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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

#21

Post by itry »

Anechoic wrote: post #2

Frequent 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…

Both of your arguments against Flightcar (trust as owner, flexibility as renter) are as valid for Flightcar as for AirBnB. Still AirBnB rents out rooms for some hundred million dollars per year.

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#22

Post by czr80 »

Anechoic wrote: post #2

Frequent 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…

Well, the question is not whether their business model is uniformly better than the current model, nor whether it makes sense for everyone. The question is whether there is a sufficiently large group of people for whom the cost savings outweigh the potential hassle/risks. I'm not sure it will, either, but let's see.

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#23

Post by antiterra »

rsheridan6 wrote: post #15
jacquesm wrote: post #5

Why 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.

I think a key difference with Airbnb is that you have to be pretty clever to run a red light or over a pedestrian with someone's condo.

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#24

Post by atirip »

rsheridan6 wrote: post #15
jacquesm wrote: post #5

Why 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.

It's hard to impossible to damage your house by the renter so that the damage stays hidden. With car, it is pretty easy and the costs of such damages when you discover them afterwards would be realatively high.

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#25

Post by jacquesm »

antiterra wrote: post #23
rsheridan6 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think a key difference with Airbnb is that you have to be pretty clever to run a red light or over a pedestrian with someone's condo.

I watched 'Up' the other day and I couldn't help but chuckle reading that. Pretty sure there were some major traffic and airspace violations going on there. It'd be harder still with a condo!

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#26

Post by dutchbrit »

I wouldn't feel comfortable renting my car out. I have visions of people doing burnouts, handbrake turns, trying to dump the clutch etc... You might not notice it at first...

Also, lets say I know something is about to go on my car. Something expensive. Why not bring it there and let someone drive it 10 miles until it breaks and blame them for it?! Free repairs? Or how would they handle that?

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#27

Post by dsr_ »

dutchbrit wrote: post #26

I wouldn't feel comfortable renting my car out. I have visions of people doing burnouts, handbrake turns, trying to dump the clutch etc... You might not notice it at first... Also, lets say I know something is about to go on my car. Something expensive. Why not bring it there and let someone drive it 10 miles until it breaks and blame them for it?! Free repairs? Or how would they handle that?

This will be much more feasible when you drive a robocar. Put it in automatic-only mode, take photos before you leave it, and the insurance will cover all your potential problems (except the inconvenience of coming back home when the car isn't there.)

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#28

Post by tokenadult »

When driverless car services are a routine way for people to obtain a car on demand, renting a car at an airport is just one subset of obtaining a car for a one-trip use. It will be interesting to see whether the existing car rental companies have the management strategies and algorithmic understanding of maximizing car return on investment needed to make an on-demand driverless car service a part (and eventually the whole) of their business model. Whoever wants to be in Flightcar's or Silvercar's (or Uber's) business has to think ahead to what the wide availability of driverless cars will do to their whole industry. Those who disrupt can be disrupted in turn, if they are not ready for the future.

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#29

Post by joeguilmette »

aneth4 wrote: post #14

Airport 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…

My only interest in renting cars is long term, greater than one week rentals.

I move often, and when I'm going to be in one place for more than a month I buy a cheap $1000 car. Then I sell it, usually for around $1000. Sometimes I take a loss, sometimes I make some money, it's a wash.

But when in I am in town for less than a few weeks, I rent. Always with Enterprise. Never on airport. In fact, I've taken hours of busses from the airport to save $100 on a rental.

I think it's easy. I go in, I sign a few times, we walk around the car and I leave. Done.

Getaround is cute but its too expensive, Flightcar sounds nice, but it amplifies all the problems that Getaround has.

Meh.

Re: Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

#30

Post by ezl »

joeguilmette wrote: post #29
aneth4 wrote: post #14

Airport 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…

My only interest in renting cars is long term, greater than one week rentals. I move often, and when I'm going to be in one place for more than a month I buy a cheap $1000 car. Then I sell it, usually for around $1000. Sometimes I take a loss, sometimes I make some money, it's a wash. But when in I am in town for less than a few weeks, I rent. Always with Enterprise. Never on airport. In fact, I've taken hours of bus…

are you US based? I was trying to do the same a few years ago and found it was harder than expected to justify for short time periods with:

    - new license plates
    - state registration
    - sales tax
    - insurance
    - city stickers
    - title application and fees
I remember thinking it wasn't even worth it for me to do buy it and sell it on the 6 month time horizon (and I also couldn't find sub $1000 cars).

I'm asking from a place of envy, not challenge. Please teach me your ways. I must be doing this wrong. Would you mind shooting me an email: ezl@rocketlease.com

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