Is Turo The Rental Car Solution You’ve Been Missing?
Rental cars, broadly speaking, leave much to be desired; we all know this, and yet we all still go through the same frustrating rigamarole every single time. The car options are lacklustre at best. The options for premium, luxury, and performance rentals are painfully scarce, and 9/10 times, you still might not end up in the specific make or model that you set out to book in the first place. This is exactly the gap that Turo saw in the market, and the company continues to win fans across the country (and abroad) thanks to a business model that you could sum up as ‘the Airbnb of cars,’ broadly speaking.
The logic is simple, really. Vehicle owners list their cars on the platform for free, including vehicle details and approximate location, as well as any specific ground rules; owners can ask for a security deposit, set a minimum driver age requirement, or put caps on included mileage if desired. From there, Turo handles the rest, allowing renters to book cars through their app or website. Drivers are screened upon joining the platform, rental insurance is covered through Turo’s partners, and a 24-hour emergency customer support line is available to help both renters and vehicle owners with any concerns, inquiries, or incidents.
Much like other peer-to-peer rental platforms, all parties are subject to a rating system that is publicly accessible, so you get a good sense of what to expect when booking a particular vehicle at any destination. On the vehicle front, you can also see how many trips have been booked in each vehicle, which provides an added sense of comfort and security when choosing what you want to rent.
Looking at the rental pools available across the country, Turo seems like the kind of platform that’s useful for more than just the need for a rental car when travelling. Imagine you’re shopping for a new car that’s a little less common and carries a higher sticker price — say an Aston Martin DBX, or a Porsche Taycan — but your local dealer will (at best) let you out for a 10-15 minute highly supervised city road test. In the spirit of ‘try before you buy’, you can head to Turo and rent the car in question for the weekend, allowing you to see how that six-figure purchase actually fits in with your daily life. That’s not to say that your only options are top-shelf luxury cars either. Major cities in Canada have tons of options from BMW and Mercedes listed alongside more conventional daily-drive options: Nissan, Toyota, Tesla, Volkswagen, Jeep, and countless others.
If nothing else, the combination of individual accountability (through rating systems), and the fact that you can actually book a specific make and model of car sets Turo apart from the archaic and infuriating rental car business model. From what we’ve seen, those who have made the switch aren’t turning back, and we can’t blame them.
FEATURE IMAGE COURTESY OF OLEKSANDR – STOCK.ADOBE.COM.
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