Airbnb for bikes
 

While looking at rental options, I've recently come across a couple of sites that offer rentals or ride share of bikes using a business model similar to that of Airbnb. They match renters and owners and take their cut (30%) of the rental.

Not sure if it's OK to name them, but mods can delete this part if they choose. Rideshare and Twisted roads are the sites I looked at. I have no affiliation to or interest in these businesses.

Sharing seems to be they way things are going now. I'm not an only child, but I don't like to share.
Have any of the members on HU rented from or put their bikes up for rent on these platforms? Please share your experiences.

Interesting idea. I see it's US only at the moment and roughly about 70% of what traditional rental companies are charging. A wider selection of bike types available though you may have to travel if you're set on something specific. I'd maybe have been interested a few years ago but we bought instead.

How (or if) it might work in the EU or Brexited Britain with different insurance etc rules will be interesting as will reading reports of how the companies handle the inevitable damage / accidents / theft etc. There was (maybe still is) a similar scheme running in New York for mediated peer to peer rental of high end photographic equipment but a few of those have not ended well with the cameras vanishing and the companies 'declining responsibility'.

What a good idea.

I have about seven prepped overland bike's that spend most of their lives gathering dust...

I'd rent them out if I could.

How about the scheme I've seen in S Af where the punter "buys" a fully kitted 4x4 with a guaranteed buyback at the end of their extended "rental" Ted?

Id be interested.

Got any ore info or link?

It's a really attractive concept for the customers... but becomes quite awkward for the suppliers. :)

Here's a video that talks quite well about the hidden costs of rideshare/turo-type rentals of exotic cars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpRzPVjNGNc It's not *quite* the same thing as bikes, but I think a lot of the points carry over. Basically, for the owner it's a lot of risk and a lot of wear&tear, and the rental costs that people are prepared to pay are never going to be high enough to cover it.

I have thought about that before..

Tricky though. I assume a customer would want a guaranteed buy back price. Or at least a minimum.

And then there's insurance and liability. The two words that ruin every entrepreneur's dream.

Buybacks are quite common on car and camper sales in tourist-heavy countries like NZ and Australia too. But their guaranteed buybacks are like 30-50% of the purchase price (to be fair, a lot of them say you'll get more money if you sell the car yourself to the next tourist).

For bikes, there's a company in Peru that does it. The TLDR version is that for a bike, the difference with the buyback will be roughly equivalent to a month's rental cost.

Rideshare and Twisted Roads both cover the owners bike and injury with their own policy if the rider is at fault. The rider also needs to have been licensed for 3 years, be over 25 and have a liability policy.
Not sure if it will be all that easy when it comes time to claim though. What if another road user is at fault? How do they decide who is at fault?
Usually you'd just claim from your own insurance and let them duke it out with the other party, but here you'll have to show cause.
Airbnb covers their owners' property, but the risk is far less.

I travel to the USA every summer and would like to give it a whirl this year. It's a real PITA getting a bike registered, as a non-resident, and then having to sell or store it until the following summer.
Touring Ted. I'm sure there are many foreigners who would like to arrive, hop on and ride and then walk away at the end of their holiday. Perhaps a reasonable rental secured by large deposit would be more attractive than buy-back.

It's something I might look into if I don't emigrate. :innocent:

After taking a closer look at riders sharing platforms, I can't see the attraction for the owner. They charge 30 % gross for facilitating the transaction. That's about 60% nett. While Air bnb charges 3%.
There is a higher risk involved with renting motorcycles, but the renter pays for the insurance. So I don't see the justification for a 30% fee.
The insurance deductible for the renter is $2000. ouch!
I suppose this trend is relatively new and the numbers will move about according to demand. We'll just have to wait and see.

I like the idea of this bikeswap.org but it doesn't seem to have gained much momentum.
If trust is established, paperwork vetted, insurance rock solid, seems like a good idea.