has anyone provided a rental car to guests? if so how do you manage it?
i was thinking i could get a simple car and rent it through “getaround” or another site.
I did it once, just cash direct to me, it was a very specific and special situation that I am unlikely to be in again. I also rented my truck via Turo for awhile. After it was taken camping and then a week later had a nail in the tire and I had to buy a new tire I decided the small payments were not in proportion to the risk At that time that was for a 10 year old truck (but in superb condition) sitting my my garage unused. I can’t imagine making enough to buy a car to lend to guests. Cars are dangerous and the liability issues tremendous. I have a high risk tolerance but I think the risk is too high.
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I agree with K9 - don’t do it. I provide our guests help in renting one, though. I give them some recommendations on companies, and I’ve (once or twice) submitted a reservation for them online. The company did not require a credit card to take the reservation, so I was just acting as their administrative assistant.
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I find the idea totally frightening. The liability is way more than I am willing to bear or insure against.
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We naively allowed use of our second car out to a European family group of guests a few years ago, as they seemed pleasant, organised, confident and the father was a truck driver at home.
What could possibly go wrong ?
A phone call from the local police while I was at the checkout at the supermarket to say that this car had been involved in a hit & run incident.
With another parked vehicle (hit twice) and fortunately not a human.
The other car had been badly damaged, and the insurance was in my name.
All 5 guests denied that anything had happened, although the other car was hit quite hard while they were all sitting in the same car.
The incident was witnessed in daylight by a bystander who put a note on the damaged car with our registration number.
The owner of the damaged car turned out to be a Russian security guard / bouncer for a local business, who had just fixed up his car for sale.
He was very understanding, and was happy for us to organise payment for damage from the guests at the local police station.
(we wanted this witnessed)
The guest driver didn’t turn up, and decided to go souvenir shopping instead - we had to spend another hour chasing him to the next town,
Fortunately I had photocopied the guest’s European drivers license on arrival, which allowed us to have these fines followed up once the guests had returned home.
Plus the local car rental company who this guest had also used,
Hire company called us after their departure for help to track guest for more unpaid tickets.
On top of that we have had many unpaid toll bills, and parking fines from other guests who never mention or wish to pay for these things.
All monies recovered eventually, but after 2 very bad experiences from seemingly nice families,
never ever again !
There are plenty of car rental companies around that people can use, or they can take the bus.
and now we only have 1 car for personal use.
In conclusion:
Hostertully, maybe recommend established national, or local car hire companies instead, unfortunately guests take advantage of these convenient offered extras.
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We rent our cars on Getaround And have been for 4 years. We have horror stories and great stories, but overall if you have a car you don’t mind getting knocked around it’s great money. We now only rent our Mini Cooler after a fiasco with our sports car, Getaround paid and it’s fine but was a huge pain! I think we have had maybe two guests ever rent our Mini.