With Airbnb, you can look for rentals based on preferences, like a pool, indoor fireplace and hair dryer. Now Turo, an on-demand car sharing-service, often referred to as the Airbnb for cars, has launched a similar feature.
When renting a car through the peer-to-peer network, guests now have the option to choose a car loaded with "Extras" that range from child safety seats, picnic baskets and coolers to more fun things, like surfboards, bikes, iPads and camping tents.
A fee for the extra is set by the car host. Along with convenience, and despite the extra fee, you can still save money rather than purchasing extras through vendors on your own.
A BMW 3 Series in San Francisco that rents for $73 per day (a similar car averages $200 per day with a traditional car rental company) offers a bike and a trunk-mounted rack for $35 a day. A bike rental at a local shop averages $35 a day, though a bike rack rental averages $15-$30 a day. But it saves the renter the trip and hassle of renting separately.
A four-door Jeep Wrangler in Kauai, Hawaii ($90 a day) offers two body boards for $30 per day. Surf shops where you can rent two average $40 a day. A Jeep Wrangler goes for $120 a day in Kauai, excluding insurance and add-ons, like GPS.
"We noticed Turo hosts began bundling services and accessories with the car they are sharing," Turo CEO Andre Haddad tells CNBC Make It. "Everything from kayaks and tents, car seats and ski racks and even Radio Flyer Teslas for kids."
Extras allows hosts to offer additional services/amenities in a structured way, and guests can add them easily at checkout. "Three days after launch, our hosts listed more than 17,000 extras," Haddad says.
According to Turo, it is the first and only on-demand car company to offer this kind of service.
On-demand car rentals have been disrupting the industry. The global car rental market is poised to grow significantly from its value of about $56 billion in 2016 to $124 billion by 2022. Peer-to-peer car rental makes a majority of the approximately $5 billion car-sharing market, which is forecast to grow to more than $11 billion by 2024, according to Ken Research.
Turo raised $92 million in capital in 2018 ($193 million total, according to Reuters), has 231,000 listed vehicles (up from 15,000 in 2013) and 6 million signups (from 148,000 in 2013), says Haddad. He says on-demand car rentals are at least 35 percent cheaper than traditional car rentals.
Turo operates in 4,700 American, Canadian and U.K. cities.
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