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Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

nytimes.com

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Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#11

Post by jboggan »

I've used Turo for a 3 week rental and I learned a few things.

I wanted to buy a new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, but as you may know those are enthusiast vehicles and not without their quirks, so I wanted to live with it awhile and really be sure that was what I wanted. Also I was going elk hunting in Idaho for 2 weeks and I didn't own a car so I thought, how perfect?

The trip and the Jeep were great, but it got me thinking about the economics of the whole thing. I noticed that my "host" I was renting from had about a dozen identical Jeep Wranglers on Turo, not multiply listed but completely different vehicles. I realized that the "Uber landlord" model was already taking hold here. I did the math - Wranglers are some of the lowest depreciating vehicles right now even with heavy mileage, and even with 2-3 days of rental a month the owner would likely break even at the end of the loan. Interesting business.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#12

Post by Dan_Nguyen »

creeble wrote: post #5

Curious about people's experience w/Turo. Seems like a good way to enhance a new car-buying experience. Other than that, it seems weird from the car owner's perspective.

Doug Demuro of "Bumper to Bumper Warranty" fame has used Turo-rented cars in some of his videos.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#13

Post by jakelarkin »

Had two car-owning friends that did RelayRides (now Turo) during the peak sharing economy a few years ago. Both cars were involved minor collisions within months. Turns out renting in the city to people that don't drive much, might be prone to accidents. Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compared to homes, especially when things go wrong, which they do at a higher rate.

I've rented cars myself via Turo a couple times in the past few years. Two of the guys were operating their own small rental businesses (5+ cars, parked around on local streets). At a couple hundred bucks profit per vehicle per month, depending on utilization, having a few cars like that seems the only way to make it worth the while. As a part time job of sorts.

In the East-Bay, AAA is making a massive investment in car-sharing with GiG. I wonder if it will work out financially given state of the world with cheap ride-sharing by Uber/Lyft.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#14

Post by ghaff »

emodendroket wrote: post #8
ghaff wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, one could argue that damage/theft/etc. to a home could involve much larger sums of money and be less easily resolved with a check from the middleman handling the rental--especially if it's not specifically a rental property. Another issue with car sharing is that a fair bit of the depreciation is going to be mile-based rather than time-based. A "good" renter is going to put fairly minimal wear and tear on a bed…

Yeah, the stakes are higher, but it also seems much less likely that someone is going to unintentionally total your home.

Oh in general I agree. But, as you say, the stakes are a lot higher. With a car, the main serious concern is liability. Even if the company is good for covering you financially, who wants to get into a traumatic legal situation?

Bad things do happen with housing rentals even if they're rare (whether they're intentional or unintentional doesn't really change the final result). e.g. https://twitter.com/GPellegrini/status/867540860782739458

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#15

Post by Hydraulix989 »

jakelarkin wrote: post #13

Had two car-owning friends that did RelayRides (now Turo) during the peak sharing economy a few years ago. Both cars were involved minor collisions within months. Turns out renting in the city to people that don't drive much, might be prone to accidents. Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compar…

I had a minor collision as well within months, as well as two tows. A lot of the renters did not correctly follow GetAround's 24 hour restriction-free street parking policy as well and so I got a lot of street cleaning tickets. Even when they did, if street cleaning often was in 25-48 hours, so I had to repark my car multiple times per week.

The thing that made me leave was that GetAround Connect started drained my car's battery like crazy and started requiring jumpstarts every few days. I think there might have been a short. Meanwhile, GetAround support insisted that this was normal.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#16

Post by Swizec »

ghaff wrote: post #4
payne92 wrote: post #2

Different analysis: it's much more likely that a car can be damaged & completely unusable, leaving the owner in an expensive and inconvenient bind. We read about the occasional Airbnb horror story, but I think that scenario is relatively rare for property. Second, idle cars have a lot of value to owners. The car in my garage right now is giving me optionality and convenience, and that is worth a lot. In fact, I may e…

OTOH, one could argue that damage/theft/etc. to a home could involve much larger sums of money and be less easily resolved with a check from the middleman handling the rental--especially if it's not specifically a rental property. Another issue with car sharing is that a fair bit of the depreciation is going to be mile-based rather than time-based. A "good" renter is going to put fairly minimal wear and tear on a bed…

> Zipcar which is probably a generally better experience for the renter in any case.

I use Zipcar for everyday boring stuff. RelayRides and Turo when I want a nice car to drive.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#18

Post by emodendroket »

ghaff wrote: post #14
emodendroket wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the stakes are higher, but it also seems much less likely that someone is going to unintentionally total your home.

Oh in general I agree. But, as you say, the stakes are a lot higher. With a car, the main serious concern is liability. Even if the company is good for covering you financially, who wants to get into a traumatic legal situation? Bad things do happen with housing rentals even if they're rare (whether they're intentional or unintentional doesn't really change the final result). e.g. https://twitter.com/GPellegrini/stat…

Right or wrong, I imagine a lot of hosts figure they can weed out problematic guests through the profile/interview process.

Personally I'd never want to rent my stuff out through either service.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#19

Post by Hydraulix989 »

mooreds wrote: post #6

Marketplaces are hard since the main thing you can sell is liquidity. If I were these car companies I'd focus in a benefit that helps users without requiring liquidity (single player mode) to bootstrap the marketplace.

That's what ZipCar did.

FlightCar shut down because it offered monthly parking at the SFO airport for free, on the condition that you rent your car out for them. I did this because I wanted to keep my car, but I did not want to pay $400/month for a parking spot in SoMa, and my car hardly got rented out.

They eventually started doing some shady things like moving some of the cars to Oakland behind owners' backs. I ripped them a new one when I found out they did this to mine, but still stayed with the service because it was such a sweet deal.

When FlightCar finally kicked the dust, I went to pick up my car and saw a lot full of barely-used other cars from other people presumably exploiting the monthly parking in a similar way that I did.

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