Turo Review – Renting Out Your Car For Extra Money

First, there was Airbnb. You could rent out extra rooms or entire homes to others with a few simple clicks of an app.

Hosts made good money (enough to cover a lot of their rents/mortgage), while guests found interesting and affordable places to stay during travel.

At some point, someone thought “why not take Airbnb’s style of peer-to-peer renting and apply it to cars?”

Thus, peer-to-peer car sharing was born. Turo’s by no means the first in this market, but they’ve definitely made a name for themselves in recent years.

But can you really make passive money renting out your car on Turo? Is it safe for you and for your car?

Don’t worry, we’ve got a full Turo review below. Keep reading to see if you should sign up!

What is Turo?

Turo is a peer-to-peer car rental/sharing service run by a company of the same name. It was founded as RelayRides in June 2010 by Shelby Clark.

Turo connects renters to car owners through both its website and mobile app. It’s most often used by travelers who want to rent something more exciting or more useful than the standard airport rental car, but some people rent on it just for some weekend driving fun.

At the moment, Turo is available in thousands of cities across the USA, Canada, the UK, and Germany. However, they’re always expanding into new markets as demand for car sharing grows.

How Does Turo Work?

Turo for the Renter

Let’s briefly go over Turo from the renter’s side.

Turo is quite simple. Renters first enter some information about their trip:

Destination (city, hotel, airport, etc.)
Dates of trip

The renter is then presented with their options to choose from. Turo listings look a lot like Airbnb listings, and the rest of the process works about the same way as well.

Turo for the Owner

As the car owner, you can list your car within 10 minutes.

First, you provide Turo with your car’s make, model, and model year.

Turo will then generate a price dynamically by considering the car’s market value, your location, time of year, and some other factors to ensure you get the highest price without overpricing your ride. You can set your own price manually if you prefer.

You can then complete your listing with photos and a description before it goes live. Remember, photos and the description can be the difference between one iffy renter and several renters clamoring for your vehicle.

When someone requests your car, Turo notifies you instantly in-app. All you do is confirm or deny the trip; you can ask the renter questions as well.

If you confirm their booking, you then coordinate a meeting time and place. Once you meet up, you simply inspect their license, do a final check on fuel and mileage, and hand them the keys.

When they return the car, you can do a quick inspection to make sure everything looks good before retrieving the keys from them.

That’s the whole rental process!

Earning Potential

Earning potential varies drastically depending on the car you have as well as location. In most places, you’ll earn top dollar if you own a high-end sports car.

For example, Los Angeles has some Lamborghini Huracans listed for over $500 per day! Of course, not everyone can afford that, but we’re happy to report that cheaper sports cars like the Mustang and Camaro are top Turo earners.

Speaking of Los Angeles, convertibles will do well in most locations, but you can charge the most if you live in an area with warm weather.

But you don’t need to be supercar-rich to make a killing on Turo. According to Turo, Jeep Wranglers earn over double their monthly payment on average.

It makes sense: Wranglers are a hot vehicle at the moment, and they’re fun to take off road.

However, you’ll be surprised to find that minivans are a moneymaker as well. Traveling families need a reliable, spacious vehicle to carry the children in. Rental companies often run out of minivan rentals, so you could make quite a lot off your family van.

To top off your earnings, you can add other features to your listing like unlimited mileage or prepaid fuel. Renters can then purchase those if they feel they’ll need them.

As for payment, Turo pays you via direct deposit within 5 business days. They take anywhere from 15% – 35% depending on which Turo insurance plan you choose: the more comprehensive the insurance plan, the more commission Turo takes from your earnings.

Speaking of insurance…

How Does Insurance Work with Turo?

Turo provides 3 levels of insurance coverage through Liberty Mutual you can choose from:

Basic
Standard
Premium

All 3 provide up to $1,000,000 in liability coverage. More information on each of the 3 plans can be found at their website.

You don’t have to pick any of the 3, but then you have to provide your own car insurance directly to the guest. You’ll have to speak with your insurance agent and you’ll probably see a rate increase, so we’ll suggest going with one of Turo’s plans.

Car Damage

If you renter damages your vehicle, you must report it to Turo within 24 hours after the trip ends to begin the claims process.

Then, unless the renter chose the Premier insurance package (with which they’d owe $0), Turo retrieves their personal insurance information and charges them a damage deposit.

The Verdict

Unless you’re very picky about who operates your car, Turo is an excellent passive income source for almost anyone that meets the requirements.

I mean, look at the Jeep Wrangler: you could buy two of them, rent only one out, and pay off both each month!

Although fancy cars do better, you can list your little economy car and still earn some cash.

How to Get Started on Turo

In order to become a Turo host, you need to be at least 21 years old. If you’re under 18, you can still sign up if you want to rent cars from others, though.

Anyways,

Signing up for Turo is lightning fast. After clicking “Sign Up”, you just give them your name (as it appears on your driver’s license) and email address, create a password, and you’re ready to list your car.

To create your listing, just click “list your car” and Turo will walk you through each step. You’ll need the following information to complete this process: