Skis by Jeeves

To say that Bryn Carey is a go-getter is an understatement. At 25, Carey is a former NCAA Division I ski racer and an entrepreneur who owns two thriving businesses. With his latest endeavor, Ski Butlers, Carey seems to have zeroed in on what many a marketing guru would likely say is the triple threat of the service industry: location, convenience and price point. “Ski Butlers provides a service people need, to their doorstep, with a high level of service, and at the same price they’d pay if they went out and got it themselves,” Carey says.

Carey founded Ski Butlers, a ski rental delivery service, in 2004 soon after he graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Business Administration. His goal was to create a business using his experience in the ski industry to complement a summer-oriented company he already owned, Park City Seal Coat. “People are now taking shorter and shorter vacations. And to make their vacations more convenient, [they] are renting ski equipment more often,” Carey explains, “because one of the biggest hassles of taking a ski vacation can be going to a [rental] shop and waiting in line for your gear.” With Ski Butlers, Carey is not necessarily trying to replace the traditional brick and mortar ski shop, but is building a business on going to the consumer rather than having his customers come to him.

It works like this: people either call or visit the Ski Butlers Web site (877.754.7754 or www.skibutlers.com) and make a reservation, providing all the same information they’d typically give a rental shop clerk — height, weight, boot size, skiing ability and, of course, a credit card number. Unlike a ski shop, however, customers give Ski Butlers the name and address of their accommodations and the best time a delivery person/ski technician can come by to deliver and fit their equipment. “We always stock the delivery van with a range of boot sizes smaller and bigger than what our customers request to make sure we get just the right fit,” Carey says. Ski Butlers also rents snowboard packages, helmets, boot dryers and two-way radios. And each Ski Butlers delivery person/ski tech carries a full supply of easy-to-forget ski accessories like sunscreen, lip balm, neck gators, goggles, gloves, hats and hand and foot warmers. They also sell lift tickets. “The only items we don’t carry are jackets and snow pants,” Carey says.

Ski Butlers features equipment for adults and children from Rossig-nol, Volkl, Nordica, Dolomite, Marker, Fischer and Elan in three performance levels: sport, high performance and elite demo. And Carey’s claim that he’ll bring you those skis for a price competitive with ski area rental shops? An informal Web site poll of Park City area high-end equipment rental rates revealed that Ski Butlers’ “Elite Demo” package at $55 per
day, or $49.50 with seven-day advance on-line reservation, is indeed right there with other local rental shop prices.

Being where his clientele skis is another key element of Carey’s business strategy. “People usually visit a ski destination about every three to four years. So, to be successful over the long term, I knew Ski Butlers needed to be in most of the world-class ski destinations in the West,” says Carey, who accomplished multi-location availability in a seemingly impossibly short time frame by franchising. Currently, there are Ski Butlers in South Lake Tahoe, California; Vail, Beaver Creek, Arrowhead, Aspen, Snowmass, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Copper Mountain, Colorado; Park City, Deer Valley, The Canyons and Salt Lake City, Utah; Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wyoming; and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Carey maintains ownership of the original Utah location and Ski Butlers of Vail.

Getting both skiers and the industry aware of ski delivery has been one of Carey’s biggest challenges. “There’s definitely a market for what we’re offering; it’s just a matter of letting people know we exist,” he says. That Carey seems to have his finger on a wealth of insider ski industry knowledge and expertise is impressive, particularly for a 25-year-old. That is until you consider his pedigree: his dad is Chip Carey, a 35-year veteran of the skiing and hospitality industries and former senior vice president of sales and marketing for American Skiing Company. “My dad has always been supportive and has been there with advice and information when I’ve asked for it,” Carey says.

Be it advice, personal experience, or simply being in the right place at the right time, Carey is apparently doing something right. After being in business only two seasons, Ski Butlers now operates completely in the black. Quite an accomplishment for one enterprising young local.

As the mother of two small children, freelance writer Melissa Fields is all too familiar with schlepping ski gear.