Top 5 Holiday Baby Gear Rentals

We’re on the holiday travel countdown. December is one of the busiest month’s for travel and our Baby Equipment Rental business in Calgary & Edmonton, Alberta is ready for another busy holiday season.

With so many people travelling to see family this December we often sell out of our most popular Baby Equipment Rental items. Here is a list of the Top 5 Baby Gear Rentals this holiday season:

1. GULLIVER full size cribs- our full size cribs will deck out your holiday home just like baby’s nursery. 4 solid sides, a 4 inch spring mattress and 100% cotton fitted sheet make this our most popular rental item.

2. BRITAX Roundabout car seat- part of our premium car seat rental line up, the BRITAX Roundabout includes all of the fabulous safety, quality and comfort features parents have come to expect from a BRITAX seat but this one is compact enough to sit in the back seat of Grandma’s car with mom and dad on either side.  

3. PEG PEREGO high chair- hate the idea of balancing a toddler on your lap during holiday dinners. Our Peg Perego Prima Pappa high chairs are full of convenient features like a full 5 point harness, recline, 7 different height positions and super comfy padded seats.

4. PEG PEREGO Aria strollers- these strollers are amazing. Light weight, comfortable and can actually fit inside the trunk of your rental car. Many of our customers are looking for a stroller for Calgary Zoo walks, the mall and just strolling around the neighborhoods checking out the holiday lights.

5. FISHER PRICE healthy care booster seat- Our compact booster seats are perfect for those customers who are coming to Calgary or Edmonton but have many different houses to visit during their say. The Fisher Price booster seat folds flat, comes with a removable tray, 3 point harness and some even include a toy bar!

Visit our website www.OneTinySuitcase.ca for the full line up of Baby Equipment Rentals!

Baby’s First Visit

An article I wrote was recently published regarding Baby’s First Visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Here’s a link to the article in its entirety (page 20).

With some help from a local Baby Proofing company and Rhonda Tkachuk of Certified First Aid in Calgary, the article describes some of the preparations grandparents can make before the arrival of little visitors. Here’s an excerpt of the article:

“some of the hot spots she sees in Grandparent’s homes are bed side tables that have medications in them. An easily accessible bed side table with dangerous medications will need to be relocated. Also, have a look in your closet for any dry-cleaning bags that can pose a suffocation hazard. Any small objects that can become a choking hazard should also be moved (marbles, decorative beads, coins, etc.)”

With a little preparation your first visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s home can be successful. Don’t wait until you arrive to talk to them about sleeping arrangements, relocating dangerous pieces of furniture, plans for pet/baby interactions. Most grandparents today understand that things have changed and parents are much more aware of the safety precautions necessary to keep their baby safe in a new environment.

It’s December, and that means it is our busiest month of the year for Car Seat Rentals. My favorite orders to take are from grandparents that have been asked by their son/daughter to source out the exact Car Seat Rental they want. Just the other day I had a Grandma call to ask for a Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP infant car seat rental (she didn’t know what all those names meant but wanted to ensure she got the safest seat possible). Her daughter was bringing her new baby to Calgary and she wanted to rent the exact same car seat she used at home.

Good planning- we’re delivering it to Grandma’s house tomorrow!

Mom Entrepreneurs Feature

As the owner of One Tiny Suitcase I am always looking for new ways to get the word out about my Baby Equipment Rental company.

When Jill Salzman asked if she could feature the One Tiny Suitcase story on her Momtrepreneur Maven website- I jumped at the chance to connect with other like minded women.

Have a look at this feature and learn what the best (and worst) parts of running One Tiny Suitcase are. Read how excited I am to now have two locations to serve my customers in Alberta and what’s on the horizon for this growing business.

Snow Baby

Calgary & Banff are finally snowy! It happened later than usual here in Alberta. Tomorrow is the first day of December and the kids and I were still riding our bikes last week!

With the snow and winter finally here it’s time to start thinking about getting outside with baby. Many of our customers are travelling to Alberta for a winter vacation and have questions about just what kind of gear they will need.

Here is our Top 5 list of Winter Gear for Baby:

1. Leave your stroller at home and bring baby out in a sled like this one:

2. Want to try skating with  your toddler? Bring one of these to the rink:

3. Keep warm on a winter walk with this cover for your Baby Bjorn:

4. High winds and blowing snow are a part of winter here. You’ll need one of these:

5. If you  like to cross-country ski, this is a great way to bring your baby along:

Crib Rentals & Child Safety

This week Health Canada and US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a major Crib recall. Many Simplicity drop side cribs are being recalled due to the suffocation hazard posed by the drop sides.

At One Tiny Suitcase, I often have customers asking detailed questions about the type of crib rentals we carry. I’m happy to report that none of the affected cribs from this recall are part of our inventory. In fact, none of the Crib Rentals we carry have drop sides.

Our Gulliver Cribs have 4 solid sides (not a folding crib) and include a 4 inch mattress and fitted sheet. All of our sheets are laundered using Ivory Snow detergent and are 100% cotton.

When customers rent a crib from us we usually deliver and assemble it at their accommodations.

We want your child to sleep just as well as she does at home and that is why we only rent Full Size Wooden Cribs for your comfort and safety.

Stroller Damages

I had an interesting conversation with an Airline Rep the other day. We were talking about Baby Equipment and travel and she explained their policy on stroller damages to me.

This particular (and very popular family friendly) airline had a maximum $250 replacement/repair value for strollers lost or damaged in transit. At first I thought that sounded generous. More generous than most airlines I have researched (see my previous post Not Responsible for Damage).

Have you seen the price of a good stroller lately? The Uppa Baby retails for $799, Peg Perego Skate $899 and the popular BOB jogging strollers are sold for about $450!

 

Think twice about trusting your expensive stroller to the luggage handlers at the airport. Not only will you not get replacement value for it, you will be without your precious wheels while the claim is processed!

On a side note, when I spoke with the employees of the Luggage Claims department, they strongly recommended the use of Car Seat bags like this one from Sunshine Kids. They see a lot of people take the wrong car seat home because they are  not labelled like luggage and a lot of damages from Car Seats not packaged safely.

Just a few tips I recently found out after loosing my own luggage on the way home!

 

Pregnancy Pillows on Your Baby Moon

Twitter is amazing. I can connect with so many cool people in the travel industry and in most cases we’ve never met. Such is the case with my ‘Sleep Guru’. I met my Guru one day on  Twitter when she was tweeting about ways to get better quality sleep. What a great topic!

I went on to find out that this Guru is the Sleep Concierge for the Benjamin Hotel in New York City. She always has great tips and tricks for getting ‘more’ out of your 8 hours but when I heard about the pillow menu I had to know more.

12 choices! 12 different kinds of pillows that you can have delivered to your room at the Benjamin.

The Pregnancy pillow and the Satin Beauty caught my eye. So many pregnant mama’s that take the last trip (Baby Moon) before baby arrives have trouble sleeping. Imagine, custom fitting your hotel bed to maximize your comfort during your stay. Sounds sooooooo good.

New York is on my list of places to go this year and now the Benjamin Hotel is too!

Travel Alberta Tips for Baby Travel

We were thrilled when we were contacted by a writer for Travel Alberta a few weeks ago.

Their Magazine (City Spice) was doing an article on travelling with kids in Alberta. Since opening our second location in Edmonton, I’d say we had a few tips that would be helpful!

Check out the spread in this month’s City Spice Magazine. The article includes information on our Baby Equipment Rentals, some of the gear we carry and even a quote from our One Tiny Suitcase Edmonton location gal on her recent Baby Moon gone awry.

Got Baby Travel questions? We’ve got answers. Drop us a line at info@onetinysuitcase.ca

Westjet Fall Fair Pictures

The Westjet Fall Fair was wonderful this year.  I met a lot of great Westjetters and their families and got to ‘experience’ the new building (wow).

Here is a picture from the One Tiny Suitcase booth at the Fair:

Thanks to Westjet for including us in this year’s event and we look forward to serving many of your staff and guests in the future!

Westjet’s Fall Fair

We’re lucky to be located in the same city as the Head Office of Westjet. Westjet is everyone’s favorite airline, especially for family travel. The staff are friendly, the flights are entertaining and they have a great stroller gate check policy!

Westjet’s Fall Fair is an opportunity for Westjetters, friends, family and Westjet enthusiasts to visit product and service exhibitors displaying their wares at the new Head Office (22 Aerial Place NE, Calgary, Alberta).

We were thrilled when we were asked to be a part of the Fall Fair this year. One Tiny Suitcase will have a booth set up displaying our Baby Equipment Rentals service offered in Calgary and Edmonton.

Stop by if you are in the area or follow me on Twitter for updates and pictures from the show!