Yahoo Autos Turo, a Peer-to-Peer Car Rental Service, Adds High-End and Performance Cars
The offerings at most traditional car-rental companies don’t get much more interesting than a base-engine Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Camaro convertible, but now there is a nontraditional rental alternative than can offer more intriguing options. Turo, a peer-to-peer car-rental startup, has expanded its offerings recently to include more vehicles that appeal to enthusiasts-ones you’re not likely to see at the airport rental-car counter.
If you’re not familiar with Turo, it’s basically an Airbnb for vehicles, providing a platform for private owners to rent their cars to interested parties. It can be used to find cars for vacations and business trips or just to get behind the wheel of a particular vehicle.
Turo has introduced two categories of rentals called Deluxe and Super Deluxe that make it easier to find luxury and performance vehicles on the site. While availability is limited to whatever terms private owners want to offer, already there’s a pretty wide scope of vehicles. Searching in San Francisco, for example, there’s a Porsche 718 Boxster and an Alfa Romeo 4C. Searching in Los Angeles, there are several BMW i8 EVs, a Bentley Continental GT, and a couple of Rolls-Royce Ghosts priced at $355 to $599 per day. Turo says it launched with approximately 7000 Deluxe and 3000 Super-Deluxe vehicles available in 750 cities. The Tesla Model S is the company’s most popular vehicle, according to a Turo spokesperson.
Insuring such rentals has typically been a big headache, but Andre Haddad, the company’s chief executive officer, told C/D that the company has worked with Liberty Mutual, its insurance partner, to handle that aspect of the Deluxe rentals.
“Rekindling the love affair people have with vintage cars can be very expensive to properly insure,” he said. “But we’re taking care of that. There’s no paperwork, no documents sent by email. We’re verifying identity and processing insurance in real time so that we can inject personality back into one of the most overlooked parts of the car-rental experience.”
Turo has been growing at a steady clip since its founding in 2009. More than six million customers have rented vehicles through the platform, and more than 231,000 car owners have rented out their personal cars using the site. Headquartered in San Francisco, Turo has raised more than $200 million in funding during a time when the business of traditional rental-car companies has been battered by Uber and Lyft and an influx of other car-sharing options. The company counts Daimler among its major investors.
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Starting Friday, another way in which Turo is seeking to expand its niche is by making it easier for its host owners to offer up Extras, additional items that renters can add to their bookings, including sporting equipment, child seats, and prepaid refueling. Headed to Colorado to camp in the mountains? Owners can now offer sleeping bags, tents, and other accessories that renters would otherwise either need to lug from home or stop to purchase along the way. Or traveling with the family? Rooftop storage bins may also be available. Bikes, surfboards-there are suddenly a multitude of options.
But keep in mind that availability of these extras lies largely in what’s offered by host owners. Rules and restrictions regarding their use will vary by owner, and it’s best to have a clear understanding of those parameters at the start of a trip. And owners should know these extra offerings aren’t covered by the Turo insurance that covers their cars.
The expanded Extras feature arrives in time for the upcoming summer-vacation season. Although it’s just getting started and entirely dependent on host owners actually offering equipment, these developments bear watching-if only because, among the companies rushing to redefine how we all get around with allegedly more seamless transportation choices, Turo may be the only one keeping car enthusiasts foremost in mind.
“Cars are becoming commoditized with ride-sharing and autonomous vehicles, and you think about some pod taking you somewhere, and of course that could be a big part of future options,” Haddad said. “But I believe cars are also fundamentally about the human spirit and driving experiences that are memorable.” Memorable isn’t a term that one usually associates with rental cars.
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