Rainbow Mountain Ski & Snowboard Rentals

A friend of mine recommended Rainbow Mountain as a perfect place to get skis. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted immediately by Sam. He was kind, knowledgeable, & quick to offer me assistance. I got exactly what I needed for the weekend & even got my 4^th day free. He was great, I’d recommend Rainbow Mountain as the place for all my friends & family to rent skis.

Went in to repair my snowboard binding. One of the clips that secures the toe strap had come off. They found a replacement that was compatible with my strap, and within about 15 minutes, had secured the clip, adjusted the angle of my binding a few degrees at my request, and buff waxed my board. And for all of this, they didn’t even charge me. Great service, friendly people, would highly recommend.

I actually rarely write reviews, but I was super disappointed in the manager of this store and his customer service. I could’ve gotten over getting rushed through the rental process at the beginning, but when we brought 1 of the 4 snowshoes we rented back because they didn’t fit, the manager refused to refund us or do anything for us really. We literally didn’t use them and were back in just a few hours. Not renting anything here and telling all of my friends Not to as well.

Had a great experience at Rainbow Mountain Ski & Snowboard Rentals. My friends and I made our reservations online, and we received a 20% discount. They allow you to pick up your stuff up to a day in advance so you can go straight to the slopes. The staff are friendly and courteous, and the equipment came in great condition. My group and I arrived early in the morning, around 8:30am, and it’s a good thing we did to avoid the rush and crowd. When it came time to returning the gear, they allow you to return the next day, by 9am.
I’ll definitely be renting from them again in the future.
Some notes to remember:
*Make online reservations for your equipment to get a 20% discount
*Pick up your gear a day in advance
*Show up early to beat the crowd.
*No need to rush to return the gear, you have until 9am the following day.

Customer service was friendly but when i forgot take out my rented boots, they didn’t even bother to call us back when we already gave them our contact information. I didn’t know that i left them behind the next day so I had to get another rental from a different place. When I called them and ask about the rentals, they all knew that I left it behind. When I went to return the rest of my rentals, they asked about it and didn’t know if theyIt would be a lot helpful if they had called and told me about my stuff.

With so many shops to choose from, I was surprised at the cost vs quality of their rentals. We had a free rental from snow bomb but the gear was from the 90s. The service was on par and everyone was nice. However when we went by another shop for my friend, he scored better gear with a helmet for less money. I suggest going elsewhere.

Reviews on here are hilarious. Rainbow mountain takes care of you, assuming you understand your needs. They always recommend a great set of demo skis which are always very new (blizzard, volkl) and appropriate for the current mountain conditions. I rent here when my own setup aren’t quite up for the conditions on hand. If you don’t know, ask. If you think you know better, then why are you in a rental shop?

First let me say if I could give this place a higher rating I would!!! I finally found this place after being turned away from 2 other places in town. (Apparently my new Burton board has a different design for placing bindings on the board) Lucius (sorry if I slept your name wrong) helped me out and was extremely helpful! I can’t thank you enough! If I need anything with my board this is where I’ll go! Highly recommended

***Rating based on service from poor service and attitude from the MANAGER of all people***
The staff seemed very friendly and helpful, equipment was in good condition. If you have problems and expect courteous service from the manager, don’t go here.
Went in one evening b/​c I saw an add that Rainbow Mountain was selling used demo skis for $ 100. A great deal if you ski a few times a year. Spoke with a man, he was the manager but i didn’t know at the time, and he showed me two different pairs of skis. Didn’t really appeal to me and when I asked for his opinion, he said he wouldn’t buy skis that were that old given the changes in technology. So I went back downstairs, this is where you start the rental process, because I decided I’ll rent some current demo skis and if I liked them I would buy a pair from somewhere else. I began working with the staff down their. The guy I worked with was fantasic, knowledgeble and very helpful. I picked out a pair of K2s. Went back upstairs, this is where all the skis are housed for my size. As the guy was fitting my boots to the skis, I asked if these K2 could also be purchased as part of the demo sale. He said yes. I could pay for the rental, try them out and if I liked them, the price of the rental could be applied to the purchase price. So I got the skis, paid for them. The person working the register happened to be the manager.
The following day, I decided I’d buy the skis and went to the store. Walked up to the register, and it happened to be the manager. I said I’d like to purchase these and he said I could not. I informed him the guy I worked with advised me I could. This is where the service part really fell apart and the reason for the low rating. The manager then proceeded to say he remembered me and that there was nothing expressed about the purchase of these skis. He had such a negative tone, my brother in law even picked up on it. I then corrected him that he was not part of the discussions i had with the other gentleman. I then reminded him he and I only spoke about the two other brands he showed and that I was not interested in them. He started raise his voice and kept repeating that it didn’t matter what the other guy told me and that the other guy was wrong and that HE never expressed or implied that these could be purchased. Uh no duh, he wasn’t part of the conversation! I then raised my voice and at that very moment the other guy came up and i said hey, that’s the guy and I proceeded to ask «didn’t you tell me I could buy these?» Before the guy could answer, the manager behind me kept yelling, «it doesn’t matter what he says, I trump his answer. I trump him. I trump him.» The guy did answer, yes, but realizing he could be trouble he said he could have been wrong.
I completely understand mistakes can and will happen, however, to raise your voice, take such a defensive postion and tone, throw one of your employees under the bus by taking a power position, and provice such terrible service is unacceptable in my book. He did refund of my rental fee, but the overall experience still left me quite uncomfortable. He is the manager and he should set a positive example and provide a positive environment.

Ok a board shop that has friendly staff, is fairly priced and is close to a resort … no way that can exist…
Came in here recently after a pretty awesome early season powder day which ended sadly with my board landing on a shallow covered rock. This was the first of a two day endeavor and I didn’t bring any of my repair gear with me. I walked in, and asked for the repair shop expecting to get totally jacked. I mean I was practically at the mercy of whatever they wanted to charge otherwise my weekend would be a waste. I was thinking 80 bucks minimum. They looked at the board and said because of the core shot alone that their Deluxe package was required. The package included a stone base grind, core shot repair, wax and edging. Surprisingly they quoted me only 60 bucks just for that. Not too bad. But then my 2 friends each wanted an iron on wax for their boards. This started sounding pretty pricey and it would have been around 120 bucks if we had all gone separately. However the staff offered an incentive package which was meant for repeat customers. They applied it to all the work being done and cut 50% off the total. So 3 boards tuned to our satisfaction over night for half off. Split 3 ways and I had an entire board repair for 20 bucks … I don’t think I could get a better deal ever. Grabbed my board first thing in the morning, core shots repaired, all other dings vanished with the stone grind. Good as new and gliding super smooth the following day. Would give a 6^th star if I could.

Rainbow Mountain is the best place to service your snowboard! Ask for Mario, he rocks.:) All of the staff is so courteous and helpful. Definitely the place locals take their gear to get worked on.
They are also a full service ski and snowboard rental place too. You can rent all your equipment including helmets so if you are on vacation in South Lake Tahoe and need to find a place to rent gear, this is the spot.

Twice in the last week, we visited Ted and his team to purchase skis for our out-​of-​town son and his friend. The staff was exceptionally helpful. The cost of the skis was very competitive. The overall experience will have us shopping here for our needs in the future.

My friend and I had such a great experience at this shop. They made us so comfortable with our rentals and made sure everything was perfect fit for our size and skill level (or rather, lack there of haha). Especially Lucas (sp?) who immediately greeted us and was super friendly the entire time! Will definitely be coming back here on my trip to Tahoe! Also, great sale on gloves, which I had forgotten…

Great place with excellent service. My husband has skis but no boots so for the last three years we have been renting boots from them. I like how they keep your details in the database so you dont have to reenter all your info each year. Also, they are affiliated with five other (Powder House) shops and they are all linked to the same database. Additionally, another shop (part of this chain) did an awesome job in custom fitting my boots. I absolutely love these guys. Great service, good people, good equipment and fair prices. Three thumbs up to you guys… oh…I have only two :(…well, if I had three you would get an extra one ;). Also, they can do a ski test for ya and do all the work that needs to be done in prepping foe the season. I will definately be back!!!

Had a great experience with Rainbow.
My brother reserved his skis online and got a 20% discount off his ski package. We didn’t know how to reserve online without getting a package (we had boots, so only needed skis and poles), but we decided to go in with him to see what kind of a deal we could get.
It was $ 22 for their basic skis with poles and they gave us the same discount as my brother since we went in with him. It ended up being less than $ 17 per day.
The skis worked wonderful too. We are advanced skiers with nice skis back home and decided to just go with basics («sport skis») since we were skiing with family who had less experience. We were shocked by how well the basics worked!
I know it’s their job to push the higher-​end skies (that’s where they make their money) but you really don’t need it unless it’s a great powder day, you’re going off the groomers, and you’re looking for some fatties.

«Open Daily 7 a.m. — 9 p.m.» is what the website says, however when I visited at 7:15pm, they said they were closed. It’s Christmas day, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that they’d close early, but when I called the main branch, they said specifically that «All the branches close on Christmas at 7:30pm». The problem being that it wasn’t 7:30 yet when they started closing down.
Around the same time, about 7:20, a family came in because they CALLED and scheduled a pickup for 7:30, but couldn’t pick up their equipment because the shop closed down early.
I’ll find a different place to rent from. A place that follows both what’s said on their website and what’s said by the main shop.

This place is garbage. Sold me two tubes to go tubing and before I could even go down my tube popped. Same thing happens to my boyfriend 5 minutes later. We went back and asked for an exchange and he refused. No signs posted. He’s a jerk. Selling faulty equipment

Low price, low quality to match. Went with a group. Some skis, some snowbirds. The lowest priced gear was beat up. Upgrade to the next higher level didn’t improve the gear. Expect to pay the same as at the resorts to get comparable quality. But that’s not exactly nice stuff either. Staff was hit or miss. Some were nice, some were knowledgable, some were neither. I won’t be back.

Average rental experience for me. The staff was polite. I like that you can make a reservation online and that they are responsive when you show up. We showed up at 9am and they were ready for us. The rental gear was in decent shape and the tech that helped fit us seemed to know his skis and boots well.
The location is convenient but it was still a couple of minute drive from where we were staying.

Mixed reviews for one rental experience. Driving into the Tahoe area we decided to rent snow shoes for the following day. It was late in the evening and we entered prior to their scheduled closing. The girls at the rental counter were both helpful and responsive to our needs and another couples already being helped. We quickly received our shoes and were off. The equipment worked well as it was our first time snow shoeing in the trails.
I returned the shoes the following day at the shop and there was no one stationed where we had first rented the equipment. A friendly employee in the repair area noticed me waiting and then signed me out for the return and instructed me to take the receipt upstairs where they would cash me out. This took longer than it seemed it should have as two attendants were waiting on a group of three seemingly finalizing getting fitted and ready to purchase several other items.
Not a terrible experience… But I am one that is usually both overly patient and knows when service can be either more attentive, better organized and prioritized, or just seemed it can be better, especially since the floor was not filled with several other customers.
The staff the evening prior was way more on top of things.
Would I make a point to return? …Not so much.