AirBNB for cars? How about Turo

November 27, 2019 | Jeremy Goldfarb


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Sometimes these posts are reserved for some interesting finds I stumble across while reading. Today is one such post.

 

Renting a car can be a real pain sometimes. Long waits, wrong car, salespeople, no inventory......what about cost?

 

If we look at industry disruptors of late, the major headlines that stand out are ride sharing, hospitality and even my own industry....wealth management. Now, both AirBNB and UBER are having their own growing pains with regulators and industry mainstays that have enjoyed margins devoid of competition for years, but I will save that for another day. Disruptive technology does exactly that.....disrupt.

 

I stumbled across an article in WSJ on a company called TURO. You can find the article here. This company is essentially an AirBNB for cars where individual owners can rent out their vehicles in the same fashion as a property owner can rent out their property. There are a few others out there (I saw one called Zipcar) but suffice to say, it's a pretty interesting alternative to car rentals.

 

Full disclosure, I have not tried this as of yet, but guaranteed I will. I'm sure the regulators (backed by some car rental lobby group) will clamp down on this "wild west industry option" at one point, and they probably should. In the meantime though.....the disruption continues.