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June 29, 2009

At your service: A York entrepreneur gives tourists the personal touch in Vacationland

Photo/David A. Rodgers Heather Caldwell, president of Vacationland Concierge in York, plans to hire up to 60 part-timers this season to meet growing demand for her specialized services
By Mindy Favreau

A pre-stocked refrigerator. Discounted tickets to Funtown/Splashtown USA in Saco. An individualized calendar of events based on your interests and budget. These are some of the services a new startup in York offers to vacationers in southern Maine to help draw tourists to the area during a slow economy.

Vacationland Concierge provides visitors to the southern Maine coast with rentals for just about anything — from cribs and grills to powerboats and PlayStations — and offers other services, like catering, babysitting and a variety of personalized tours. For example, tourists interested in hiking can receive a list of 10 hiking spots in their area, with a description of each and a pre-programmed GPS device to get them there.

Though Maine is expecting a slower-than-usual tourist season thanks to a slumping economy, there is still demand for these types of services, especially as budget-minded vacationers head to Maine this year instead of other places, says Heather Caldwell, the company’s president. “There’s plenty of opportunity,” she says. “When you go to New York or Boston, you stay at a big hotel and there’s the concierge right on site who will get anything for you. Here everyone is so decentralized. This is a way to bring everything together in one offering.”

Caldwell — a former marketing professional with experience in hospitality and customer service — came up with the idea last November when figuring out a way to market her York summer rental home to prospective tourists. She decided to offer to stock the refrigerator and supply kayaks and canoes, and realized other owners of rental homes could use someone who provides those services as well.

That idea prompted her to research concierge services. She found a few smaller operations in Maine, but nothing on the scale of Vacationland Concierge, she says. She also discovered that many hotels and resorts in southern Maine were planning to cut staff to keep operating costs low. “This was the way we could partner with them, to either continue services they might have to be cutting back on or enhance services at a time when things are really competitive right now,” she says.

After determining there was a market, Caldwell moved forward, incorporating in December of last year.

Caldwell (who is also part-owner of Biddeford-based Home Companions, which offers services for seniors) spent $40,000 in startup funds, including research and advertising in New York and Massachusetts newspapers and online. She has partnered with approximately 25 hotels, motels, campgrounds and resorts from York to Freeport, a “mutually beneficial” relationship that’s free for her partners. So far, the seven-employee company has received a good response. By Memorial Day, calls were coming in for rental equipment and personalized calendars of events, and Caldwell expects business to hit its peak by the end of June, bringing in $185,000-$210,000 in gross revenues in 2009.

To serve that expected demand, Caldwell plans to add 40-60 new people to the company’s staff this season. The new jobs will be mostly part time and seasonal field concierges who will deliver rental equipment to customers, as well as 10 tour guides. Once the summer is over, Caldwell has grand plans to expand her business: She’ll offer services to Maine’s ski resorts this winter, and next summer plans to branch out to the entire Maine coast. In two years, she expects to offer franchise opportunities outside the state. While the plans seem ambitious, the timing is just right for Caldwell. “My first thought [was] that with the economy being as bad as it is, it would be an excellent time to launch something that was going to be this popular because we’d have some growth control,” she says.

 

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