@Gavin You're totally right, those items are all worth considering. I went for something that looks good but I think the 19s will be a PITA in the long run. For my next car I'm tempted to get a 7-seater as they will be booked solid for school holidays and get a good day rate compared to purchase price too, even more taxi-esque fun
@Broccers You can set your 'opening hours' on the app, so you can fine tune your availability (e.g. Mon-Fri 9-5), but of course, it pays to be available longer hours. I have mine set at 7am-10pm, so the app expects me to respond to enquiries and be available for check-in/out during those hours. The shortest notice for a rental that I've had is 12 hours, someone booked on Sunday night for a rental starting Monday morning. It works for me because I'm happy to get a break form my desk for the odd hour or so.
I'm interested in the fully remote lending model that some people are using, you rely on keyless entry and mobile valet. That way you could hire a central London parking space and leave a car there, without needing to be present all the time. Only problem is that it sounds risky for undeclared damage/fuel levels.
Earnings from the car in September have still been strong, despite the school holidays finishing. I’ve also blocked the calendar out for personal use from Fri 24th for 9 days so losing a week of availability this month, which is reflected in the income. There’s a two day rental booked Weds - Fri so it’s safe to assume this will be the final total for this month
August £846
September £719
About one month ago I pushed the daily price up 10% and I'll do the same again soon, although I'm also expecting October to be a quiet month. It would be brilliant to hit £1k a month and that should be possible, judging from my research. The next assessment for All-star host is in a couple of weeks at which point I'll get some pretty stars next to my listing too as my profile is 100% flawless so far.
The only letdown is one guest who returned the car with new damage to the rear bumper and is now ghosting me about the repair. It's only small, in fact, less than the cost of the insurance excess, so we're encouraged to resolve the situation amicably through their messaging app. Because he's not responding anymore I've asked Turo to get involved, so fingers crossed I can recover the costs on that repair. Luckily it's only small, just a scrape, but it needs paint.
Having escalated through Turo for the damage, I've received payment within 24 hours I guess they'll take that from the guest's credit card held on file.
Gavster wrote: ↑Sun Aug 15, 2021 10:06 am
it's 100% the guest's responsibility to fix it and return the car damage free. This policy doesn't sit too well with the guest.
But this could have happened if it was their car, your car, or any car. Surely if they did give you a bad review, Turo would take it down as it states in the policy it's not your problem?
"This policy doesn't sit too well with the guest" - I'd be telling them to jog on TBH. It's what they signed and agreed.
If Turo receive a review, I expect they'll post it up, as there types of companies are worried about trading standards audits.
I'm finding Gavster reports interesting. They're very similar to our recent entrance into the Holiday Home market with our Cornwall property.
As a new property we need to get reviews in, and good ones to keep our score up.
One poor review with such a small sample really knock our score - we've just gone from 93/100 to 75/100 as a result of a very odd family who picked up largely on non-issues and then left the house in a state, including soiled towels in the laundry, moving almost every item of furniture except for the beds and taking all the mirrors off the walls and placing them on the floor! Despoit evidence of this the agent refused to remove the review, so I had to diplomatically write a response that would be visible to potential renters.
Living in SE1 with about ten rental cars (mainly zipcars) within a couple of minutes walk I notice that most of them have damage. The 21 plate golf that is outside a nearby cafe is already running some Linglong specials on both front wheels (it has some disc like eco wheels with virtually no sidewall). A bodyshop nearby always has at least three zipcars outside, and two currently have wheels/suspension missing on one corner, presumably due to people getting used to RHD when they've only driven LHD!. I expect the remote model would be grief unless you have a substitute car when things go wrong.
mr_jon wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:12 am
I presume they have a system to prevent revenge feedback in that situation?
There's two parts to this, firstly, hosts can respond to guest's feedback, which gives a chance to dispute any wonky or malicious comments. Secondly, feedback has to be completed within 10 days of the trip ending, and this guest immediately left me 5* positive feedback at the end of their trip. I had waited and when he began to dispute the repair costs I left a low score feedback for him, because as well as the damage, there was also low fuel and he was 2 hours late to collect with no communication about that.
The way I see it, I don't mind if a guest brings the car back with new damage, as long as they genuinely work to resolve it as quickly as possible.
Gavster wrote: ↑Sun Aug 15, 2021 10:06 am
it's 100% the guest's responsibility to fix it and return the car damage free. This policy doesn't sit too well with the guest.
But this could have happened if it was their car, your car, or any car. Surely if they did give you a bad review, Turo would take it down as it states in the policy it's not your problem?
"This policy doesn't sit too well with the guest" - I'd be telling them to jog on TBH. It's what they signed and agreed.
If Turo receive a review, I expect they'll post it up, as there types of companies are worried about trading standards audits.
I'm finding Gavster reports interesting. They're very similar to our recent entrance into the Holiday Home market with our Cornwall property.
As a new property we need to get reviews in, and good ones to keep our score up.
One poor review with such a small sample really knock our score - we've just gone from 93/100 to 75/100 as a result of a very odd family who picked up largely on non-issues and then left the house in a state, including soiled towels in the laundry, moving almost every item of furniture except for the beds and taking all the mirrors off the walls and placing them on the floor! Despoit evidence of this the agent refused to remove the review, so I had to diplomatically write a response that would be visible to potential renters.
Living in SE1 with about ten rental cars (mainly zipcars) within a couple of minutes walk I notice that most of them have damage. The 21 plate golf that is outside a nearby cafe is already running some Linglong specials on both front wheels (it has some disc like eco wheels with virtually no sidewall). A bodyshop nearby always has at least three zipcars outside, and two currently have wheels/suspension missing on one corner, presumably due to people getting used to RHD when they've only driven LHD!. I expect the remote model would be grief unless you have a substitute car when things go wrong.
It sounds similar, reviews are the lifeblood of so many businesses, it has genuinely made me focus on providing very high levels of customer service, because the first 10-20 reviews are so important. That's such a pisser about those guests, there's always going to be some idiots out there.
It does feel like the car is going to get knocked around a bit, if I've already had a flat tyre and a scratched bumper in the first 7 weeks, I might need to budget for an annual cosmetic fix-up.
Anyway... you live in SE1... do you have a parking space and fancy sharing another Turo car?! There's a much better daily rental price when you're central.
But this could have happened if it was their car, your car, or any car. Surely if they did give you a bad review, Turo would take it down as it states in the policy it's not your problem?
"This policy doesn't sit too well with the guest" - I'd be telling them to jog on TBH. It's what they signed and agreed.
If Turo receive a review, I expect they'll post it up, as there types of companies are worried about trading standards audits.
I'm finding Gavster reports interesting. They're very similar to our recent entrance into the Holiday Home market with our Cornwall property.
As a new property we need to get reviews in, and good ones to keep our score up.
One poor review with such a small sample really knock our score - we've just gone from 93/100 to 75/100 as a result of a very odd family who picked up largely on non-issues and then left the house in a state, including soiled towels in the laundry, moving almost every item of furniture except for the beds and taking all the mirrors off the walls and placing them on the floor! Despoit evidence of this the agent refused to remove the review, so I had to diplomatically write a response that would be visible to potential renters.
Living in SE1 with about ten rental cars (mainly zipcars) within a couple of minutes walk I notice that most of them have damage. The 21 plate golf that is outside a nearby cafe is already running some Linglong specials on both front wheels (it has some disc like eco wheels with virtually no sidewall). A bodyshop nearby always has at least three zipcars outside, and two currently have wheels/suspension missing on one corner, presumably due to people getting used to RHD when they've only driven LHD!. I expect the remote model would be grief unless you have a substitute car when things go wrong.
It sounds similar, reviews are the lifeblood of so many businesses, it has genuinely made me focus on providing very high levels of customer service, because the first 10-20 reviews are so important. That's such a pisser about those guests, there's always going to be some idiots out there.
It does feel like the car is going to get knocked around a bit, if I've already had a flat tyre and a scratched bumper in the first 7 weeks, I might need to budget for an annual cosmetic fix-up.
Anyway... you live in SE1... do you have a parking space and fancy sharing another Turo car?! There's a much better daily rental price when you're central.
I do theoretically have a spare residents permit (8 min walk from London Bridge Station) but haven't tried to renew it for a year. Let's see how your next couple of months go!
It would be the ideal place to try a Turo Go operation, some kind of city car with remote unlocking for contactless handovers. I'm around that area quite a lot as my gf lives in Bermondsey, so I need to check if she can get an on-street resident's permit. She lives in flats which has a small car park (all taken, sadly), which sometimes then excludes an on-street CPZ permit.
Gavster wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:06 am
It would be the ideal place to try a Turo Go operation, some kind of city car with remote unlocking for contactless handovers. I'm around that area quite a lot as my gf lives in Bermondsey, so I need to check if she can get an on-street resident's permit. She lives in flats which has a small car park (all taken, sadly), which sometimes then excludes an on-street CPZ permit.
Anything built after about 2005 in SE1 cannot get a parking permit, and anything built after about 2010 generally doesn't have any parking spaces!
The figures are better than expected, because in Sept I had nearly 1 week booked out for personal use which otherwise might have landed a few days or rental, brining it up to August's total. I also had another four days personal at the start of Oct, which is a quiet month traditionally, so the car did well.
I played around with unlimited mileage for a week in Oct just to see what happens. The daily mileage that guests covered more than doubled, people were doing 2-250 per day, rather than the usual ~100 or less. One guy brought the car back over two hours late, with a spilled drink in the cup holder so I had the option to charge cleaning and an extra day, which of course I did. It doesn't bother me if someone's two hours late and they communicate that to me, however, he'd asked to extend the rental but didn't do it because the app would charge him for another day. I messaged him at 30 mins late, then again at 90 mins late asking when he would be returning the car and he didn't reply. He 100% deserved to pay.
Running the car has become quite straightforwards now. Key learnings this month:
1) When checking the guest in, tell them they're responsible for returning the car in the same condition that they received it. This removes 90% of cleaning duties for me. A quick wipe over the internal surfaces and glass before the next rental is all I need to do.
2) Tell the guest that the petrol station around the corner from me has long opening hours and a jet wash, for same reasons as above.
The car is booked for 14 days over Nov/Dec already. I need to push the price up again, but I'm also feeling out where the value point lays for customers. With so little experience of the market and it's seasonal fluctuations, it's hard to understand when the price makes a difference to bookings. Being more central in London would definitely facilitate a far higher price - my car is still very good value on the platform, so I'll probably push the price up another 10% in Nov. I've already bumped up my Xmas prices by 25%. Hoping someone will book it for a week or so, I'll book a small car on the platform to go and see the folks etc.
All considered it only takes up an hour or two of my time each week, which makes it quite good value. I'm considering getting a second/third car to run, which was going to be a Touran, then a spanner went into the works as I delved into the numbers a bit deeper. The three things that are most important when buying are 1) purchase price (in terms of value), 2) anticipated depreciation 3) rental price per day. When I bought the BMW I was working out my finances primarily on getting a good value vehicle vs the rental price per day. On paper, that works out nicely, however, the depreciation could be a big hit on a car like the BMW. It pains me to say that cars like the Vauxhall Insignia and Zafira make a lot of sense, as they're cheap to buy and command a good daily rental price, while having more limited depreciation. Need to do more research on this, but I might have to lower my standards if I want to actually make some coin out of this. For example, I could have bought both an Insignia AND a Zafira for the price of the single BMW 418. The two Vauxhalls would bring in more revenue than the BMW and possibly depreciate less as the BM will take a big hit when it gets to 120k + which will happen in about a year.
If you buy a vehicle specifically to rent out on the platform then ignore what vehicle you would want to buy and go with the one that makes the most sense financially, and the one which would be rented out the most
Good update. I looked to see if there are any available around here - nothing for miles and shit cars that are on offer. I would imagine a better quality bmw would be booked out a lot more so swings and roundabouts.
That's the thing, my customers really enjoy using my car, which means I have great reviews and get really good feedback, they enjoy the fact that I'm offering a quality product. However, when people rent a car, they generally just want a tool to get them from A to B as long as it fits their budget, so while my car is popular, there are plenty of cheap cars that are popular too.
I spoke with another host who hunts out bargain cars and puts them on the platform, he doesn't care make/model as long as it's cheap. He makes more money, for sure, but he has received negative feedback because of his car choices. For example, he's had complaints that his Dacia Duster doesn't have air-con, even though he states clearly on his listing that it doesn't. The way I see this is that he's gone too far into getting VFM, and lost sight of what a customer actually wants - it's a lesson to never to list a car which doesn't have AC. Personally I'll always err on the side of offering a slightly better quality product than simply trying to rinse every last penny out. My general experience is that when you scrape the barrel, you also attract the worst customers.
There are some other platforms https://karshare.com and https://www.hiyacar.co.uk but the whole market is definitely growing, Turo themselves are enormous in the US and looking to push hard and expand in the UK. Karshare gives hosts a more money but also has a few teething problems.
This month is looking super quiet, so I've been thinking about ways to earn more. I could drop the price to incentivise rentals, but I don't really want to earn less. I could increase to unlimited mileage again, but if I get a couple of 500 mile days racked up it's really going to dent the mileage quickly. I could add free delivery again, which is tempting, as I found most people who used that offer were renting for multiple days, and they used it to get the best deal possible.
Instead I've opted for option 4: change the car's location from my home (E7 - Zone 3) to my gf's (SE1 - Zone 1) and increase the price 60% . I'll leave it like this for a week and see if I get any wins
Lots of people are griping about Turo right now because they keep on cranking up their trip fees. Sometimes they cost as much as the daily rental:
And in an example of a cheap car I rented last Dec, the trip fee and insurance was £13.50.
For a similar car yesterday it was £22.40
The problem is that these increase by Turo impact the hosts like me. There's a lot of hosts talking about moving to Karshare as their costs are simply wayyyy lower, it's easier to make money. I'm thinking of shifting the BMW over.
This has put me off ever using Turo as a customer. It seems a lot of faff vs renting a car off one of the bigger rental places. Having to return a car washed, paying for any slight damage or punctures and then the website is set to trick you - the initial price you see doesn’t include any of the trip fee bollocks or insurance.
@Rich B The trip fees have gone up for everyone on the platform, Turo seem to be taking a larger cut of the total rental price every month. Apparently they're planning an IPO, so perhaps they're trying to bump up revenue as much as possible. Turo is enormous in the US, it's only a fraction of the size over here.
@Mito Man That seems to be the feedback from a few customers, or potential customers. It's cool when you see a BMW is £41 a day, then it goes up to £116 total, which is nearly 3x the original offering. Not to mention the host only gets £30 of that. At least with Enterprise etc, when their price says £40, that's what you pay, simple.
Overall, the Turo model works, but I can make a lot more money than I am. Two things are needed 1) Differnt car 2) Different platform.
After a few months, I can see that the BMW is not really an optimum car for car sharing. This month has been dead and having spoken to some other people, it seems that the BMW is a little bit too specialist, because it’s a slightly unusual model. Also, the depreciation hit is going to be pretty big when the car hits 100k miles. The people who rent it love it, but that’s not the same as it genuinely being a good business proposition and a car that rents out easily, even in quiet months.
There are cars with a much better ratio between purchase price/rental price. As such I’ve decided to try and sell the BMW while it’s still on ~90k miles and replace it with two cars.
The numbers work out as follows:
BMW has struggled to rent for more than £60/day, while it cost £12k to buy. I had hoped to get nearer £100 a day, which other BMW 3/4 series on Turo have rented for, but that doesn’t seem to be possible in my area, without having a much newer car.
However, a Nissan Juke will rent for £40-60 a day and can be bought for ~£5k - AND will be more popular in quiet months as SUVs have generic appeal.
A Vauxhall Zafira Tourer will rent for £50 a day consistently and can be bought for ~£6k, plus is a popular choice for holiday rentals and long weekends.
Therefore, for the same investment, I could get to ~£100+ per day with cars that objectively will be more popular too. I’ll also move over to Karshare, which is another platform that is much more transparent and provides the host with a better return, as well as contactless handover, so there's less labour for me. Turo’s fees and discounts are really hitting people's ability to earn, some guys with multiple vehicles are also leaving the platform. I believe that these changes could increase my revenue by 50% whilst still working with the initial £12k that I started with.
And I’ve just run an insurance quote on a Juke (with a few tweaks over the BMW’s policy - for instance I’d own two cars and I’ve lowered the annual mileage) and it’s hugely less, down from £1460 to £600…
I guess they'll take that from the guest's credit card held on file.
