Turo is a peer-to-peer car sharing App that is doing to the car rental market, what Airbnb has done to the hotel industry. Giving car owners a platform to rent out their car when they are not using it, from a day to a week or longer.
Until now, this has mostly been aimed and marketed at leisure travellers or those wanting to drive their dream car for the weekend. Now Turo believe they have enough cars on their books to go after the business market!
Turo for Business Travel?
This week, Turo announced and implemented their move into the Business travel market. With updates already made online and within their app, they have made hiring a Turo car easier for Business travellers.
Introducing Turo Business Class, a carefully curated collection of vehicles hand-picked for busy professionals.
– Turo Press Release
These are not vehicles solely for business travellers but cars already available for hire in the Turo system that will meet certain criteria:
- Car Host offers curbside delivery to save you time.
- The host must have a proven track record with good reviews.
- Only newer cars are considered.
- All cars must have features that are convenient for business travellers.
How Does it Work
Booking a car is done via Turo.com or on their app (Android | iOS). Regardless of whether you are travelling for work or not but are interested in the “Business” selection you need to toggle the new filter – Cars for Business Travel – on. The list will then be reduced to only those cars that match the above criteria.
For online users, the filter is shown in the left margin after you run your initial search query. Once applied, the filter removes any non-conforming cars, leaving the ones that do and marks them with a Business Class logo.
If you are on the App, click filters once you have run the search and select this option.
I picked a random week in November and Turo returned 189 cars for rent, for a Wednesday to Friday period. I then applied the Business Class filter and this reduced down to a selection of 8.
Not a bad offering, considering Turo are still growing in the UK market. They are much more established in the US with a wider variety of cars.
The selection consisted of:
- 4 x Tesla Model S
- 2 x Tesla Model X
- 1 x KIA Niro
- 1 x Nissan Leaf
Interestingly, 3 of the 4 Tesla Model S cars had 5 or more reviews. The others only had 1 or 2 each, and neither of the 2 Tesla Model X vehicles had a single review against them!!
I‘d rather see a smaller selection of cars that truly fit the criteria set out by Turo, than a larger list that doesn’t! I struggle to see how either of the Model Xs have a proven track record yet not have a single review to show for it!
In Summary
I am a Turo fan, and want to see them become more established in all markets. The car rental space has been stagnant for years, with sky-high pricing for some of the dullest cars ever manufactured! The Turo mobile app and process is simple to use and navigate in.
What real impact Turo can have on the Business market with this strategy is still to be seen. Most business travel is done for companies who already have agreements with the big car hire brands, sometimes heavily discounted pricing or provide 1 class upgrades. Neither of which seem to be addressed with Turo at this point.
One option they could take, and that hire companies do offer (albeit poorly), is to roll out a loyalty scheme with points/miles earned per rental. Every business traveller loves to earn rewards and with such a great range of cars on offer, Turo Rewards could be very valuable!
If you are a business traveller, have a look at my current Back to Business Tech Special that is running throughout October.
