Need a rental delivery service with some local flair? These Butlers can do it

Ski Butlers now services 50 resorts in the U.S., Canada and Europe. (Ski Butlers Photo)

Ski Butlers, the popular ski rental delivery company that has eased vacation hassles for hundreds of thousands of customers since its launch two decades ago in Park City, Utah, has made its first-ever expansion to the East with services now available for skiers at Stratton Mountain Resort and Mount Snow in Vermont. Ski Butlers also has brought Boston-based Parlor Skis and Snowboards aboard as a custom-built provider for their premium rental packages.

The expansion of the Alterra Mountain Company-owned business this season (which also includes the addition of Winter Park in Colorado) brings Ski Butlers services to 50 resorts in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

“Service has always been about doing what’s best for the customer and making it a convenient experience for them,” Ski Butlers’ new president Mike Cremeno, a New Hampshire native who raced while a student at UNH, said. “That’s still our lifeblood — from day one to 20 years down the road — ensuring that the customers have an easy experience all the way.”

Ski Butlers always has had New England ties. Founded in 2004 by Bryn Carey, a Kingfield, Maine, native and son of longtime Sugarloaf/The Canyons industry icon Chip Carey, the company’s mission always has been about simplifying, personalizing and customizing the ski rental process for its vacationing customers.

They accomplish that with a user-friendly reservation system that places a premium on communicating with customers, from pre-arrival throughout their resort stay. Ski Butlers delivers all equipment to the customer’s accommodations, whether it’s a hotel, vacation rental or other lodging, fits them into their equipment, and supports them throughout their stay, including guaranteeing equipment changes on the mountain, within an hour, for any reason.

“We also really try to make sure we get them to feel like a local,” Cremeno said. “We’ll ask them if they have any restaurant questions, or do you have any questions on where to après, or where the best powder stashes are. We’re there for their entire vacation. That’s really the foundation of Ski Butlers.”

Partnering with Mark Wallace, founder and CEO of Parlor Skis, the largest ski manufacturer in New England, adds to the focus on craftsmanship and hyper-functional design by offering Ski Butler customers a collection of resort-specific skis tailored for specific terrain and conditions.

“We met with boutique brands around the country and talked about strategy,” Cremeno said. “And we felt that Mark’s commitment to building a really good product and a craft he was extremely passionate about, coupled with Parlor’s brand recognition on the East Coast, was a perfect fit.”

Cremeno said the custom skis created by Parlor — everything from their design to the topsheet — has been tailored to help Ski Butlers’ customers experience a ski specifically for them and the local terrain. Customers will be the only skiers in the world riding on that ski, because it was custom-built for Ski Butlers.

“I am thrilled to be partnering with Ski Butlers this year to deliver resort-specific skis to the Ski Butlers clientele,” Wallace said. ​“It is a great opportunity for Parlor to showcase the quality and performance of our skis to an enthusiastic and passionate audience. We are no stranger to designing skis with specific terrain in mind, so it goes without saying that this process of creating these custom collections has been very satisfying.”

The Parlor line joins Wagner Skis (Telluride, Colo.) and a snowboard created by Shaun White’s Whitespace brand, in the Ski Butlers rental catalog. The company also will continue to provide skis from Rossignol, a company Ski Butlers has worked with for more than a decade.

“Some of our more advanced customers have been asking if we could bring in one or two brands on the high-performance demo side,” Cremeno said. “Just to try something different. And we didn’t want to just bring in another massive brand. We wanted to do something unique that would resonate with our customers both from a cultural and artistic perspective, but also working with a boutique brand that has a really cool story to tell.”

Expanding into the East allows New England customers who use Ski Butlers to easily re-book when they travel to the West.

“A ski vacation, in my opinion, is the hardest vacation to plan for, especially for a new family who is trying to get into the sport,” Cremeno said. “Our customers just appreciate the service. It’s simple. It’s easy, it’s fun. They don’t have to think, right? So, if we can make one thing easy and convenient for them, we’ve done our job.”

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