New business offers mobile sauna for rent
Nov. 5, 2024
A fun weekend in Minnesota led to a new business venture for a Sioux Falls couple.
Pete and Jessie Halverson are the third-generation owners of family business Thermo King of Sioux Falls, and now have started Skol Sauna, which was inspired by a trip to the Twin Cities.
“We went and stayed with some friends, and they rented a sauna for the weekend, and it was super fun,” Pete Halverson said. “It was snowing and cold and wonderful sauna weather, so we were hanging out and having fun in the sauna, and then you could go outside and jump in the partially frozen lake, and it was so much fun.”
After seeing several companies offering mobile saunas for rent in the Twin Cities, “nobody was doing it in Sioux Falls, and I thought, I could do that,” Halverson said.
“I have guys who are comfortable being trailer mechanics and working on that part of it, and we have a rental concept in place for how to do it, so I thought it was a project that would be fun to tackle.”
After a few practice runs in recent months, Skol Sauna officially launched in October. They’re starting with one mobile sauna manufactured in Minnesota.
“It’s an aluminum-frame custom build, sort of like an ice (fishing) house, but it’s got a really nice cedar wood interior with a changing waiting room and hot room,” Halverson said. “There’s a wood-burning stove with rocks, and you can fit six or eight adults in there, and it turns into a really great conversation, and you feel so good when you’re done.”
While there are many health benefits to using saunas, Skol Sauna promotes the social side of it, he added.
The sauna is available to be dropped off on a Friday and picked up on a Monday or rented during the week. It comes with tanks for cold plunge that renters will fill up with their own ice and water.
“It’s a fun process” to build the fire, with an option to add essential oils, so “it turns into a whole cool experience,” Halverson said.
Skol Sauna is the second event-based sauna business to launch in the market this year. Dakota Sauna Co. opened this summer, offering pop-up events at businesses.
“I can see us doing some pop-up events where we say we’re going to be here three hours, and you can reserve an hour session and bring your buddies,” Halverson said. “But for now, the mobile is fun.”
