What: Turo allows you to rent out a spare car — or many spare cars — to travelers and neighbors, paying a variable commission
Expected pay: $25 to $150 per day (depending on the car)
Husl $core: $$$$
Commissions & fees: 10% to 35%
Where: Atlanta, Montreal, Boston, San Diego, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Honolulu Toronto, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles
Requirements:
- A spare car;
- the ability to meet renters at a convenient drop-off point, most likely an airport
Review:
The reviews of this site are all over the map, ranging from people who love it to those who have had bad experiences. However, the set-up appears to be attractive for those who want to rent out a spare car that’s otherwise sitting in the garage.
Turo allows you to register your car; say when it is available; and set a rental rate. Turo can also suggest a rental rate for you, based on the site’s dynamic pricing formula. You can even restrict the number of miles the driver can put on the car without being penalized.
You get from 90% to 65% of the rental fees, depending on the type of insurance coverage you take out. Waive the insurance and you get 90% of the rental fees; take full coverage and you get just 65%.
But don’t waive the coverage without a back-up. Unless you have commercial lines coverage on your vehicle, your ordinary auto coverage is not going to cover your car when you have a renter. (See our insurance post.) Moreover, a typical policy has a deductible that would prevent it from kicking in when someone simply dents or scratches the vehicle.
If you take out Turo’s premium coverage, which has no deductible, it will compensate you for lost rental fees and provide a replacement vehicle while yours is being repaired. In our opinion, it’s worth the cost.
Recommendations
Turo is the best-rated opportunity in this category. However, it works best when you’re renting out an inexpensive used-car in a tourist area. One Colorado car-owner says it’s worked so well for him that he’s purchased four used cars (all for between $3,000 and $4,000) and earns a $300 to $400 monthly profit on each.
Do make sure you have adequate insurance coverage on the car. Other sites where you can rent your car to other drivers: Fetch, GetAround and HyreCar. We don’t recommend any of them. Want an idea of what can go wrong? Read the comments on our HyreCar review or this Ron Lieber column in the New York Times.
However, we do recommend signing up with Giggster, if you have a classic car that might be interesting to photographers and filmmakers. Cars rent on that site by the hour for, sometimes, hundreds of dollars per hour.
What their car listers say:
What happens when someone crashes your luxury car ;
Claims resolution is a nightmare! After over 100 rentals of my cars and 3 cars listed, I can never get resolution with one phone call. Recently had a 21 year old renter that booked my BMW. I choose to deny the booking, yet Turo charged me $25 to cancel reservation.
“I rented out my mini Cooper. The renter returned my car with the scratches on the rim, cigarette burn on the seat and ashes all over the floor, and a permanent scratch on the dash. I have reported this within 24 hours. They deny the claim saying that the renter says he have received the car in this condition although I had pictures to prove it that the car was immaculate when I give it to him.
My second 2016 Nissan Rogue car was totaled by a renter. The cars KBB fair value was $18,000 But Turo offer me $3,854.77. Their excuse was that my car was in bad condition and was not safe for driving. But guess what the car pass MD state inspection like 2 months ago and is still under warranty. How bad condition could it have been?
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[…] HyreCar differs from some of the other car-rental services, such as Turo and GetAround, in that it is not renting your car out to a casual driver. This site specifically […]
[…] no near-term plans to use. If that’s the case, you’re still better off renting through Turo than […]
I have successfully created a small car fleet on Turo. After a year, I have 4 cars. It’s not easy, and you have to be smart about which cars you rent out. I’ve had success with used cars that have very low maintenance costs. They are rented out roughly 80% of the time because I price them well below the going market rate as compared to Enterprise/Hertz/you-name-it. I’ve had one car totaled, and the Turo insurance policy paid me fairly for it. No complaints regarding claims so far, other than it was a bit slow. Realistically, I’m making $250/month per car after depreciation and expenses. I’m putting in roughly 4 hours of work monthly per vehicle, mainly on cleaning and communicating with renters. IT’S NOT FREE MONEY!!! There’s risk involved and without a solid strategy you can lose BIG. Be smart, start small, and then yes, you can make some $$
Turo has terrible customer service, especially for Hosts who make the money for them. They will try and deny every claim possible. Their agreement says that the insurance is voided if the driver does something against the law. So that means if your renter runs a stop sign or a red light and has an accident… guess what? Turo will deny the claim.
Also the premium insurance cost doesn’t get you 65% of the rental, it’s only 60%. And they take 60% of every dollar you earn. So if the driver pays you for gas or cleaning, or for using extra miles. That’s right… Turo takes 40% of that, too! They are like a silent partner who takes a lot of your profit, but doesn’t share the operating costs
Hello there… do you have any updates? Do you still use Turo?
Worst customer service I have ever experienced aside from Robinhood. They do not listen, do not read the issues at hand, they respond from a general alias and are nearly impossible to reach by phone. Their call line is a joke and will hang up on you at any moment. DO NOT WORK WITH TURO. They take a huge fee and provide almost no assistance. Their timeline for damage reports are too short and they do not look at pre and post pictures of your car.
I rented my vehicle out ONCE, and that was enough for me. All the horror stories you’ve heard about; believe them! Person came to pick up my vehicle in NJ from NY – showed up on time. When the deadline to return the vehicle was up, he was nowhere to be found – showed up hours after the scheduled drop off time and with damage to the undercarriage of the car (he must have hit something at a fast speed and it must have dragged all the way back to my house), I later noticed the ezpass tag was taken from the car as well. After all the inconvenience of trying to get TURO to compensate for tolls (which weren’t fully reimbursed), missing tag (never reimbursed), ect… After fee’s and other inconvenient unreimbursed expenses; I ended up making less than $30/ day for renting out a flagship Lexus LS460L – I guess my circumstance could have been alot worse compared to others – but do yourself a favor: If you’re looking to make some extra cash with your car; deliver food from a local eatery in a fairly decent area where they tip, chances are you’ll make 4x-5x more money without the risk of someone else (driver or app company) selfishly destroying your livelihood by damaging or taking away your means of transportation.
I take it this site is not interested in addressing customers who have been charged for amazing and comical added fees after their car has been turned in, that are just about impossible to have removed. One way trip fee, $40?? Uhh, I’m clearly back where I started, but I can’t get it removed. Other fees, $50?? Nobody knows what it’s for, but I can’t get that taken off either. Twenty hours and counting wasted arguing with various people, nothing.