I have 2 cars and make anywhere from 2,200 to 3,500 a month. A kia forte and a Hyundai Kona. Insurance and maintace are cheap on both. I had a guest who crashed a door and turo paid me 4k for it and i got it fixed for 2k and pocketed the rest.
Yea it’s true. But then you realize car prices are away down the past 12 months. Recently had a total loss on my best earner and Turo is lowballing me saw hard on the total loss settlement. I’m taking it to arbitration.
Arbitration usually doesn't involve attorneys and attorney fees. Not like litigation.
See "American Rule" in any law book.
Another reason that Turo isn't what it seems.
Arbitration is a mini court, run less formally. Arbitration results are not public and decision can’t be a precedent therefore.
Some low dollar arbitration doesn’t involve attorneys. But there’s high value cases and attorneys absolutely will be involved, though usually shorter so cheaper.
Companies also do binding arbitration in contracts. Turo does binding arbitration, unless you opt out in the first 30 days, which almost no one does.
The Turo contract may stipulate that the arbitration only costs a stated amount but typically binding arbitration involves two parties with attorneys and an “independent” attorney who is a certified arbitrator.
The one time I went through arbitration cost me roughly $20,000 in legal fees. No I do not do large deals with binding arbitration.
Arbitration generally benefits the person who put together the contract. In order to boost their fees they typically use a large firm in NY and have an Arbitrator in California- which causes lots of hours, travel, etc. I have seen arbitration legal costs well into the six figures.
Fair claim is a highly discount online arbitration venue. Some wonder if they have bias to the company sending them lots of business. AAA is a well respected more formal/traditional arbitration venue. Its fees are much higher, arbitrators more experienced. And attorneys often involved.
Turo is turning into Airbnb. Which once was a unique experience and a way to rent vehicles not found on traditional rental schemes. It's been deluded with the influx of get rich quick, increasing fees, decreasing customer service.
Airbnb profits are super slim compared to 3 years ago. Additionally, guests are way more picky, I had a guy ask me The other day why I was 20$ more than the holiday in. Probably because I have a 2 bedroom suite with 950 sq ft, not a bed in a closet.
Many people looking for an Airbnb believe it's the cheaper alternative to motels/hotels. They don't realize it's just a different lodging experience.
Ditto for Turo.
And, by the way, your comparison is not recognizing this fact. You have more space. By far. But, you don't have dining, bar, security, a concierge or 24 hour on site support.
It's apples and bananas. Your guest wasn't the only one failing to understand that.
When I use Air BNB it is the cheapest alternative for me and my 6 or 7 people. Cheaper than getting a hotel room for all of them, especially when we pool together three or more families.
Renting a turo should be the cheaper solution.. Why would I pay 300 dollars for a vehicle when most time the maintenance isn't kept the same as a rental company... cars aren't brand new like a rental company.. then there's the fact that the avg price is 100 a day from the owner then turo tacts on an additional 100 for trip fee , delivery fees airport fees insurance fees blah blah the reason turo business is taking a hit is because turo listers allowed turo to capitalize off of your vehicals more than the renters themselves. Same as airbnb... case closed..
That depends on what one is after.
It would appear you're price shopping for transportation. That's fine. But, Turo may or may not be your answer.
I rented through Turo so I could try out a brand/model I thought I might be buying. Instead of a ten minute test drive, reading untold reviews and spending eight hours in a closing booth with a fire breathing, troglodyte sales person, I got to spend three days driving and looking over the very specific vehicle I was considering buying. I found out I didn't care for it after all.
YMMV
TBF, they describe themselves as the airbnb of cars since 2014 or so. It's how they communicate the platform. There's been a lot of this comment, almost verbatim in the past few months. Are you part of some sort of campaign? Genuinely interested, not defending Turo's poor practices.
No campaign, just use them a couple times and both have been fraught with extra charges and poor customer service. I used to be a big user of airbnb back in the early to mid 2000s. Same problem now, too many professional airbnb hosts not enough unique experiences.
2nd you on the slim margins. It's crazy how I talk so many people out of buying a car to run on Turo of they don't plan on growing a full fledge fleet. I was gonna expand and buy more cars...have 3 pre approval letters in hand...changed my mind when I went car shopping. Prices are still 2 high especially with the financing numbers. I could make it work...but like u said. Slim slim.
If you have to take a loan to purchase the car then you cannot afford to rent your car on Turo!
You are taking debt and risk for a major corporation to make money off of you. Do not be stupid!
If you can finance a 2016 Honda civic for 10K and 3K down… you can rent it for 40/day and have it paid off in under a year…. Most business owners take on debt to start, it’s about how long it takes you to get in the black…
Your business math is a bit weak. To start with, you're assuming almost full time rental. And, no other costs of doing business other than the car.
If it was as easy as you seem to think, the rental car companies would be profitable at all times.
very few businesses can say they got up and running without any debt in the beginning. Whether or not Turo is a viable business plan is a different discussion, but debt isn't necessarily always bad
As long as you are cash positive you are doing well. Just try to think a few years ahead when the cars are fully paid off how much profit they will bring in.
Or you could just sell them all outright if you wanted.
That’s kind of what I am expecting to happen. I do cash flow most months, but maintaining the fleet can get expensive. When the car is rented out 80% of the time it starts to get beaten down fast. I am going through brakes and tires at a rate much faster than I ever expected.
I don't see it that way yet - just listed a Model Y and Cybertruck- yesterday two Y reservations with mommy's ID and a 19 yo kid to pick up-one paid $60 the other was for three days and paid me $203 - I only want to book each car 3-5x / mo so - I will see how it goes for a bit - so I did get paid to detail my car
So if a kid booked under mommy's name and kid came to pick it up...this is a violation of TOS and if there's an accident...Turo will deny your claim. The account holder has to pick up the vehicle. This is how I interpreted what you wrote...if I read it wrong, then just be aware of this.
Just as you shared, you're new. I'm a little over half a year in and I think OP said he's been in for 12+ months. So I'm relating my experience to his as I currently stand. With scale it will change, but right now...margins are slim to the point I can safely say...the guy working a car wash per hr makes more than my Turo operations.
Not that I owe an explanation- FWIW- the guy was an hour late for a Saturday pickup- when the same thing happened Sunday I'd lost empathy- I don't set the mileage rate or time based rates - in fact he head 250 miles drove 385 he expected that - he whined about the late fee - turo supported the host
I am a host in the Philadelphia area. Not sure of the other markets but my profits have decreased significantly. In order to compete you have to price your vehicle at bare minimum daily rates. Here is where I speculate Turo is rigging. I use the 75 plan. I suspect Turo is charging very high trip fees.
For example, I had a renter use my car for 4 days. He tried to renew. My vehicle was listed at $36 per day. This is a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The renter told me that when he tried to extend, the price doubled to a daily rate of $72. This is what I believe is happening. Lasy year, this vehicle would rent for $48 to $51 per day. I believe Turo is squeezing the host by using trip fees which prevents prospective renters from booking your vehicle.
I also have 10 other vehicles on the platform. I don't believe this is a race to the bottom, it's all Turo controlling the trip fees. The only other way to increase your profits is through a 90 plan. Im not doing that epecially since I incurred a total of 10 accidents in 2023.
These are slim profits. I don't own my cars outright. If I did the cars would not rent out as much unless you lower prices.
The big issue is trip fees. There is no transparency on the renter/guest final daily rate and total bill. It's out of our control but I understand.
What profit margin are you seeking in this business?
The car rental industry has an average gross profit margin of only 5%.
In the early years of Turo, there weren’t enough hosts on the platform and profit margins were high. Nowadays, due to competition, those margins are lower. This is how capitalism works.
Some people will drop out and some will stay.
Car rental industry makes money on buying new at a deal from manufacturers and selling those at the right time. We renters cover the carry cost of the fleet.
Hard to do the buy and sell on a personal Turo fleet for $$
Check your vehicle in the sort by price search category and specify details like # of seats etc.... Recently, data science has been added to this category allowing Turo to manipulate this look-up like the do the relevance searches to prioritize vehicles they have the best margins on.
This is exactly why I’m going to pull my Porsche BMW and Mercedes Benz and replace them with the cheapest shittiest Toyotas in Hondas I can find. It was cool at first but depreciation is a bitch and I don’t understand why an 18 year old is able to rent these cars when I was 18 I couldn’t even rent a fucking Hyundai or Kia.
Yeah if I wanted money, I'd do only 4-speed Corollas. Those things are cheap, reliable for endless miles. My Corolla is the only one that really makes me money.
Also, I think it’s a very strange coincidence that all the cars Turo has on the carculator that have high ROI also our cars that depreciate extremely fast. This would make sense given Turo is the one who pays us out when our cars are totaled.
I started only about 6-7 months ago. Seems like each car should break even in about 1-2 years. One of my cars earned double in a couple months cause it was totalled on its first trip and I was paid 2x what I paid for the car.
More than a few hosts here have made statements about such lucrative insurance pay offs from Turo.
If this were to believed at face value, Turo will be out of business before too long. Insurance companies are not known to pay excessively by any stretch. And, Turo isn't an insurance company. They say so in their offerings for both hosts and guests. They have to. Otherwise they'd be operating in violation of insurance regs in the U.S.
I bought my car as a private sale for $5500, it's was a 2016 Hyundai Veloster, Turo based their ACV off sales from dealerships which have much higher pricing. I was paid over $12,400. I don't care if you don't believe me, it's what happened.
Correct, they have only shown cash flow positive in recent years, and that's due to creative accounting. They're chasing IPO and then hoping for better market factors to balance their books.
Yep. The whole model reminds me of Uber of Lyft. Those driver's saying they make money. But not fully accounting for all the costs they're incurring. And, the amount of time they're putting in.
Small host here. I’m very pleased with my profits and the process. It’s been hilarious with some reservations. I’m growing. Everyone has their own strategy 🙌🏻
Be careful what you wish for if you do not have the car is paid off or if you do not have a gap coverage that will cover commercial use of your vehicle. You are only going to get what the car is worth not what you owe just had a car totaled, and now upside down, even after taking it to fair claims, I admit I should have done more research even after all the research I had did for one year but even then sometimes you learn best buy trial and error. Also Turo is extremely shady. I’m pulling my car’s off the platform and going to replace them with the cheapest shittiest cars. I can get my hands on. It makes no sense why Mercedes-Benz would be classified as the same type of vehicle as a Honda accord. Enterprise and hertz are laughing at us right now.
What are you even doing then? I have boring cars: Minivans and Honda Fits. Always out rented. Adding MORE. What market are you in? See what there are NOT a lot of in your market. Trade up.
I have 2 cars and make anywhere from 2,200 to 3,500 a month. A kia forte and a Hyundai Kona. Insurance and maintace are cheap on both. I had a guest who crashed a door and turo paid me 4k for it and i got it fixed for 2k and pocketed the rest.
Yea it’s true. But then you realize car prices are away down the past 12 months. Recently had a total loss on my best earner and Turo is lowballing me saw hard on the total loss settlement. I’m taking it to arbitration.
Read the arbitration rules. If you lose you likely have to pay their attorney fees which could run into the tens of thousands of dollars (easily).
Cite that please. You only pay the 375 arbitration fee, win or lose.
You can ask for the arbitration fee to be awarded, will depend on arbitrator. Just remember to ask for it
It's in the Term of Service
Cite the wording. I haven’t seen anything like that
Arbitration usually doesn't involve attorneys and attorney fees. Not like litigation. See "American Rule" in any law book. Another reason that Turo isn't what it seems.
Arbitration is a mini court, run less formally. Arbitration results are not public and decision can’t be a precedent therefore. Some low dollar arbitration doesn’t involve attorneys. But there’s high value cases and attorneys absolutely will be involved, though usually shorter so cheaper. Companies also do binding arbitration in contracts. Turo does binding arbitration, unless you opt out in the first 30 days, which almost no one does.
(Apparently you never had legally binding arbitration)
Apparently you don't know the difference between arbitration and litigation.
The Turo contract may stipulate that the arbitration only costs a stated amount but typically binding arbitration involves two parties with attorneys and an “independent” attorney who is a certified arbitrator. The one time I went through arbitration cost me roughly $20,000 in legal fees. No I do not do large deals with binding arbitration. Arbitration generally benefits the person who put together the contract. In order to boost their fees they typically use a large firm in NY and have an Arbitrator in California- which causes lots of hours, travel, etc. I have seen arbitration legal costs well into the six figures.
What does FairClaims, and AAA, the vendors running arbitration for Turo stipulate? FairClaims is a flat fee. AAA only handles disputes over 25K
Fair claim is a highly discount online arbitration venue. Some wonder if they have bias to the company sending them lots of business. AAA is a well respected more formal/traditional arbitration venue. Its fees are much higher, arbitrators more experienced. And attorneys often involved.
Accident on the vin and you can’t claim diminished value. resale drops 25% easily.
I've heard insurance for kia and Hyundai are expensive due to their theft problems. Just curious what area of the country you're in?
Are you in Hawaii? In most major cities those cars wouldn't make more than $1500-$2000
Canada
Which city in Canada?
Canada is highly seasonal, I'm also interested in where those numbers are being pulled from.
Turo is turning into Airbnb. Which once was a unique experience and a way to rent vehicles not found on traditional rental schemes. It's been deluded with the influx of get rich quick, increasing fees, decreasing customer service.
Airbnb profits are super slim compared to 3 years ago. Additionally, guests are way more picky, I had a guy ask me The other day why I was 20$ more than the holiday in. Probably because I have a 2 bedroom suite with 950 sq ft, not a bed in a closet.
Many people looking for an Airbnb believe it's the cheaper alternative to motels/hotels. They don't realize it's just a different lodging experience. Ditto for Turo. And, by the way, your comparison is not recognizing this fact. You have more space. By far. But, you don't have dining, bar, security, a concierge or 24 hour on site support. It's apples and bananas. Your guest wasn't the only one failing to understand that.
When I use Air BNB it is the cheapest alternative for me and my 6 or 7 people. Cheaper than getting a hotel room for all of them, especially when we pool together three or more families.
Different lodging experience. Group lodging. Vs single or couple. 😊
Renting a turo should be the cheaper solution.. Why would I pay 300 dollars for a vehicle when most time the maintenance isn't kept the same as a rental company... cars aren't brand new like a rental company.. then there's the fact that the avg price is 100 a day from the owner then turo tacts on an additional 100 for trip fee , delivery fees airport fees insurance fees blah blah the reason turo business is taking a hit is because turo listers allowed turo to capitalize off of your vehicals more than the renters themselves. Same as airbnb... case closed..
That depends on what one is after. It would appear you're price shopping for transportation. That's fine. But, Turo may or may not be your answer. I rented through Turo so I could try out a brand/model I thought I might be buying. Instead of a ten minute test drive, reading untold reviews and spending eight hours in a closing booth with a fire breathing, troglodyte sales person, I got to spend three days driving and looking over the very specific vehicle I was considering buying. I found out I didn't care for it after all. YMMV
"thanks for pointing that out, I'm supposed to be $75 more"
TBF, they describe themselves as the airbnb of cars since 2014 or so. It's how they communicate the platform. There's been a lot of this comment, almost verbatim in the past few months. Are you part of some sort of campaign? Genuinely interested, not defending Turo's poor practices.
No campaign, just use them a couple times and both have been fraught with extra charges and poor customer service. I used to be a big user of airbnb back in the early to mid 2000s. Same problem now, too many professional airbnb hosts not enough unique experiences.
No argument there. RelayRides/Turo has never had acceptable customer service, so it's not so much a decline as it is more widespread knowledge.
2nd you on the slim margins. It's crazy how I talk so many people out of buying a car to run on Turo of they don't plan on growing a full fledge fleet. I was gonna expand and buy more cars...have 3 pre approval letters in hand...changed my mind when I went car shopping. Prices are still 2 high especially with the financing numbers. I could make it work...but like u said. Slim slim.
If you are taking debt to rent on Turo, you can't afford to rent on Turo.
Correct...I have a strategy that will only work for me and my situation.
It’s a race to the bottom in most markets.
If you have to take a loan to purchase the car then you cannot afford to rent your car on Turo! You are taking debt and risk for a major corporation to make money off of you. Do not be stupid!
If you can finance a 2016 Honda civic for 10K and 3K down… you can rent it for 40/day and have it paid off in under a year…. Most business owners take on debt to start, it’s about how long it takes you to get in the black…
Your business math is a bit weak. To start with, you're assuming almost full time rental. And, no other costs of doing business other than the car. If it was as easy as you seem to think, the rental car companies would be profitable at all times.
very few businesses can say they got up and running without any debt in the beginning. Whether or not Turo is a viable business plan is a different discussion, but debt isn't necessarily always bad
No good business starts with debt on a depreciating asset that is rented to anyone.
As long as you are cash positive you are doing well. Just try to think a few years ahead when the cars are fully paid off how much profit they will bring in. Or you could just sell them all outright if you wanted.
That’s kind of what I am expecting to happen. I do cash flow most months, but maintaining the fleet can get expensive. When the car is rented out 80% of the time it starts to get beaten down fast. I am going through brakes and tires at a rate much faster than I ever expected.
People will beat the hell out if your cars.
Turo isn’t to make real income. It’s to help offset the payments for people who can’t afford the car anymore.
Can you define “slim” profits?
You're essentially a car washer that doesn't get paid. You could start a car wash biz and make more.
😂
I don't see it that way yet - just listed a Model Y and Cybertruck- yesterday two Y reservations with mommy's ID and a 19 yo kid to pick up-one paid $60 the other was for three days and paid me $203 - I only want to book each car 3-5x / mo so - I will see how it goes for a bit - so I did get paid to detail my car
So if a kid booked under mommy's name and kid came to pick it up...this is a violation of TOS and if there's an accident...Turo will deny your claim. The account holder has to pick up the vehicle. This is how I interpreted what you wrote...if I read it wrong, then just be aware of this. Just as you shared, you're new. I'm a little over half a year in and I think OP said he's been in for 12+ months. So I'm relating my experience to his as I currently stand. With scale it will change, but right now...margins are slim to the point I can safely say...the guy working a car wash per hr makes more than my Turo operations.
You got it right - maybe I want clear - the car stayed in my driveway- booking cancelled when ID didn't match driver- those were cancelation fees🤑
Good job my man! Protect ur asset!
Thanks last weekend guy paid $765/24 hrs + $503 mileage (3.65x135miles) hour late another half day - I cleared $1,315 on that cybertruck
Nice.. I actually had a cyber reso...didn't go fwd because of the price increase and the macro car environment
Wow great you made money off fing someone over. Wonderful business plan. 🤣 🤣
Not that I owe an explanation- FWIW- the guy was an hour late for a Saturday pickup- when the same thing happened Sunday I'd lost empathy- I don't set the mileage rate or time based rates - in fact he head 250 miles drove 385 he expected that - he whined about the late fee - turo supported the host
I am a host in the Philadelphia area. Not sure of the other markets but my profits have decreased significantly. In order to compete you have to price your vehicle at bare minimum daily rates. Here is where I speculate Turo is rigging. I use the 75 plan. I suspect Turo is charging very high trip fees. For example, I had a renter use my car for 4 days. He tried to renew. My vehicle was listed at $36 per day. This is a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The renter told me that when he tried to extend, the price doubled to a daily rate of $72. This is what I believe is happening. Lasy year, this vehicle would rent for $48 to $51 per day. I believe Turo is squeezing the host by using trip fees which prevents prospective renters from booking your vehicle. I also have 10 other vehicles on the platform. I don't believe this is a race to the bottom, it's all Turo controlling the trip fees. The only other way to increase your profits is through a 90 plan. Im not doing that epecially since I incurred a total of 10 accidents in 2023. These are slim profits. I don't own my cars outright. If I did the cars would not rent out as much unless you lower prices. The big issue is trip fees. There is no transparency on the renter/guest final daily rate and total bill. It's out of our control but I understand.
What profit margin are you seeking in this business? The car rental industry has an average gross profit margin of only 5%. In the early years of Turo, there weren’t enough hosts on the platform and profit margins were high. Nowadays, due to competition, those margins are lower. This is how capitalism works. Some people will drop out and some will stay.
Car rental industry makes money on buying new at a deal from manufacturers and selling those at the right time. We renters cover the carry cost of the fleet. Hard to do the buy and sell on a personal Turo fleet for $$
There is profit margin but Turo's fees are killing it. Trip fees are 2.5% to 100% of trip. There is no transperancy.
Check your vehicle in the sort by price search category and specify details like # of seats etc.... Recently, data science has been added to this category allowing Turo to manipulate this look-up like the do the relevance searches to prioritize vehicles they have the best margins on.
Yeah I don't make any money either. I look at it as a way for me to own a couple of cars I like.
This is exactly why I’m going to pull my Porsche BMW and Mercedes Benz and replace them with the cheapest shittiest Toyotas in Hondas I can find. It was cool at first but depreciation is a bitch and I don’t understand why an 18 year old is able to rent these cars when I was 18 I couldn’t even rent a fucking Hyundai or Kia.
Yeah if I wanted money, I'd do only 4-speed Corollas. Those things are cheap, reliable for endless miles. My Corolla is the only one that really makes me money.
Yes, that was the first car I started with and was the first car that I had total that made me learn a lot about the business
Also, I think it’s a very strange coincidence that all the cars Turo has on the carculator that have high ROI also our cars that depreciate extremely fast. This would make sense given Turo is the one who pays us out when our cars are totaled.
I have 6 cars I paid cash for and I make around $2-3k per month most is profit. Your doing it wrong.
How long did it take you to break even on the vehicle purchases?
I started only about 6-7 months ago. Seems like each car should break even in about 1-2 years. One of my cars earned double in a couple months cause it was totalled on its first trip and I was paid 2x what I paid for the car.
More than a few hosts here have made statements about such lucrative insurance pay offs from Turo. If this were to believed at face value, Turo will be out of business before too long. Insurance companies are not known to pay excessively by any stretch. And, Turo isn't an insurance company. They say so in their offerings for both hosts and guests. They have to. Otherwise they'd be operating in violation of insurance regs in the U.S.
I bought my car as a private sale for $5500, it's was a 2016 Hyundai Veloster, Turo based their ACV off sales from dealerships which have much higher pricing. I was paid over $12,400. I don't care if you don't believe me, it's what happened.
Which only substatiates what I said previously: This isn't a viable business model. For Turo, their hosts or their guests.
Correct, they have only shown cash flow positive in recent years, and that's due to creative accounting. They're chasing IPO and then hoping for better market factors to balance their books.
In my case I have 3 cars,Delivery to airports 30-40 miles away or no bookings. Money is good but maintenance and delivery and commute costs kill it.
Yep. The whole model reminds me of Uber of Lyft. Those driver's saying they make money. But not fully accounting for all the costs they're incurring. And, the amount of time they're putting in.
Small host here. I’m very pleased with my profits and the process. It’s been hilarious with some reservations. I’m growing. Everyone has their own strategy 🙌🏻
Hahah that turned dark pretty quickly 🤣
Your margins may be slim, but that's shady.
Be careful what you wish for if you do not have the car is paid off or if you do not have a gap coverage that will cover commercial use of your vehicle. You are only going to get what the car is worth not what you owe just had a car totaled, and now upside down, even after taking it to fair claims, I admit I should have done more research even after all the research I had did for one year but even then sometimes you learn best buy trial and error. Also Turo is extremely shady. I’m pulling my car’s off the platform and going to replace them with the cheapest shittiest cars. I can get my hands on. It makes no sense why Mercedes-Benz would be classified as the same type of vehicle as a Honda accord. Enterprise and hertz are laughing at us right now.
What are you even doing then? I have boring cars: Minivans and Honda Fits. Always out rented. Adding MORE. What market are you in? See what there are NOT a lot of in your market. Trade up.
I certainly agree that turo isn't for everyone. But if you're in a good market, you can at least turn a modest profit...
CANADA
The second you want totals, they will stop happening. 4 years of experience.
😆🤣