Perhaps I'm the wrong subject as I don't use AirBnB, but the idea of FlightCar frightens me. Far too much risk to take on for either side with little reward in terms of cost savings. And frankly, I imagine that the paperwork and coordination would create even more hassle than that of a typical rental car company.
Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
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Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#12What comes after that? An sort of Airbnb for self storage?
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#13Frequent travelers and members of rewards programs aren’t treated that differently Um, actually we are. With Avis First (free to join) or Hertz Gold (last I knew there was a fee, but that may have changed), I take a shuttlebus to the rental car lot (or at the smaller airports, walk from the gate to the rental lot), look for my name on the message board, walk over to my car, get in, drive to the gate, show the attenda…
As a renter, I've usually already bought my return tickets and have to be at work the next day, so there's no chance that I'm going to extend my trip, unless I get stuck somewhere. The company should have provisions for giving a loaner to a car owner whose car isn't returned on time, but I doubt that would be a problem very often.
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#14Airport car rentals tend to be pretty cheap (AirBNB is competing with high priced hotels that often are booked and an existing inefficient P2P subleasing business.
Uber is competing with taxi services notorious for poor responsiveness and frequent gaps in availability.
I don't see the same room for disruption in the airport car rental market, but there is likely some room for innovation. Don't count on Hertz and Payless quaking in their boots any time son.
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#15Why would I risk my 2 decades+ no claim discount on someone else renting my car? Why would I let someone who I don't know drive the car I take good care of, possibly use it for illegal purposes or deal with the aftermath of fines and so on? Really, that's a pretty bad idea.
I agree on the second point, but then again, I'd never rent my house out with Airbnb either, and apparently they've done well. Different people have different tolerances for risk.
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#16I dunno this seems like a solution in search of a problem. The rental car industry is highly competitive which results in high quality service at low prices. I don't remember the last time someone I know complained about a rental car company.
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your "no claim discount" will still remain valid incase the renter hits your car because you will using renting company's (flightcar\silvercar) insurance for filing claims. You are right with your other points. The OP made up this stuff pretty badly - "There are the lines, the hassles, the constant upsells, confusion around cost of gas and insurance, and about 15 pages of paper that you have to sign before being able…
You can't just be 'double insured', insurance is usually on the license, not on the driver. So if I put another driver in my car he/she can claim whatever they want, the law here is that the license owner is the one taking out insurance. By law, as soon as a vehicle is on public roads the owner of the car has to have mandatory insurance. I'm not quite 100% clear on what the situation would be if someone else would be…
> You can't just be 'double insured', insurance is usually on the license, not on the driver.
In the US, that's not the case - I'm not perfectly sure how it works, but you can often use your own car insurance when you're driving a rental. And of course double insurance is possible, it's entirely up to the insurance company. Insurance is obviously one of the things FlightCar would need to deal with.
All in all, the issues facing FlightCar are not much different from those facing AirBnB which despite similar objections is doing fine.
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#18Airport car rentals tend to be pretty cheap ( AirBNB is competing with high priced hotels that often are booked and an existing inefficient P2P subleasing business. Uber is competing with taxi services notorious for poor responsiveness and frequent gaps in availability. I don't see the same room for disruption in the airport car rental market, but there is likely some room for innovation. Don't count on Hertz and Pay…
The biggest problem with car rental is the paper work - for some reason it can take five-ten minutes per customer to deal with, if nothing goes wrong. I've waited 20+ minutes on multiple occasions. There is literally no reason it can't be handled online well in advance (and it typically is, but for some reason it's repeated in person). Car rental needs something like airline self-service check-in kiosks more than FlightCar, IMO.
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't just be 'double insured', insurance is usually on the license, not on the driver. So if I put another driver in my car he/she can claim whatever they want, the law here is that the license owner is the one taking out insurance. By law, as soon as a vehicle is on public roads the owner of the car has to have mandatory insurance. I'm not quite 100% clear on what the situation would be if someone else would be…
> You can't just be 'double insured', insurance is usually on the license, not on the driver. In the US, that's not the case - I'm not perfectly sure how it works, but you can often use your own car insurance when you're driving a rental. And of course double insurance is possible, it's entirely up to the insurance company. Insurance is obviously one of the things FlightCar would need to deal with. All in all, the is…
There is a huge difference between AirBnB and FlightCar: It's hard to steal a house, and it's hard to crash into someone else's house using your house.
AirBnB pushes a lot of the verification responsibilities onto the renter, I can't see how that would work in this case. Anybody that can't afford a regular rental is certainly not going to be able to afford the value I place on my time for the extra hassle that comes with the use of my car. And I care a lot more for my car than Hertz or Avis cares about theirs.
All this adds up to me probably not being in their target demographic on the supply side. And on the demand side I'd rather deal with Hertz, Avis or Budget (but never again with Sixt, what a bunch of scammers) when it comes to making sure damage is noted properly before pickup, having staff on site to deal with any issues with the car (not unknown to happen) and to know that there is a full operational support service behind the product in case I need assistance once underway. I've had an Avis car break down on me in the US, and the speed and professionalism with which this was dealt with left me very impressed.
And that for a price for which I as a private individual would be loathe to let another person unknown to me drive my car.
Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption
#20The brilliant part is that flight car doesn't need an inventory but all their competitiors do. And inventory is a sunk cost that will force the prices higher, but will have no benefit to their customers.