Owner: Debbie Fisher
727-316-1233 / 800-252-0254
https://babysaway.com/

Keeping Vacations Carefree!

Your ideal Florida vacation is in peril: You’re flying to the Sunshine State with an infant, a toddler, and a six-year old. “What were we thinking?” you ask your spouse. Three children in six years? And a trip to visit your parents on the Pinellas Suncoast?

While packing you realize you can’t take the baby’s crib or the toddler’s bed. You can’t bring enough toys to keep the six-year-old occupied. And the planned excursion to Walt Disney World®? You can’t carry the two young ones all day!

“I saw it time after time when I worked in the hospitality industry,” confirms Debbie Fisher. “Parents planning a vacation either can’t load all their children’s needs onto a plane, or they can’t fit it all into a car. There’s so much! It’s not unusual to simply forget something!”

That’s where Baby’s Away comes in. Baby’s Away is a baby-to-six equipment rental service that makes it easier for parents to travel with their children, and for relatives to welcome them.

When Debbie left the hospitality industry, she wanted to find a part-time job. “I was already in real estate,” she explains, “and I wanted to pursue that more aggressively. The flexibility of having a part-time job appealed to me.” She remembered the relief hotel guests felt when they found Baby’s Away, and discovered that the owners, who had opened their doors 12 years earlier, planned to retire. In August 2015, Debbie picked up where they left off, serving all of Pinellas County and most of Hillsborough.

One of her first business decisions was to join the Treasure Island & Madeira Beach Chamber of Commerce. “I knew I needed to connect with others in the business community who could refer clients to me,” says Debbie. “This Chamber offered a more personalized approach to the kind of networking I needed, and it was a good fit.”

For three years, Debbie has built on the success of her predecessors, and says most of the reservations for the 35-plus product line — from full-size crib/mattress sets to strollers, toys, car seats, and baby monitors — come from repeat customers and word-of-mouth testimonials. “We’ll receive reservations from parents traveling to Florida, or grandparents who live here and want to make their homes comfortable for their grandchildren, without having to keep a crib or other items year ‘round. We even have corporate accounts that send employees here with their families for extended stays, whether to train or work on special projects.”

Baby’s Away will deliver rentals to hotels, condominiums, or private homes, and works hard to ensure delivery as close to a client’s arrival time as possible.

Baby’s Away accepts reservations by phone and online, and is particular about making sure every rental is sanitized and inspected for safety before delivery.

Debbie is satisfied with the choice she made in taking over the local Baby’s Away operation: “Knowing I can help parents reduce the stress on their vacations, and help make vacations more enjoyable for their children, makes me happy.”