- April 26, 2024
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Victoria and Alex Kratochwill have their eyes set on an endless summer.
The Ormond Beach couple runs Ormond Beach Rentals, a beach vendor business headquartered out of a truck stationed at the Cardinal Drive approach. For the last six years, the Kratochwills have provided Ormond beachgoers with loungers, umbrellas, boogie boards and games.
This comes after the Kratochwills received a $10,000 grant from Venmo. Ormond Beach Rentals was among the 20 small businesses who received the funds, chosen from over 64,000 who applied.
"We were definitely due for a fresher look," Alex Kratochwill said. "... Why would we redo what we've already had? It was, 'Let's go for something that's going to be a new, fun, exciting "wow" factor.'"
The couple also wanted to differentiate Ormond Beach from the other coastal communities. Their former umbrella colors — yellow and blue — are fairly common in beach rentals.
"We love Ormond more than anything in the world, so we just wanted to let that play out on this beach as well," Victoria Kratochwill said.
The colors are also a tribute to their new daughter, Avie, who thankfully, seems to love the beach.
"She gets her toes in the sand a little bit," Victoria Kratochwill said. "We'll just make sure we keep her lathered up and thank God we have plenty of shade."
Alex Kratochwill found out about the Venmo grant while on their babymoon. Because their business had gone cashless over the COVID-19 pandemic, they were already using Venmo for their transactions.
They applied for the grant in August and heard the news they'd won the funds in January.
The Kratochwills, who are both former government employees, also have plans to expand their business to serve the beach's new four-legged visitors.
Last November, Volusia County launched the dog-friendly beach pilot program in Ormond Beach, allowing them in a 0.6-mile stretch of beach between Milsap Road and Rockefeller Drive.
The Kratochwills are working with Daytona Dog Beach to provide beachgoers with pink and orange dog bowls.
"Just seeing people with their dogs makes it a much happier, inviting experience out here," Alex Kratochwill said. "We've had no bad issues. We've had nothing but ... people coming out here being respectful, being responsible, so we've had nothing but a great response so far."
When they became a beach vendor in 2019, the couple initially thought they'd give their business a try and see how it panned out.
"Then we just really realized we play an important role in being that liaison between what we know about the beach, the ecosystem, the rules, and then making sure that people that come here can appreciate why those are intact," Victoria Kratochwill said.
Their focus as Ormond Beach Rentals has always been convenience, Alex Kratochwill said. They do the hard work to set up, and all people have to do is show up and enjoy the beach.
All under a pink and orange umbrella.
"A lot of people when they rent something or use something from a surf shop, it is blue, it is yellow — A lot of those colors are very tied to the beach already," Alex Kratochwill said. "So we figured what's bright, what's vibrant, what's different? And then, playing into that endless summer, forever summer brand of being pink and orange."
Visit ormondrentals.com.
