2014 was a decent year for RelayRides, the San Francisco-based car sharing platform. The firm raised $35 million to help further grow its presence in the peer-to-peer car-sharing/rental space and will look to spend that capital to up its exposure and tweak its customer experience in 2015.
RelayRides essentially turns anyone with a set of wheels into a rental service—like the Airbnb of auto-rental. Members can rent their cars for several days at the price of their choosing. Their listings (complete with photos and vehicle info) are scanned by customers who decide on a deal and book it online while RelayRides gets 25% of each transaction. Car owners manage to make a few bucks too, says CEO Andre Haddad. “On average they make around $200 per active owner per month—more than offsetting the cost of your vehicle.”
Haddad – formerly head of
Today RelayRides conducts business in 49 states (not New York, though, as the company was smacked for false advertising, unlicensed insurance activity and other violations), has booked transactions in 2,500 cities in the U.S. and has a car-sharing and airport parking presence at over 300 airports nationally.
That’s an impressive spread but Haddad, who won’t disclose when he thinks RelayRides will make a profit, underscores growth as the company’s strategy in 2015. To date the firm has raised a total $52.5 million and its latest cash injection will be spent on keeping old customers happy and attracting the attention of new ones. “We think about this concept that we’ve coined internally as the ‘return on hassle,’” says Haddad.
To alleviate hassle, the company plans to show recommended pricing for vehicles being rentals, so car owners don’t have to think about it. RelayRides will also connect its community of car owners with local photographers who can help capture attractive vehicle pics for online listings. “If you make it super, super, super easy for people to rent out their cars, more and more people will do it,” says Haddad.
On the renter side, RelayRides just announced it is offering car-delivery. In other words, car owners will drive their vehicles directly to the renter. “It’s going to be a big part of how we’re going to make the renter experience easier and better next year.” To snag more customers, 2015 will see a marketing and advertising push and, as Haddad coyly suggests, RelayRides will expand internationally, though the CEO won’t disclose where (Canada, possibly?).
Haddad is convinced RelayRides’ model of having car owners interact with renters is preferable to the more sterile protocols offered by established agencies. “It’s a very different and a much more human and warm experience.” A human and warm experience? Perhaps that’s what auto-rental has been missing all this time.
