Airport Car Rentals: The Next $10 Billion Industry Ready For Disruption

<i>Frequent travelers and members of rewards programs aren’t treated that differently</i><p>Um, actually we are. With Avis First (free to join) or Hertz Gold (last I knew there was a fee, but that may have changed), I take a shuttlebus to the rental car lot (or at the smaller airports, walk from the gate to the rental lot), look for my name on the message board, walk over to my car, get in, drive to the gate, show the attendant my license and I'm gone. In the really small airports (FSD or FWA for instance) it's literally 5 minutes from gate to road.<p>WRT Flightcar, that has absolultely no appeal to me as a car owner parking at an airport, or as a car renter. As a car owner, when I get back from a trip, I <i>really</i> want my car to be there so I can get home, I don't want to have to deal with my car not being there because the renter got stuck in traffic or had a change in plans.<p>As a renter (for both business and pleasure) I want to be able to have some flexibility in my rentals - if I want to extend my rental, I just visit the website and extend the rental. Would I be able to do that if the guy who's car I'm renting needs it back at a certain time? Also, how do I know that the car I'd be renting would be in decent running order?<p>I think that airport car rentals could use some disruption (for example more flexibility in refueling is nice, but I don't see that Silvercar really solves that problem), but I don't see these businesses doing it. Of course YMMV.

Why would I risk my 2 decades+ no claim discount on someone else renting my car?<p>Why would I let someone who I don't know drive the car I take good care of, possibly use it for illegal purposes or deal with the aftermath of fines and so on?<p>Really, that's a pretty bad idea.

People around SV might get the wrong idea of how bad airport car rentals are because the car rental center at SFO is probably the worst in the world.<p>I remember coming in on a delayed flight and riding the train out to the rental center, waiting in line half an hour, then finding the car parked in the space I was sent to was entirely different from what it was supposed to be (and the keys didn't work), going back and waiting in line again, getting a call from the satellite police station on my cell because my wife was wondering what happened to me, finally getting a car and remembering I never got a child seat but driving right out because I didn't want to wait in line again.<p>Sensible (unamerican) people just take the BART if they are going to SF. I didn't have that choice because we were going to San Luis Obispo.<p>I'll admit fueling can be a pain, but car rentals at other airports, even big ones, are nowhere near as bad.<p>At LAX, for instance, I reserved a Hertz car on Priceline, caught a shuttle bus to the car rental center, got the paperwork filled out quickly and drove off. On the way back they were handling a huge volume of returning automobiles but it was efficient, really a pleasure.<p>(I did make the mistake of thinking I could go north on the 405 at 5pm on a Friday... Had I known LA a little better, I'd have gone north on the surface streets which are easily accessible from the rental center.)

Airport car rentals tend to be pretty cheap (&#60;$200/wk), available, and high quality. This poses a problem for any company attempting to "disrupt" the industry.<p>AirBNB is competing with high priced hotels that often are booked and an existing inefficient P2P subleasing business.<p>Uber is competing with taxi services notorious for poor responsiveness and frequent gaps in availability.<p>I don't see the same room for disruption in the airport car rental market, but there is likely some room for innovation. Don't count on Hertz and Payless quaking in their boots any time son.

Flightcar sounds like a tough call...a lot of moving parts to save a few bucks on parking and/or car rental and with added anxiety for both parties.<p>Silvercar sounds more like how renting a car should be (except for the limited car options)(I'd go with a Toyota/VW lineup).<p>The things that are completely stupid with current car rental companies: 1) lengthy checkout process, 2) inability to choose car and 3) anti-customer gas policies.

I dunno this seems like a solution in search of a problem. The rental car industry is highly competitive which results in high quality service at low prices. I don't remember the last time someone I know complained about a rental car company.

I don't rent cars all that of then so there may be all kinds of Pro Tips that I don't know.<p>My biggest gripe with car rentals is not the experience at the counter but the schlep from the terminal to the rental car district. First there is the wait for the shuttle bus, then the tour of the other terminals, then the drive to the rental lost. By the time you get to the counter you've lost 30 minutes of your life to waiting and ferrying.<p>So for me the core problem is that the car is not somewhere extremely convenient at the terminal when I need it. I do recall some uber-statused folks at my work having the rental car company meet them at the curb with the car but this seemed to be an arcane and rarified perk.<p>It's kinda like the last mile problem. Once you actually get to the rental hub then it's pretty painless and quick but getting from the plane to the rental lot is a slow mess.

When driverless car services are a routine way for people to obtain a car on demand, renting a car at an airport is just one subset of obtaining a car for a one-trip use. It will be interesting to see whether the existing car rental companies have the management strategies and algorithmic understanding of maximizing car return on investment needed to make an on-demand driverless car service a part (and eventually the whole) of their business model. Whoever wants to be in Flightcar's or Silvercar's (or Uber's) business has to think ahead to what the wide availability of driverless cars will do to their whole industry. Those who disrupt can be disrupted in turn, if they are not ready for the future.

I wouldn't feel comfortable renting my car out. I have visions of people doing burnouts, handbrake turns, trying to dump the clutch etc... You might not notice it at first...<p>Also, lets say I know something is about to go on my car. Something expensive. Why not bring it there and let someone drive it 10 miles until it breaks and blame them for it?! Free repairs? Or how would they handle that?

Perhaps I'm the wrong subject as I don't use AirBnB, but the idea of FlightCar frightens me. Far too much risk to take on for either side with little reward in terms of cost savings. And frankly, I imagine that the paperwork and coordination would create even more hassle than that of a typical rental car company.

I don't see much potential here.<p>Airport car rental is mostly grunt work. Moving cars, storing them, valeting them, maintaining them, filling them with gas, sorting out insurance, customer service, screening customers, chasing late returns, pursuing people for damages, so on and so forth. 5% booking interface, 95% on the ground work.<p>There is already healthy competition in the market, and the incumbents do a pretty good job. There are lots of moving parts, so things often go wrong, but it's hard to do better.<p>Who cares about a shiny iPhone app? The existing companies already have passable online interfaces, and if they don't already have iPhone apps they have the capital to roll one out in a matter of weeks and crush any looming competition.<p>I give both of these startups 12-24 months, and the end won't be pretty.

I think car sharing solutions like DriveNow (<a href="https://us.drive-now.com/how-it-works/" rel="nofollow">https://us.drive-now.com/how-it-works/</a>) are much better for this case. Instead of giving your own car to somebody else, it is much easier to drive to the airport in one of the car sharing cars and drop it at the airport, where somebody else can use it to drive back to the city. DriveNow already allow free parking at the San Francisco airport and they are expanding very fast so I think it will be a really valuable service soon.

You shouldn't let strangers use your car. You are liable for the vehicle regardless who's driving it. Photo traffic tickets and tolls are just the start of the liability issues. When the stranger driving it gets into an accident, you'll be sued too.

The brilliant part is that flight car doesn't need an inventory but all their competitiors do. And inventory is a sunk cost that will force the prices higher, but will have no benefit to their customers.

Some people might be okay with the risk of someone else driving their car, for the money, especially in these tough times.

Pretty cool ideas, not sure if I'd rent someone my car but I'd definitely rent someone else's.

What comes after that? An sort of Airbnb for self storage?