BHPian Sangwan recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Hi Tgo, Great thread! And I was waiting for you to post this one so that I can also contribute to it. So, lets get on it. Just like you I too learnt about Turo through Doug’s channel but I was already into it and wanted to put my Santa Fes but later found out that my cars were not eligible as they were old and having more than 200Ks on the odometer. So, Turo dream died but was reignited when I bought the RAV4.Registering My Toyota RAV4 On Turo AppOne day, my wife made the profile, added the pics I took after a thorough detailing session and just like that we were live. I didn’t check any preset conditions, nor did I saw what pricing policy or discounts were. But we were LIVE and it was an exciting and scary feeling. “What ifs” were running in our heads but we were like screw it, lets just do it. And soon enough our FIRST BOOKING came! OMG! And soon enough, it got Cancelled!! The guest texted me as to why they are cancelling trip but that was fine. Then another booking came but it too got cancelled. They say third time is a charm, right? And indeed it was, the third time it was really happening. Again, plethora of scenes running and just the thought if it all goes south then what will we do but as a Turo Host we can’t cancel or back out now because if we did that as a host then we will always have this message on our profile page that “the host cancelled a trip” and that is not good advertising. So, wife and I prep the car, take tons of pictures to make sure that we cover all the dents/scratch on our RAV4 (well it’s a 2021 car with 50K on it when we bought it). And first the pickup location was from my home, but the guest reached out and he asked me if I can deliver it to “Ogden Point”. It’s a docking point for cruise ships in Victoria and I said yes, I can do that. Here was my 1st lesson from Turo, charge customer a some sort of fee as you’re spending from your own pocket to get the car to them (now I charge a small $25 fee if they want the car to be delivered somewhere, its not much but gets me back home and I am happy I am not trying to squeeze every $ from the guest). For this first guest, I didn’t charge him. I went to the point and reached 20 mins earlier, so that I am not late and waited. He came with his wife and kids and was on time and off they went with my car. I felt weird seeing my car go away like that and thinking hope it all goes ok. I return to my home via bus (Victoria has great public transport) and get on with my day. This trip was only for a single day which was fine to me and around 4 PM that day we had our car back with us and then we checked the car thoroughly and the guest drove it for 182 Kms but apart from having dust on the car there was nothing wrong. TURO also asks guest to return the car with the same fuel level and so the tank was returned to Full and I finished the Trip on the app from my end. I left the guest a review and he did the same for me and I got my first 5* rating which was just awesome. Just like Tgo, I too come from a family who are not even remotely into Business and earning this little money from my assets felt great. With my first earning, it took time for Turo to send me the amount, I guess it took close to 5 days but with each trip I am seeing the time being reduced and with my latest booking I got the amount in less than 2 days.I will now not explain to you how each and every trip went but the steps are as follows:1. Guest books the car on the app. And 24 hrs prior to the start time, guest will upload their current DL and pic of them holding the license. You (the host) have to verify the DL (read expiry date) and see if the person is the same. You confirm it on the app. Then you take pics of exterior/interior/dashboard and then put the current odo reading and fuel level and all the steps are done. 2. Once the car is with the guest, your insurance stops and TURO’s insurance takes over and so if things go south then your insurance premium won’t take a hit and Turo will handle everything. Turo has two plans for the hosts. 75 and 85 plan. In 75 plan (I have opted for this plan), Turo keeps 25% of the earning but if there is an accident or any other damage then you don’t need to pay anything out of pocket (read Zero deductible) and Turo will take care of it. If you choose 85 plans, then Turo will keep only 15% of your earning (more earnings to you) but if there is an accident or damage then Turo will ask you for a $2000 deductible. 3. You have to keep a copy of Turo’s insurance (available on their website) and Instruction page for the guest if there is an accident (that’s available on their website too) 4. Guest will finish the trip and return the car to you. You will then inspect the car and end the trip from your end too and once that’s done then Turo will send you the money to your account. Lesson 2, One of the guest booked the car around noon (which shouldn’t have happened) but luckily it was an off day at work and so I was able to do it. Phew, ratings saved!! But why did it happen was the question and I reached out to Turo support, they told me that I have to fix timing as a host when I am not available (apparently, I had done the opposite) and so it was fixed. Lesson 3, As I was a new host, I saw that I was getting the bookings, but I was not getting much and on checking the receipts I saw that a lot of discounts were being applied. There is a 3 day discount, non-refundable discount, 1 week discount and the list goes on and on. So, slowly I am taking away these discounts because yes they are getting me more bookings but then there is wear and tear to car and I am not dependent on Turo so if I get the booking great, if not then that’s fine too. Lesson 4, putting KMs limit on my car, so this guy and sadly Indian guy, and I don’t want to say but we Indians really have issues with how things work and we abuse the system to the max, no wonder the local people no matter which country we are in, they start hating our guts. So, until now all was going well with Turo. I had not fixed any distance limit on the car because until now, all of my guests were sane people and were actually using the car in a humane way but came this guy and he drove my car for more than 4600+ Kms in 6 effing days!! I had asked him when he was taking my car that the day he is returning the car, the same day my car is going again and so if he can come on time that would be great as I need to prep the car. Also, in my car’s bio I have written that no eating in the car but you can already guess, he thoroughly ate in my car. He came 10-12 mins late past the deadline to return the car, he said that he got late while cleaning the car but the car was not “cleaned” and I again went to the car wash and wiped everything down as quickly I can. That night I was working on my car late night and when I was done only 15 mins was left for the new trip to start, so you can guess, I had a long and back breaking night. He gave me a 5* but I gave him a 2* rating because I found so many Indian snacks crumbs between the centre console and seat which I was not able to get too that same day, the car was driven like crazy and then the cleaning had to be done all over again. Overall what a jerk and because of him I now have a limit on my car, and its not that I have set a harsh limit which will ruin the experience of other future guests but it is a normal amount of kms which will be sufficient to cover longer trips too but yes you can’t do 4600 kms in 6 days anymore, that’s for sure! Giving him 2* doesn’t really hurt him or makes me come to peace with him but at least on Turo the future guests would be knowing in advance what they are dealing with.The Positives Of Putting The Car On Turo:+ Additional Income which is more than small part time gigs. You don’t need to run around and can focus on other things. +I am able to get some monetary value out of my car when it is not being used. Wife has WFH, I have the Kawasaki and a bicycle to get me to work. When we started renting on Turo, it was summer vacations for my kid and so we didn’t need the car except for the weekend grocery runs. +The insurance liability taken over by Turo once the car is on the road with the guest. So, I am not dealing with higher insurance premiums. +Awesome support team at Turo, as a host if I am confused by anything, I just go and ask them, and it clears out so many things. Also, I don’t spend much time playing around with the app, if I want to change anything, I just reach out to them, ask if it can be done and voila they do it for me. +Most of the guests are nice people to deal with and until now it has been a positive experience.The Negatives Of Putting Car On Turo-Your car is going to go under heavy usage. I bought the RAV4 at the end of May and its middle of Sep now and already the car has more than 10,500+ Kms under my ownership. -Heavy wear and tear will lead to added expenses towards upkeep of the vehicle. -Turo will require yearly inspection of your car ( mine is to be done by Dec 31 this year) -You will not be able to enjoy summer (or any beautiful day) because you don’t have a car! We became 1 car household from a two car household this year and so there were days when it was just gorgeous outside and we wanted to go on a long drive but we didn’t had our car and so we stayed local. -It is hard to keep track of every single scratch or small mark and so if you’re very emotionally attached to your car then this is not the place for you. I can’t even in my dreams put my Z900RS on such platform (even if it existed) but with RAV4 its not the case, so I am okay. -The fear of somebody wrecking your car is the biggest one. My friend (he lives on Mainland Canada) and I started at the same time. He has his wife’s Acura ILX (2018/19 not sure about the year) and his own 2014 Toyota Camry. So Acura went on Turo first, it was all good, but then he put the Camry on and right in the first trip with the Camry, there was an accident. Its been almost a month now and the car still hasn’t repaired (as the repair shop is saying it’s a total loss), the car was involved in an accident which was not disclosed by the guest and so it’s a mess and my friend hasn’t been reimbursed for the car as Turo is still going through the process and he is not able to earn and is now with one car which he needs for his own use. So, he is out of car and also isn’t earning anything. And this could happen to anyone who puts their car on the platform and one should be ready for that scenario too.The future: From Oct 1, 2025 to Mar 31, 2026, my car would not be available on Turo because the tire advisory would be in effect, my car has All-season tyres (thank god they are Michelins) and many Canadian highways need your car to have tyres which have mountain-snowflake branding on them (mine doesn’t) and also the price of the rental is really low as Victoria will not see many visitors in the winter months and it will pick up next year. So, next year my car would be available right at the beginning of the tourist season and we will see how it goes, if it will be going well then I will definitely put an additional car into it. For next year, I have also decided to purchase Tyres with snowflakes on them ( they are all-weather tires and I had them on my Santa Fes) and so if its going great then I will keep the car on Turo all year long but yes will definitely bump up price so that if it is going then there is some decent earnings. This is what I mean for tyres: Lets take a look at some of the screens available on Turo: The Pricing/Discounts screen: My performance and ratings on Turo: The earnings in the year 2025: The low prices of my RAV4 coming this Oct: Thank you so much for reading. Cheers, SangwanCheck out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
