Whether you are planning your vacation or looking for a side hustle for some extra income, you should ask yourself, “Is Turo worth it?” Turo has been around since 2010 and since then has spread across multiple countries. Instead of using a traditional car rental company, it utilizes the sharing economy of peer-to-peer rentals.
Generally, using Turo can help renters save money on their car rental compared to a traditional car company. For hosts, it can help pay off a car faster or earn up to $1,000 per month per vehicle. Many people who use Turo think it is worth using.
Using Turo can be very beneficial for the host and the renter. Not only can it save renters money instead of using regular car rental companies, but it can also help earn hosts more than $10,000 per vehicle per year. Let’s break down why Turo would be worth using if you are a renter and/or a host.
Turo 101
Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform that utilizes the sharing economy. The sharing economy is renting out stuff you own and getting paid in return. There are sites for tools, yards, and garage space, along with other car-renting platforms such as Getaround.
Turo is the category king with peer-to-peer carsharing. Two years ago in 2021, Turo had more than 85,000 hosts and 160 million vehicles on its platform. Having that many cars listed allowed 1.3 million people to rent vehicles with no end in sight of growth. So how worth it is Turo for renters?
Why Turo Is Worth It For Renters
There are pros and cons as to why you would rent from Turo. The pros of using Turo are a wider vehicle selection, 24/7 Turo customer support, cheaper daily rates than traditional rental companies, convenience and great protection plan options.
Wider Vehicle Selection
Anytime I have rented a car from a car lot, the options are limited to 1-3 similar cars. Turo, depending on your city, usually has a very large selection of cars you can rent like Jeep Wranglers, Rolls Royces, Teslas, BMWs, vintage cars and even three-wheelers like Polaris Slingshots and Vanderhalls.
Turo also has more regular cars such as Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics for those that need some efficiency to get around town. There are also several filters to use when you are searching for a Turo such as transmission type, Turo Go eligibility, number of seats, and features such as car seats, ski racks, heated seats, and more. Traditional rental car companies usually only offer an infant or toddler car seat.
24/7 Turo Customer Support
If you ever need help while renting a Turo car, you will always have help available to you. Sometimes the host may not be available during the night but Turo always has help available. In fact, Turo hosts are required to keep a Turo incident information card in the glove box of whatever vehicle they are renting. On that incident information card is a number for you to the car in case there are any incidents.
I personally have chatted and called customer support several times. Every single time I never wait more than 2-3 minutes and the folks I have spoken to have been more than pleasant. Other car rental platforms do NOT have as good of customer support as Turo. Having 24/7 customer support is a good enough reason alone why Turo is worth it.
Cheaper Daily Rates
In comparison to other rental car companies, Turo’s day rate is around $20 cheaper for basic sedans. Especially in the past couple of years, rental car prices have been through the roof. On our recent trip to Hawaii, our rental car was $250+ per day for a basic sedan. Fortunately, there are lots of Turo hosts that are trying to make some semi-passive income on the side and make their cars available to rent.
More Turo cars to rent = more competitive pricing
Click here to go read an article on how to save as much money as possible when renting a Turo car.
Convenience
Unlike rental car companies, many hosts on Turo offer delivery. Hosts can deliver the car to the airport, your house, or some public meetup place. Maybe you need a car for the next few hours to run some errands if your significant other has your car or your car just won’t start. Many hosts even offer 1-hour delivery in case you need a car right away.
Contactless pickup is also preferred instead of doing a physical key hand-off. Most often when you rent from Turo you will receive a code to unlock a lockbox where the key will be stored. This not only creates a safer environment but also eliminates the need to schedule when to meet the host. I personally have only talked to a few of my renters and have never been asked to physically hand someone the keys.
Great Protection Plans
There are three different protection plans available to renters: Premier, Standard, and Minimum. Traditional car companies, on the other hand, often only give you one option to get insurance for your car. Turo gives you different options that can vary from fewer costs or more protection up front.
Hosts also have their own Turo protection plans in case an accident happens. Because both renters and hosts have the option to choose Turo insurance (which I highly recommend), there is a very good chance there will be more than enough coverage for any damages to be repaired as quickly as possible.
As an all-star host on Turo, I have seen the good and bad of renting on Turo. Although I see a lot of good results from Turo occur, there are definitely some reasons why Turo is not worth it for some.
Why Turo Is Not Worth It For Renters
Turo is not worth it for some renters when it comes to mileage limits, host cancellations, reliability, and availability.
Mileage Limits
One big disadvantage that Turo has is mileage limits. Although it is decided by the host whether to limit miles on a trip, many hosts, including myself, do put on mileage limits. This ensures that guests don’t take them across multiple states and really rack up the miles on the car.
Traditional rental car companies often don’t have mileage limits but ask you to just cover the gas. Most Turo hosts offer “Unlimited miles” extra, but it will come with a small fee for the renter.
Host Cancellations
Hosts have the option to cancel your trip regardless of how much time there is when your trip starts. Even though Turo penalizes hosts for canceling trips on guests it unfortunately still happens.
Having a Turo host cancel on you is kind of like your hotel canceling the room you booked with them. Something is definitely inconvenient.
Learn more here on how to spot a good host from a bad one.
Car Reliability
Turo’s vehicles are often a few years older than cars found at traditional rental car companies. Rental companies often use newer cars in hopes of higher reliability and lower maintenance costs. Once they reach a certain mileage, the rental car companies may sell them.
To be eligible for Turo, cars must not be older than 13 years old and have less than 130,000 miles. However, if a car goes past 13 years of age and 130,000 miles and is already listed on the platform, it can still be hosted on Turo. As long as cars are in good mechanical condition and also have a clean title of course.
As a renter, you are not able to see how many miles on a vehicle before renting. It’s good advice to choose a newer car on Turo to lower your chances of any mechanical problems on your trip.
Availability
Currently, Turo is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and parts of Canada. There are an increase in hosts and rentals each year as Turo continues to expand into other countries. Even though they are expanding, there may not be any available rental cars in your area.
If you live in a small rural town there’s a good chance there aren’t any Turo cars in your area. Here in St. George, Utah, we have a little more than 100,000 residents and there are a lot of Turo options. How many cars are available near you?
Overall, Turo is a fantastic platform for renters. Could it be worth it for hosts?
Why Turo Is Worth It for Hosts
Many hosts love Turo because it’s great semi-passive income, you can control your own schedule, use your earnings to pay off your car faster, or even build up a big enough fleet to become a full-time job.
Semi-passive Income
Listing your car in the peer-to-peer Turo platform can bring in up to $1,000 per month per vehicle. Even as an all-star host, most of my time spent on my Turo business is spent washing my car. Messages guests and bookings only take a few minutes, but washing a car inside and out can take more time than other tasks. It’d be a good idea, and a good tax deduction, to get a car wash subscription to speed up the carwash process.
Control Your Own Schedule
The Turo app allows you to block off days, adjust pick-up and drop-off times, and create buffer periods in between trips. Renting out your car on Turo can easily be done if you have a day job. For instance, if you are only able to wash and prep your car after work, you can allow a minimum 12-hour window in between bookings to make sure you have enough time. Or, maybe you need to block off the car twice a week for personal use. There are many settings in the app that allow you to control your own schedule.
Pay Off Your Car Faster
Peer-to-peer car sharing is a great method to have your car pay for itself. Renting out your car just a few times a month can earn enough to pay it off. If you purchase a car for around $10,000, you can pay it off in just over a year. While brand-new cars take longer to pay off, it can help reduce the financial burden if you are living paycheck to paycheck.
There are many great tools to adjust pricing for your vehicle too. Turo’s automatic pricing tool takes into account your local area, travel days, and more to adjust the price with demand. You can always set your minimum price and maximum price or adjust the prices daily. This will be especially important if you’re looking to go full-time with Turo.
Full-time Income Possible
It is possible to make Turo a full-time income for you and your family which many hosts do. On average, hosts earn more than $10,000+ annually per vehicle. If you get multiple vehicles you can earn a full-time income. Once there are multiple cars in your fleet, managing your calendar can be crazy but there are tools to help you.
Why Turo Is Not Worth It For Hosts
Listing your car on Turo is kind of like sending your kid off to school. You are super excited to see how well it does, but nervous it might get hurt or dinged up.
Wear and Tear
Listing your car to be rented out will cause a lot of wear and tear. Door dings, curb rash on the rims, interior scratches, and more are all very likely. Luckily the Turo 60 plan includes exterior wear and tear damage as long as you document your car very well.
Inconvenient Hours
Although you can control your own schedule, oftentimes guests will return cars late which can cause a lot of rescheduling. I have even forgotten to block off days occasionally which resulted in me waking up very early to wash the car before the guests picked it up.
Having a day job and running a Turo business can be hard too. If you are at work all day but someone wants to book your dirty vehicle, you will have to run home or find someone to wash it for you. You also need to be available whenever guests have questions when checking in or dropping the car off. As long as you realize it will take a few minutes with each booking you will be totally fine.
Liability
Renting your car out to strangers could result in injuries or even worse. Even if nothing is your fault and your car is mechanically fine, it is always a possibility that your renter and vehicle get into a wreck. If you do not want to deal with the potential of your car getting wrecked or your renter being injured then Turo may not be for you.
Injuries, according to the many hosts I’ve read about, have rarely happened but every once in a while Turo cars are totaled. Fortunately, Turo has great protection plan options that can help you with a totaled vehicle and any injuries that may occur.
Closing: Is Using Turo A Good Idea?
Using a Turo rental breaks from the traditions we are accustomed too of using traditional car rental companies. However, similar to how Airbnb has challenged the short-term rental arena, Turo is a great alternative to use. Whether you are looking to earn some semi-passive income as a host or have a bigger selection for cheaper day rates, Turo is worth using.
Personally, I will be looking at Turo rentals first before traditional rental car companies going forward.
