Some tips for renting a car with Turo

Given how the pandemic affected the major rental car companies and American travel patterns, it's been a rough year for people trying to rent a car. Some tourists in Hawaii got so desperate they were renting U-Hauls to drive around the island! In our case, we've not seen a single available date in all of 2021 at our favorite car rental place (the one in Albany that's inside the train station).

Eleven years ago, I did a long-term consulting gig for a tiny company called Turo. They were aiming to be the AirBnB of cars and given that they're about to have their IPO, I'd say they've succeeded. Despite their huge growth and the current pain surrounding traditional car rentals, I'm surprised more people aren't familiar with them.

The true genius of Turo wasn't the idea or the technology, it was the insurance. They were the first ones to figure out a way to cover the driver (ie, the renter) for accidents without passing on any liability to the car owner (ie, the person who rented their car out). They knew that no one would put their car up for rent if a stranger driving it could make their personal auto insurance rates go up. 

If you're having trouble finding rental cars, or if you'd like to rent some fun/exotic cars for a lot less than you'd pay from a luxury rental outfit, give Turo a look. Liability insurance is included, and two levels of comprehensive coverage are also available.

Getting a free charge for our Turo Telsa in Yosemite

Given how popular my "20 things I learned being an AirBnB host" post was, I thought I'd share some of my own personal Turo tips.

Avoid Diva owners. In my experience, owners on Turo fall into two basic categories: those who realize they're providing a mobility service for paying customers, and those who feel like they're renting out "their baby" and expect you to treat them like a King whose daughter you're courting. Maybe if you're looking for a Sunday afternoon spin in someone's Mclaren or BMW i8, you'll tolerate kissing their ring a bit. But if you're just looking for a Honda Civic to get you to the campground, run away from these listings as fast as possible.

Luckily they're pretty easy to spot – long lists of demands, lots of discussions about fines, exclamation points, scolding tone, and very little about how they can help you have a good trip.

👍 pickup options!

Look for owners who offer options. It's surprising to me how many owners expect you to arrive to their remote pickup location by car. Yes, there's Uber, but have you tried getting an Uber in a distant suburb of Hartford recently? Or rural Vermont? Where wait times of 45+ minutes are the norm... and so are weak cell signals and Uber drivers who cancel on you after you've been waiting half an hour for them to arrive.

Equally surprising is an owner who expects you to return the car sparkling clean on the inside and out, and doesn't at least offer an option during checkout for you to return the car dirty in exchange for a reasonable cleaning fee.

What you're looking for is an owner who has empathy for their customer. For example, if you're arriving by plane or public transport, do they offer the option to pick up the car at the airport or train station? Or if you already own your own car, but are renting a specialty vehicle through Turo, will the owner allow you to park your car on-site during the rental? Yes, there will likely be a fee for these conveniences, but it shows that they're in a customer-focused mindset, and that's key.

Check out the reviews of the owner. The best owners are ones who've also been Turo renters (you can see both types of reviews on their profile page). Be sure leave an honest review for the benefit of those renting after you. I know it can be hard, but there are nice ways to leave critical feedback. If their location is really hard to reach, say that. If the owner was unreasonable about their cleanliness standards, say that. Think of the time and stress you'll save those who come after you.

Set expectations accordingly. When I book a car I immediately send a warm welcome message that tells them exactly what I want and how I'm planning on returning the car. Here's an example:

Hello. I'm Brian, an experienced Turo and Telsa user. We're really looking forward to our trip! We're arriving (and departing) by train to Hartford Union Station and would like to do our pickup and drop-off there. We're taking the car to Vermont to stay with friends, and in our experience the outside of the car will get a little dusty, given the country roads. The floormats will likey be a bit dusty, too. I know owners can be particular about how their cars are washed, so I'd prefer to just pay an additional fee for you to clean it your preferred way after we drop the car off. If that's not possible, please let me know the name of a local place you trust to have the exterior washed and we'll take it there on our way back.

This accomplishes several things: 

• it lets them plan for a wash between you and the next renter 
• it puts any "whoever washed my car ruined the paint job!" talk squarely back in their court, because you took it where they told you to (save your receipt!)
  
• it establishes, in advance, an agreement about the expected condition of the car when you return it
  

This brings me to my next point: 

Communicate only within in the Turo app. If you end up in a dispute, Turo staff can look at the entirety of your communication to review your case. If most that occurred elsewhere, facts are much harder to prove. In my initial contact message, I'm making a record of how I intend to return the car so there can be no angry review "customer returned the car dirty!"
"Umm, I told you I was going to at the beginning and you said that's fine"

Budget your time appropriately. If you're relying on a taxi or Uber to get you to/from the pickup point, make sure you know how far the trip is and allow lots of slack in your schedule for things to take longer than expected. This is especially important if you're catching a plane or train at the end of your Turo trip. This isn't unique to Turo – I very nearly missed an important family function because the line at the airport Hertz rental counter at PDX was an hour and a half long.

Don't skip the guided photography in the Turo app. The check-in and check-out process includes guided picture taking of all the parts of the car. Keep this in mind if you're returning the car at night – find some strong street lights to park under so the pictures are clear. Also note that you can add more photos beyond the ones the app prompts you to take. You can absolutely be assigned fines well after your reservation ends, so this is in your best interest. It's also a good idea to take a short video that includes the roof and the undercarriage of the car if at all possible. 

Use Chase Sapphire to pay, but Check for Amex Offers… Turo counts as travel to Chase, so you'll get 3 points per dollar. But there are occasionally Amex Offers for Turo, too.

Special Tesla note: Owners can remotely monitor nearly every aspect of your driving. Some even put the car into a special mode that I like to call "teen driver" mode (Chill Mode in official Telsa parlance) that limits the car's speed. I'll just say this: it would be quite the downer to spring for a Model S only to find that you couldn't ever go above the posted speed limit. So make sure you get clarification on that.

Bookmark plugshare.com on your phone – we've found a surprising number of free chargers around, and it's nice to be able to top up while you're parked at a garage or a shopping mall or a hotel. It limits the number of trips you have to make to the official Tesla Superchargers (which cost money).

Speaking of charging, make sure the owner includes the household outlet adapter for the car, as well as the converter for other kinds of EV charging plugs. A normal household 110v outlet can put 20 miles of range into the batteries overnight (≈ 2 miles per hour of charging). A 240v "level 2" charger can do between 9–52 miles per hour, and a "level 3" (aka Supercharger) can put 170 miles of range onto a car in 30 minutes. Note that not all public Tesla chargers are Superchargers!