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3 Best Apps That Come Close to ‘Airbnb for Cars’
Apps like Turo offer a rental car equivalent to Airbnb but aren't quite as widespread.
After spending seven years in the U.S. Air Force as an Arabic linguist, Carissa is now a freelance writer using points and miles to fund a four-year (and counting!) adventure. She previously worked as a reporter for The Points Guy. Her writing has since been featured in numerous publications, including Forbes, Business Insider, and The Balance. When she's not flying, you'll usually find her in a Priority Pass lounge somewhere, sipping tea and cursing slow Wi-Fi.
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Do you live in a city? Or maybe you’re in college? Whatever the reason, you might not own a car and you’d like to rent one on occasion. Maybe traditional rental car companies just aren’t doing it for you, and you’ve already had great success with gig economy companies such as Uber and Airbnb.
Or, on the flip side, you’ve got your own car but you don’t need it all that often, especially now that you work from home. It’d be great to make a little extra money without having to put in a lot of effort. Why let your vehicle sit around and collect dust when it could be put to work for you?
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an Airbnb for cars?
Let’s take a look at three different car-sharing companies that act like Airbnb for cars, plus one app worthy of an honorable mention that isn't necessarily a peer-to-peer rental, but still functions as a great rental car alternative. All of these platforms offer the ability to rent cars, whether you’re an owner or someone looking for a ride.
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These three apps are the best when it comes to Airbnb-like services for cars:
1. Turo
Probably the most well-known name on this list, Turo does exactly as is advertised. As a renter, you can input your location and the dates during which you’ll need the car.
Turo will then come back with a list of results from which to choose. You can filter by price, the type of car you’d like to rent and delivery fee.
But that's not the only way you can search cars. Maybe you want the car to be the focal point of your trip. If you're seeking to rent a particular vehicle (rather than rent a vehicle in a particular place), then use Turo's limitless search feature. With it, you can search vehicles by make and model — and then peg your trip around that.
(Image courtesy of Turo)
While Turo's base pricing is transparent up front (that's the rental fee plus trip fee), you still could end up paying more than you thought — particularly if you purchase the added protection plan. Though not required, you may need it if you don't already have coverage through another car insurance policy.
Though it varies by owner, any cars also have mileage caps (200 miles is common), and you'll typically owe more if you exceed that cap.
Turo is growing its worldwide presence, available in countries including the U.S., Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.
Turo is especially appealing for United MileagePlus members. Customers who link their accounts and book a car receive 1 United mile per dollar spent on Turo. If it’s your first time booking, the deal is even sweeter; United customers earn 5 miles on every dollar spent on their first Turo trip.
Have you used car-sharing services like Turo, Car Shair or ZipCar?
Harlan Vaughn
Contributing Travel Writer
I frequently used ZipCar in Brooklyn and had only good experiences. The cars were always clean with full gas tanks, and the few times I had a small issue, customer service was impeccable. It can be pricey, but if you can rent at an off-peak time (typically in the middle of the day during the week), you can find better rates. The cars were always easy to find and unlock. I never had a major issue. It gave me a lot of freedom to take day trips when my schedule was flexible or I just felt like driving somewhere.
I frequently used ZipCar in Brooklyn and had only good experiences. The cars were always clean with full gas tanks, and the few times I had a small issue, customer service was impeccable. It can be pricey, but if you can rent at an off-peak time (typically in the middle of the day during the week), you can find better rates. The cars were always easy to find and unlock. I never had a major issue. It gave me a lot of freedom to take day trips when my schedule was flexible or I just felt like driving somewhere.
Harlan Vaughn
Contributing Travel Writer
Sally French
Lead Travel Writer/ Spokesperson
These services are super hit-and-miss. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes the experience is abysmal and I wish I had just rented a normal rental car. It's largely due to car quality. With a traditional car rental company, I almost always know I'm getting a relatively new car. With something like Turo I sometimes worry the car I rented is older than me. But I do appreciate that many of these services allow hourly rentals, which can often be way more affordable than a standard rental if I only need it for a couple hours.
These services are super hit-and-miss. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes the experience is abysmal and I wish I had just rented a normal rental car. It's largely due to car quality. With a traditional car rental company, I almost always know I'm getting a relatively new car. With something like Turo I sometimes worry the car I rented is older than me. But I do appreciate that many of these services allow hourly rentals, which can often be way more affordable than a standard rental if I only need it for a couple hours.
Sally French
Lead Travel Writer/ Spokesperson
Harlan Vaughn
Contributing Travel Writer
I frequently used ZipCar in Brooklyn and had only good experiences. The cars were always clean with full gas tanks, and the few times I had a small issue, customer service was impeccable. It can be pricey, but if you can rent at an off-peak time (typically in the middle of the day during the week), you can find better rates. The cars were always easy to find and unlock. I never had a major issue. It gave me a lot of freedom to take day trips when my schedule was flexible or I just felt like driving somewhere.
I frequently used ZipCar in Brooklyn and had only good experiences. The cars were always clean with full gas tanks, and the few times I had a small issue, customer service was impeccable. It can be pricey, but if you can rent at an off-peak time (typically in the middle of the day during the week), you can find better rates. The cars were always easy to find and unlock. I never had a major issue. It gave me a lot of freedom to take day trips when my schedule was flexible or I just felt like driving somewhere.
Harlan Vaughn
Contributing Travel Writer
Sally French
Lead Travel Writer/ Spokesperson
These services are super hit-and-miss. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes the experience is abysmal and I wish I had just rented a normal rental car. It's largely due to car quality. With a traditional car rental company, I almost always know I'm getting a relatively new car. With something like Turo I sometimes worry the car I rented is older than me. But I do appreciate that many of these services allow hourly rentals, which can often be way more affordable than a standard rental if I only need it for a couple hours.
These services are super hit-and-miss. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes the experience is abysmal and I wish I had just rented a normal rental car. It's largely due to car quality. With a traditional car rental company, I almost always know I'm getting a relatively new car. With something like Turo I sometimes worry the car I rented is older than me. But I do appreciate that many of these services allow hourly rentals, which can often be way more affordable than a standard rental if I only need it for a couple hours.
Sally French
Lead Travel Writer/ Spokesperson
Harlan Vaughn
Contributing Travel Writer
I frequently used ZipCar in Brooklyn and had only good experiences. The cars were always clean with full gas tanks, and the few times I had a small issue, customer service was impeccable. It can be pricey, but if you can rent at an off-peak time (typically in the middle of the day during the week), you can find better rates. The cars were always easy to find and unlock. I never had a major issue. It gave me a lot of freedom to take day trips when my schedule was flexible or I just felt like driving somewhere.
I frequently used ZipCar in Brooklyn and had only good experiences. The cars were always clean with full gas tanks, and the few times I had a small issue, customer service was impeccable. It can be pricey, but if you can rent at an off-peak time (typically in the middle of the day during the week), you can find better rates. The cars were always easy to find and unlock. I never had a major issue. It gave me a lot of freedom to take day trips when my schedule was flexible or I just felt like driving somewhere.
Harlan Vaughn
Contributing Travel Writer
Sally French
Lead Travel Writer/ Spokesperson
These services are super hit-and-miss. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes the experience is abysmal and I wish I had just rented a normal rental car. It's largely due to car quality. With a traditional car rental company, I almost always know I'm getting a relatively new car. With something like Turo I sometimes worry the car I rented is older than me. But I do appreciate that many of these services allow hourly rentals, which can often be way more affordable than a standard rental if I only need it for a couple hours.
These services are super hit-and-miss. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes the experience is abysmal and I wish I had just rented a normal rental car. It's largely due to car quality. With a traditional car rental company, I almost always know I'm getting a relatively new car. With something like Turo I sometimes worry the car I rented is older than me. But I do appreciate that many of these services allow hourly rentals, which can often be way more affordable than a standard rental if I only need it for a couple hours.
Sally French
Lead Travel Writer/ Spokesperson
2. Car Shair
Are you feeling fancy? Do you live in Orange County, Los Angeles or San Diego, in California, Las Vegas, Dallas or Atlanta? Consider Car Shair, another available app to rent people’s cars. This one, however, allows you to book ultra-high-end cars.
🤓Nerdy Tip
Although it has a relatively small geographic footprint, you can also rent ebikes from this platform, with prices as low as $4 per hour or even less for daily rates.
For Car Shair, we conducted the same search as we did above with Turo, looking for a one-day rental in San Diego at the end of August. Initial results returned a few different options, including an Audi A3 E-tron with a starting rate of $51 for the day.
After adding in insurance and taxes, the total rose to $72.33 for the day.
This is significantly cheaper than the older Toyota Corolla offered on Getaround, and for this price, you’re renting a plug-in Audi hatchback.
Long story short, if you’re in a market where Car Shair operates, it’s well worth a look for a vehicle.
Our honorable mention here goes to Zipcar, which is a multinational car-sharing platform. Why just an honorable mention? Zipcar technically isn’t a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform. Instead, all the cars available for rent are owned by Zipcar itself.
As a Zipcar member, you simply head over to an available car, unlock it via the app and begin driving. There’s no denying it’s convenient.
It has a presence in the U.S., Canada, Costa Rica, Iceland, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Kingdom, so it’s likely you’ve seen one or two in your travels.
However, Zipcar membership entails a monthly fee. Unlike these other applications, you’ll need to either pay $9 per month or $90 per year in order to access car reservations. In return, you’ll get free gas on all your trips and a maximum trip length of 180 miles included, with an additional cost per mile after that.
The types of cars you can rent differ, but rates start at $10 per hour and $83 per day.
Although peer-to-peer car rental sharing hasn’t blown up like Airbnb, there are still some decent options for those looking for short-term rentals. Turo is the best known with the largest presence, and you’ll find its platform across a few different countries. Car Shair, meanwhile, offers a variety of rental cars in specific locations — and you may even find a deal or two on a high-class vehicle.
Otherwise, if you’re a car owner, you could consider one of these sites to earn some extra money on the side.
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