I Was A Turo Host. Never Again.
Why the allure of making extra monthly income with your car is NOT worth it
Turo, the “rent your car out” company was one of those hot recommendations that every side hustle influencer in the world was pushing during COVID to make extra money or even in certain cases, make it your full-time gig.
Do a quick search on YouTube and there’s no shortage of videos both for and against starting a Turo side hustle.
Plenty of people were able to generate enough side income to cover some basic expenses while others wanted it to become an actual business of them renting out their cars for a living.
However, the reason I’m sharing this post is that if you’re looking to make some side money and want to use your car as the underlying asset, read this quick post first.
My Why
The whole reason I chose to do Turo was because I recently bought a car to commute to my new portfolio company and living in NYC, street parking made me want to jump off a bridge and ran the risk of it getting damaged by other people. So, to pay for a monthly parking garage, I wanted to use Turo to subsidize that personal cost in my life to the tune of $400/mo.
That was the only goal. Just cover my monthly parking space. Anything above that was in theory, rolled over to the next month to get a head start on that bill.
My Earnings
Obviously, nicer cars can charge more because they’re premium, and usually, when people rent cars, they want to look good (generally) when they do.
My car is a 2019 Audi A4 Premium Turbo in all black and has all the bells and whistles. This allowed me to charge $103/day (not including tolls or tickets).
This is what allowed me to earn just over $4,000 in 8 months (pictured below).
However, while it seems like I “came out on top”, events that transpired over those 8 months made me stop doing it completely and change my mind about the whole thing.
If you’ve made it this far, go a little further and see why before you make a potential mistake yourself.
Lessons Learned
I can label my whole experience down to three simple lessons that will cover nearly every issue with my Turo experience.
It’s not their car.
It’s not their car.
It’s not their car.
Literally. It’s that simple. When you’re renting or borrowing something from someone, there’s always a part of you that goes “It’s okay. It’s not mine.”
I don’t know about you guys reading this but I’ve only owned two cars my whole life. The first was when I was 16 and it cost me $1,400 and was 12 years old at the time. The second was this Audi. So, I cared a lot about it and every little ding or scratch made me want to die a little inside.
For certain guests, they were excellent. Did everything I told them to do with no issues. Others, couldn’t care in the slightest.
I had renters
Late for pickup
Late for drop-off
Not filling up the gas tank
Leaving the inside of the car messy, sticky, and sometimes smelly
The worst of all was when they would get damage to the car because they backed into something, drove into something, got too close to some bushes, etc.
This was incredibly annoying because unless you look hard, it’s pretty easy to miss the small damage spots until after the fact. Not to mention, just like Airbnb, you’re at the mercy of your guest’s reviews to get others to book.
Some people did damage to the car and were very kind in their mistake and compensated me for the repairs. I had one guy who was so nice before dropping it off that while he was filling up the tank before drop off, he was washing it with the gas station squeegees. The problem is that the paint on my car is sensitive and it ended up leaving scratches on the hood. He paid for it.
Additionally, because people who are in need of a short-term rental car are typically people going on a trip, most weekends are taken if not all. That means if you want to do anything with your car that weekend and you didn’t block it ahead of time, you’re shit out of luck. Every time you cancel because you decided you needed the car, Turo dings you and sometimes even charges you a penalty if the reason isn’t good enough.
The other issue besides the damage is that depreciation on your car also accelerates because you’re renting to people who are usually traveling longer distances. This means that my tires, brakes, fluid, and everything else need to be replaced faster because of it all. Thus adding to the costs and reduced earnings.
Lastly, to protect your car, you need to get insurance that would cover damage and repairs should they arise. However, in order to do that, you need to basically give them a take rate and unless you get the top tier coverage (I had 2nd from the top), not everything is covered.
This means that I made less because of the insurance and not everything was covered. In certain damage circumstances, this meant that Turo insurance wouldn’t cover the damage and I would need to bank on the renter to pay me or I’d be shit out of luck. Thankfully I didn’t have any issues but otherwise, I would have had to pay for it all out of pocket.
Why It’s Not Worth It
Honestly, I’m a user of Turo (renter) but I wouldn’t offer my car again. The hassle of having to deal with people who don’t care about your care because it’s not theirs is not worth it.
To make a business out of this, I’m not sure is worth it and then again, I was doing it just to cover expenses not even make money.
There are other ways to make income on the side but I don’t think it’s it. Perhaps I didn’t go into it with the mindset of treating it as a business rather than lending out my personal belongings. I imagine the same can be said for people who want to casually rent out a room on Airbnb versus people who make Airbnb their business.
To each their own and if you’re reading this, maybe you’re in the latter camp but buyer beware, there’s a ton of headaches when it comes to this “side hustle.”
Thanks for sharing. Still looking forward to the TURO IPO though.