year for jet skis. In fact, it was July 5 of 2012 when we set our last record of 195. In 2019, this held true, and thinking back on it, we are not sure how we were even able to accomplish this mission. The 200 rental in the one-day challenge is something that Odyssea always tried to accomplish and even though they have been close, they were never able to beat it, until this day! This is a record that will probably NEVER be broken or even come close to being broken by Odyssea Watersports, everything has to go just right and you have to have a very large fleet.
What made that day even better, was having the entire family, including our three girls, there to celebrate – they were working as cashiers for the day! It was a special moment celebrating with them and our hard-working employees when the day was over. More impressive than the number of rentals was the fact that our guides kept everyone safe and we had no incidents on the water. That is a big shout-out to those guides to work together, keeping customers safe all while allowing them to have fun and enjoy their time on the water.
We started the day off pretty strong and by 12 p.m. we were already booked for jetskis for the rest of the day. By 2 p.m. we had rented over 100 jet skis and with the rest of the day still fully booked and our phones still ringing off the hook we knew this was our shot to break it. Our employees knew that we were pacing the 200 mark, but we didn’t discuss it too much since we didn’t want to jinx it. We kept an eye on the clipboard, which tracks the jetskis being rented, and watched as the total number of rented jetskis continued to climb.
The jetskis that we guide on began breaking down, while we pulled them out for repairs we were forced to use our boats to guide on until the jetskis were fixed. Customers continued to flow in and we just kept going, it was organized chaos and we loved every minute of it! The total jetski rental count kept climbing, 110, 130, 150, 175, 190, so close!
At 193, a reservation of four showed up to make it to 197, then a group of seven had to cancel due to traffic and there was nobody else in sight. A group of four jet skis had just finished their rental and we knew this was the one and only opportunity to make it happen, so Melissa went to work!
The last ride coming in from the record-breaking day
Melissa walked up to the customers and asked if they would like to try the all-new Seadoo Trixx for 30 minutes since they’d just rented the Kawasaki 15F. After a little wheeling and dealing, all four customers said ‘yes,’ and there it was – 201 rentals! At 7 pm the ultimate challenge had been achieved.
Once our employees found out, the celebration began! A challenge that had always been talked about but never reached and one that we were not sure could actually be reached had finally been beaten. After the last rental came in from the water, we all celebrated on our beach with high fives, and hugs and a couple of bottles popped as if we had just won a championship game.
An amazing feeling and a memorable day in Odyssea History.
201 jetski rentals on the clipboard!
We are so thankful for all the customers and fans who have supported us each season, by renting from us or by spreading the word about Odyssea with social media and word-of-mouth. Without all of your support, we obviously wouldn’t have been able to accomplish such a big goal.
Our employees, from the cashiers to the boat instructors and kayak/paddleboard instructors, and of course the jet ski guides ALL played key roles in making this happen. This crew will forever be known as the team that broke 200 jetski rentals in one day! Thank you for all your hard work.
Times have changed since that day, there are only 4 employees left from that day, we have changed from Kawasaki to Seadoo rentals, and our fleet of jetskis is much smaller but our goal has stayed the same; provide customers with a safe, family-friendly experience and treat them as one of our own family members.
Thank you again for your continued business and support. Come see us anytime when you are in need of some fun on the water the next time you are in Ocean City, MD.
~ Your Odyssea Family