RV Rental Franchise Pioneer

DREAMER

Sandra Bate

Bates International's Extraordinary Founder
by Don Magary, Editor

When you scan through the list of RV industry pioneers it's unlikely that the name Sandra Bate will appear, but for nearly 30 years this extraordinary business woman has been carving out her own niche in the RV rental market. Under her leadership, Bates International, Inc., was the first company to franchise rental services, the first to tie in with airline reservations systems, and among the first to have a vision for how the Internet could enhance the RV rental business.

Sandra Bate is a dreamer and she dreams of innovative ways to facilitate the dreams of those who want to experience the RV lifestyle by renting an RV.

This dreamer has always possessed an entrepreneurial vision and is not easily deterred from her mission. And that spirit was evident in how the company started, taking a negative and turning it into a positive.

While other companies in the industry were either going out of business or hanging on by a thread during the gasoline crisis in 1973, it was this circumstance that gave birth to Bates Motorhome Rental Network and later Bates International, Inc.

In an interview at the Bates headquarters in Las Vegas, Sandra told RV News, "My partner Bill Bate had bought a beautiful motorhome. The motor-home was purchased to use as an office, but it was too big to negotiate the streets and parking areas of Los Angeles. It ended up sitting at the curb. We thought maybe we ought to rent it out.

"We placed an ad in the paper and the phones started ringing and just kept ringing. We couldn't keep up with the demand. So then I started thinking . . . my father had a motorhome and we had friends with motorhomes. We started talking to people about putting their motorhomes in the rental fleet and they all loved the idea."

Sandra convinced them by explaining they could offset their payments with the rental income, and since it was a business they could also gain some tax advantages.

"It worked out real well," she continued. "When we started the business, we operated it from home in Los Angeles."

.Before this Sandra was a student and had met Bill Bate who was a life and disability insurance broker in Los Angeles. "I got my insurance license with the intent to work with Bill in the insurance industry, " she said, "but I never had a chance to use that knowledge because this all happened at the same time. So I've never really worked other than for myself."

Also, at this time fly-n-drive vacations were popular and a real boost to airline and car rental companies' businesses. Sandra saw another opportunity.

Sandra said, "We got in touch with American Airlines and they sent their marketing director for the fly-n- drive program out to visit us."

Sandra laughed as she recalled holding the meeting with American Airline's big wig in the living room of her home. But apparently those surroundings didn't hinder the meeting since a program was put together between the two companies.

"We started generating a lot of business because of that program," Sandra said. "And we were getting calls from all over the country. We thought it would be nice if we could offer rental services at locations besides Southern California." And that idea was a major step in developing Bates into a franchise company. While franchising was still years away, it was a significant step that started the journey. continued