From the beaches of the Philippines to the deserts of Morocco, SurfYogaBeer (SYB) offers unique adventures that blend fitness, epic parties, and opportunities to forge strong connections that have changed lives. Founder and CEO Mantas Zvinas says, “With SYB, we want people to feel reconnected to themselves and to thrive within a tribe. We want to continue to inspire action and instil adventure. We don’t want to retreat, we want to revive.”

The idea for Surf Yoga Beer began when Mantas was looking for a break from his job as a lead SoulCycle instructor in search of a getaway. “I wanted to practise more yoga and was looking for a trip, but I didn’t want too much spirituality. I didn’t want the chanting or the granola,” says Mantas. “In New York, you go out on Friday, wake up early for a workout class on Saturday morning, and then go to brunch and get drinks with friends. I also grew up surfing and wanted to get back to that. The combination of those three things in a trip didn’t exist.”

The Challenges

Since launching in 2014, SYB have stayed true to their commitment to creating life-changing experiences and fostering life-long friendships. But as demand for their experiences and community began to grow rapidly, the team started to come across big challenges with their operations.

“When we first started, we were doing everything on Google Docs and PayPal’s payment system, which had to be checked manually,” says Mantas. "We also built our website using Squarespace and had to update all of our trip content and inventory manually. Our website, bookings, and payments system operated entirely separately. This became a massive limitation on our time and resources. And when you’re organising lots of different people for multiple trips, it could lead to mistakes like losing track of payments.”

Things boiled over in 2017 when SYB could no longer handle the load of bookings and payments. To break free of these limitations, SYB switched to Easol, enabling the team to manage their website, payments, bookings, and more all in one place.

“With Easol, everything is integrated and we can seamlessly track payment and customers,” says Mantas. “It has streamlined our team and processes, which has allowed me to take on more specialised roles like CFO and sales.”

As more operational processes become simplified and automated, SYB is able to dedicate more resources to designing bucket-list experiences — increasing the number trips per year by 67%. 

“Today we average around 30 people on trips which probably wouldn’t have been possible before when we didn’t have Easol,” says Mantas. And since joining Easol, SurfYogaBeer has seen a 5x growth in sales from 2020.* “Using Easol was the best decision we made for our business.”

Here are the top three ways SYB uses Easol to create, manage and sell out trips.

The Solutions

Flexible payments, fully automated

Instead of having to manually check each payment, SYB can use Easol’s payment stack to process bookings and transactions directly on their own website. Plus, they can also offer flexible payment options, such as deposits and payment plans. Not only does this help boost conversions for high-value trips, but payment reminders and instalment charges are also done automatically so it doesn’t create extra work for the team.

“Easol provides the automation we desperately needed to manage payments and our customers,” says Mantas. “Our accountants have the easiest time ever.”

Integrated website and booking management

Since Easol’s website builder and payment stack is fully integrated with its booking manager, SYB doesn’t have to worry about keeping track of payments and customer information on individual bookings. The booking manager also gives the team full control on amending bookings — from changing items and updating guest information to cancellations and issuing refunds. 

“Knowing that Easol automated everything and had all the information we needed in one place really saved us so much time and money,” says Mantas. “Plus, the whole team can use it so it is not down to one person manually checking everything.”

Expert support

As SYB has grown over the years, Easol’s team of experience commerce experts has been there along the way, from website customisations to feature updates and strategy recommendations. Moving forward, SYB is looking to do fewer, bigger and better adventures — providing limited number trips with higher capacity and quality.  

“One of the greatest benefits has been the support that Easol provides. Our core team is small so it is a huge thing to know I have the full support of the Easol team behind us as well.” says Mantas. “We’re part of the Easol community and as they grow, so do we.”

Discover the new way to sell adventures

Looking to sell on your terms, streamline your operations, and get support from global experts? Book a demo today and discover the platform that can grow your sales and supercharge your experience business.

*SYB began transitioning to Easol at the beginning of 2020 during COVID, fully integrating at the end of 2020.

Elyse McAvoy

Product Marketing Manager

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