When guests at the Four Seasons Hotel, Sutton Place or the Rosewood Hotel Georgia want to rent a bike, concierges will often direct them to Bayshore Bicycle Rentals. Conveniently located at the corner of Denman and Alberni in downtown Vancouver, this longstanding bike rental shop has been bustling pretty much since it opened its doors back in 1984.
“In 1983, the only way I could emmigrate from Hong Kong was to invest in B.C.,” recalls owner Louis Kwan. “A distant cousin was a partner in two high-end bicycle stores, and I injected money in order to open a third location.”
After arriving in Canada, Louis soon found that selling bikes wasn’t as profitable as he had initially thought. And so, he began renting bikes out from the store's back room. “By 1985, the rental business just kept growing and growing...rentals were making more money than all of the three retail locations combined,” Louis recalls.
Realizing the potential, Louis branched out on his own and launched Bayshore Bike Rentals. Having studied the hospitality industry back home, Louis began introducing himself to local concierges, bell captains and front desk clerks at some of Vancouver's top hotels in order to drum up business for his new bike rental shop.
“Soon, hotels - as well as hostels and Tourism Vancouver - were promoting us to their guests,” he adds. “In 2013, we were featured in the New York Times article "36 Hours in Vancouver”.
