Turo, one of many world’s largest different rental automobile corporations, simply introduced a big shift in its enterprise that may probably attraction to vacationers for whom the automobile itself is likely one of the highlights of the journey.
The peer-to-peer automobile sharing market launched greater than 70 product updates, together with modifications to how hosts can handle their vehicles and the flexibility for vacationers to guide now and pay later.
These modifications are available in an period when the state of the rental automobile business has been fairly bleak. For the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, rental automobile costs have elevated quicker than the typical fee of inflation. And the variety of complaints about rental automobile corporations is excessive in comparison with different journey service suppliers.
The American Buyer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Journey Examine 2023-2024, which surveyed greater than 16,000 clients through e mail between April 2023 and March 2024, discovered that 21% of leisure vacationers complained to rental automobile corporations about a difficulty throughout their journey. That’s greater than the 12% of leisure lodging company who complained to resorts and the 13% of passengers who complained to airways.
In keeping with the ACSI research, particular points plaguing satisfaction charges amongst rental automobile corporations embody car selection, car options, and efficiency, charges and ease of pick-up course of.
Amongst Turo’s modifications, the standout is what the corporate calls “limitless search.” Briefly, it upends the standard mannequin of automobile leases the place vacationers first choose a location, date and time to lease, and from there, select a automobile from a obscure collection of phrases like “midsize” or “compact” with out actually understanding the precise automobile accessible.
As an alternative, Turo places the automobile’s make and mannequin entrance and middle. Now, upon touchdown on Turo’s web site or launching the app, customers are inspired to browse all of Turo’s accessible autos with out committing to a date or location.
The road of considering is that this: Some vacationers select a vacation spot based mostly on a selected resort they need to expertise. Why not make rental vehicles a core a part of the journey expertise reasonably than an afterthought?
For example, if somebody wished to drive, say, a Tesla Cybertruck or a Polestar 2, they may browse simply these particular autos.
(Picture courtesy of Turo)
Positive, lots of Turo’s autos are forgettable sedans and minivans that get you from one place to a different with out a lot fanfare. However now Turo presents a model of journey by which the rental automobile could be some of the memorable components of a visit — or the entire cause you’re taking the journey.
“Nobody goes to a standard rental automobile firm to browse their fleet of autos,” says Tom Wang, Turo’s chief product officer. “However Turo has a novel choice the place you’ll be able to truly lease the precise automobile you need.”
To enrich this, Turo additionally launched a characteristic referred to as “Collections” the place customers can browse vehicles world wide based mostly on themes, like classic vehicles. Customers are inspired to curate their very own shareable lists.
(Picture courtesy of Turo)
“I would make a movie-themed record of vehicles,” Wang says. “With that, I may faux I’m in ‘Again to the Future’ and lease a DeLorean.”
Nonetheless, regardless of important progress primarily pushed by the pandemic-era rental automobile scarcity, in keeping with chief govt officer Andre Haddad, Turo is a comparatively small participant in rental vehicles.
Turo posted revenues of $879 million in 2023, which is up about 18% in comparison with the prior yr. Nonetheless, that’s small beans relative to the established automobile rental corporations. For instance, Avis Price range Group, which is likely one of the corporations that dominates the automobile rental house, posted a report $12 billion in income in 2023.
