5 Principles Of Car Sharing Every Successful Turo Host Follows
This post is about the 5 principles of car sharing every successful Turo host follows.
When you first start your Turo business, it is crucial that you follow these 5 principles of car sharing to be successful on Turo.
There are some basic principles that every successful Turo host follows from the very beginning.
I can’t tell you how many times in my early days of Turo and even now these tips pay off for me. I owe a large amount of my success to these tips.
So let’s get to it.
Here are the top 5 principles of car sharing every host needs to follow to be successful on Turo.
1. Always treat your renters with respect
This sounds obvious, but if you’ve been a host on Turo for any amount of time, you know just how frustrating and even disrespectful renters can be at times.
Regardless, you are operating a business and you need to uphold your reputation by always treating your customers with respect.
Now that doesn’t mean you should let them walk all over you and take advantage of you.
Not at all.
You’re running a business and need to treat it as such. But it does mean setting your pride aside sometimes and showing patience and kindness to people regardless of how they behave.
You can be firm and stand your ground on things without sacrificing your integrity.
2. Create an experience for your renter
What sets you apart from every other car rental company or Turo host on the platform?
If you’re just offering cars for rent, then the answer is nothing.
You need to create a good and memorable experience for all of your guests. I wrote a post about how to create a memorable experience for guests that you can read here.
In a nutshell, creating an experience for your guests means adding value to their trip any chance you get. That can be placing charging cables in all of your cars for your guests, or having really great communication whenever they need something. Even offering them recommendations for great local restaurants, events and activities.
Give them an experience and they will leave you 5-star reviews and possibly rent from you again in the future.
3. Don’t cut corners
When it comes to car sharing, cutting corners is a big NO.
You cannot afford to cut corners because if anything happens and you have not covered all of your bases, you can end up with a lot of financial setback and even lose your business.
Here is a list of things you should never cut corners on:
Cleaning
It can be tempting to skimp on cleaning cars after a while, especially with very large fleets. But I cannot stress how important it is to clean your cars before and after EVERY trip.
If you let your cars go uncleaned, or do a cheap job cleaning them, you WILL hear about it from your renters and it will be reflected in your reviews. And reviews make or break your entire business.
An unclean car is a death wish for any Turo business, so clean your cars.
Check out this Ultimate Cleaning Guide for Turo Cars I made here.
Maintenance
Keeping your cars maintained is crucial. You do not want your guests driving unmaintained cars. That can put their safety at risk, as well as the safety of your vehicle. Check out this Car Sharing Maintenance Checklist I created here.
Regularly maintain your cars and keep all receipts and records of maintenance.
Insurance
When you rent your cars on Turo, there are two types of insurance you must have.
The first is Turo insurance.
That’s the insurance Turo offers you when your car is being rented out on a trip. You choose what type of plan you want. You can read about Turo’s protection plans on their website here.
The other type of insurance is the insurance you need to purchase elsewhere to protect your car when it is not being rented out. That’s all the time it is just sitting in your lot or you are driving it.
This is important not only for legal reasons, but because things happen and it’s never a good idea to drive a car without proper insurance or it can cost you big time.
Always always insure your vehicles.
GPS Trackers
You might think this is an unnecessary expense, but it absolutely is not. If your cars do not have GPS trackers, it can make it very difficult and sometimes impossible to get your car back if someone tries to steal it.
And that does happen. Believe me.
People have attempted to steal my cars multiple times. Thankfully to GPS trackers, I’ve been able to repo them every time.
There was only one time my 2014 Corvette did not have tracking capabilities because OnStar had just stopped servicing 2014 models and older.
Of course, that was when a renter tried to steal the car. It took me a lot longer working with the police to get it back. I also lost a lot of money with the time the car could have been getting rented but wasn’t.
If you think you don’t need GPS trackers in your cars, think again.
4. Keep documentation of everything
Never give a car to a renter before you’ve taken very thorough and detailed photos of the interior and exterior of the car. If anything happens during the trip, the photos you submitted before the trip will prove to Turo the car’s condition when you gave it to the renter.
Also be sure to always keep records of your car’s maintenance. Check out this vehicle maintenance checklist for Turo hosts.
There have been countless times where a customer has tried to blame me for bad tires or bad breaks when they damaged the vehicle or are just trying to get a discount from me. All it takes is for me to pull up my maintenance records to show that I changed those tires last week, or those are brand new breaks to prove to Turo the vehicle has been maintained and was in good condition at the start of the trip.
Photos document the physical condition of how the car was before your guest received it. Maintenance records shows the internal and less visible care that you take for each of your cars.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for a 5-star review
The last rule of thumb is to prompt your renters to leave you a 5-star review at the end of their trip.
You don’t need to be pushy about it, but a friendly reminder to leave a rating in the app is a great way to put it on your renter’s mind.
And as long as you are providing them the best car rental experience, more times than not, they will leave you a 5-star review.
Reviews make or break your business. People always check the reviews before they rent a vehicle. That’s why it’s so important to run an honest and respectable business and have many great reviews.
If you follow these tips, you’re already on track for success on Turo. Keep it up!
This post was about the 5 principles of car sharing every Turo host must follow to be successful on Turo.
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