The sharing economy which promotes a sustainable way of living by providing peers quick access to shared resources is anticipated to achieve remarkable growth in the upcoming years. As per statistics, the sharing economy’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is also amongst the highest (28.96% in the forecast period 2023-2028). While Airbnb has been a leading contributor to the sharing economy since 2007, it mostly deals with homestays and real estate rentals. Meaning, that the opportunities to launch P2P marketplaces in other sectors are still wide open

One such P2P rental niche is car rentals. In our recent research, we found out that the overall market size of the car rental industry is an estimated $102 billion in 2024. The car rental industry is also expected to grow at an impressive CAGR of 3.1% in the next five years. Thus, for entrepreneurs aspiring to set foot in the sharing economy, launching a Peer-to-Peer marketplace like Airbnb for car rentals is a lucrative business proposition. Below are some insights you should look into for launching an AirBnb for cars.

Benefits of Renting Cars from Peers

The car rental industry is fragmented into both small-size and large-size car rental businesses. However, the experience of renting from a car rental company and a peer differs a lot. Renting from peers can provide customers with a more personalized rental experience. Some key benefits of renting cars from peers are:

• Cost Effectiveness: Individual car owners rent out their spare vehicles as a means of generating a side income and preventing their cars from deteriorating over time. Due to this, they are able to rent out their cars at much more affordable prices than private car rental companies.
• More Sustainable: While renting in itself is considered sustainable, renting out from peers is an even more eco-friendly practice. This is because car rental companies invest in a proper fleet of commercial vehicles whereas peers utilize their spare cars.
• Scope of Negotiation in Terms: In P2P car rentals, the rental terms and conditions can be negotiated with the car owners. On the other hand, there is no scope for negotiation in the rental agreements of car rental firms. 
• Feedback Acceptance: P2P rental car owners often rely on repeat customers. Due to this, they are more willing to accept and work on customer feedback.
• Unique Cars: Car rental companies often have a very similar fleet of cars selected on the basis of market demand. On the other hand, peers can provide you with unique and rare cars as well that you may not find in any rental company’s fleet.

Why Launch an Airbnb for Cars?

Car rental industry insights indicate the increasing demand for car rentals and highlight the rising business opportunities. Along with insights, there are still a few other reasons to invest in a Peer-to-Peer Airbnb-like business model for car rentals.

1. Asset-Light Business Model

Launching an Airbnb for cars is highly asset-light. The term “asset-light business model” refers to those businesses where the business owner is only required to invest in the bare minimum capital. On a P2P car rental marketplace, the marketplace owner is only required to invest in platform costs and business registrations, whereas independent car owners list their own cars. 

Workflow of Airbnb like Car Rental Marketplace 

For a better understanding, look at the following workflow of P2P car rental marketplaces.

1. Multiple car owners register and list their cars on the marketplace
2. Customers browse those cars and select the car they prefer
3. To book a car, customers enter the rental date inputs in the booking calendar and proceed to checkout
4. During checkout, customers pay the rental fee and submit a security deposit
5. The car owner handovers the car to the customer via the selected method (pickup or delivery)
6. On the return of the car, the car owner inspects the car for any damages
7. In case of any damages, reimbursements are deducted from the customer’s security deposit, and the remaining amount is returned to the customer
8. On reaching a minimum withdrawal amount, car owners can withdraw their earnings to their bank accounts.

Revenue Generation on P2P Car Rental Business

A P2P car rental marketplace owner can generate revenue via the following ways:

1. Rental Commission
2. Featured Listings
3. Display Ads
4. Subscription Packages

2. Low Competition

While a majority of websites and marketplaces exist for car rentals, such as Enterprise, Budget, Avis, Alamo and Hertz, they operate predominantly in the B2C sector. For example, nine of the top 10 car rental companies only do B2C car rental operations where independent car owners cannot list their cars. The market scenario is quite similar in almost all parts of the world. This leaves an opportunity to launch a P2P car rental marketplace like Turo and scale up to the level of top players. 

Some P2P car rental players you can take inspiration from are:

• Turo (the only P2P player in the top 10 car rental companies)
• Getaround
• Snappcar
• GoMore

3. Increase in Car Ownership Rates

Car ownership rates have also increased globally with New Zealand and the US having the maximum number of car registrations. These countries are followed by Poland, Italy, Australia, Canada, and France. In the 90s, consumers used to have one car per house but now this number has increased to multiple cars. In many developed cities, each family member has a personal car and it is also not rare to see an individual own 3-4 cars. 

In such scenarios where a family or person owns multiple cars, the chances of a car being left idle in the garage are very high. Thus, to help car owners monetize such vehicles, entrepreneurs can launch a P2P car rental marketplace. 

4. Inflation

According to the International Monetary Fund, the global inflation rate in 2024 is 5.8%. Due to high inflation rates, many consumers have resorted to doing additional jobs in order to make ends meet. This gave rise to the side hustle mentality. In the US, around 93% of the working population seems to have indulged in a side hustle. 

However, when speaking of car rental, it is not only a side hustle for many people but also a passive income stream where car owners aren’t required to actively participate in business. To cater to the requirements of such car owners, launching an Airbnb for car rentals is a highly profitable business proposition. 

5. All Seasons Business

Another reason to launch a P2P car rental marketplace is that it is a year-round business. Regardless of the season – spring, summer, fall or winters, the demand for car rentals remains consistent. Even during the holidays when other businesses witness a drop, car rental businesses witness an incline. Thus, by investing in a P2P car rental marketplace, you can ensure stable returns throughout the year and create a highly resilient business. 

How to Create Airbnb for Cars

After understanding the market statistics, user behavior and opportunities, we can proceed to the technical aspects of creating an Airbnb for car rentals. Here, it is essential to understand the technology you can use to build your marketplace and the features that are required to help you manage P2P car rental operations. 

Step 1: Shortlist the Key Features

To create a P2P rental marketplace for cars, you need to look for certain rent-centric features. These features will also encompass the various use cases of the car rental industry and help you manage an Airbnb for cars. In case of non-availability of these features, look for alternate software or opt for the ones that are fully customizable. 

• Rental Booking Calendar: An in-built calendar to display car availability to customers and accept rental date inputs. This calendar also prevents double booking and helps in invoicing. 
• Map View Filter: With the help of a map view search filter, customers can easily search for nearby vehicles. This may help you in increasing your conversion rates and providing a better service to customers.
• Agreement Management & eSign: For renting out a car, every car owner has different terms and conditions. For example, some may prefer pets in their cars while others don’t. Thus, to sanction any such terms and conditions, you require an agreement management module along with the eSign option. 
• Rental Security Management: To reimburse any damages to car owners, you can collect rental security deposits from customers. The security deposit amount can also be used to deduct any other charges and the remaining amount remains refundable.
• Tiered Pricing: To target diverse customer cohorts, it is important to have a tiered pricing module that will help car owners set and levy daily, weekly and monthly rental pricing. Furthermore, an hourly rental system on your marketplace can also be very useful.
• Request for Quote (RFQ module): Car owners who don’t want to define any fixed pricing for their vehicles can use the RFQ module. This module will help give and negotiate custom price quotes on the P2P car rental platform.
• Vehicle Comparison: Finding a rental car for trips or daily commuting is difficult. You can simplify the decision-making process for your customers by providing them with a vehicle comparison feature. This feature creates automated comparison tables for selected cars and helps customers find the right cars as per their preferences.
• Late Cancellations Management: Late cancellations often cause car owners losses in terms of order processing costs, which can include cleaning, servicing, or refueling of the vehicles. To prevent any such losses, you can define tiered cancellation periods and charges. 
• Late Returns Management: By reserving a car for longer than the booked period, late returns lead to loss in terms of lost opportunity costs for the car owners. Thus, you can also define custom late return periods and applicable charges.
• Rental Add-ons:  By providing complementary services products and services, such as child seats, WiFi, car fresheners, window shades, etc., car owners can increase their overall ticket size and conversion rates. Thus, a rental add-ons feature is also important for your AirBnb for cars.
• Maintenance Buffer Period: The selected rental software should allow you to define a maintenance buffer period. This period will start automatically after a customer returns the car and can be used to perform any necessary checks and inspections. Once the maintenance period is over, the car will be automatically synced with the online inventory.
• Inventory Management: The inventory management system on your car rental software should allow you to track all inventory in real-time. It should alert you on a low fleet count, help manage vehicle unavailability, and provide complete inventory reports.
• User Management: For managing multiple users, the software should have essential user management features that allow you to check their order history, listed cars, ratings & reviews, and other account-related details. 
• Commissions Management: For managing your earnings, the software needs a commission management module. This will allow you to set and levy your commission rates on all transactions.
• Withdrawal Settings: The software should allow you to define the withdrawal threshold amount and minimum withdrawal interval period. It is only after meeting these requirements that car owners should be able to withdraw their earnings to their bank accounts. 
• Multilingual and Multi-Currency Support: As discussed earlier, multilingual and multi-currency support help you target a diverse audience and simplify business expansion.

Step 2: Select a Software Technology

Based on the selected features, you can move forward to select the right software technology to build your Airbnb for cars. There are multiple software development methods available today. Let’s go through them one by one to understand which method is the most suitable and has all the features required.

1. Bespoke Development

The traditional approach to building any software is bespoke development. It was highly in practice in the 90’s and 2000’s but has lost its prominence today because of newer methods of development. For developing a P2P car rental marketplace, bespoke development may not be the right approach because of the following reasons:

• It involves finding a development team and paying them hourly development rates. This inflates the overall  cost of development by thousands of dollars
• As all workflows, features, modules and interfaces are developed from scratch, the overall development timeframe ranges between 2 to 5 years
• You will also need personnel to coordinate and manage the team of developers and track the progress of the entire project

2. SaaS Software

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as the name suggests refers to readymade software that are hosted on the software providers’ own servers and provided as a monthly recurring service. 

SaaS software are also not recommended to create a full-fledged marketplace because of their limited scalability. 

• Due to their never-ending recurring costs, SaaS solutions are very costly in the long run. To get access to their complete features, you will also need to upgrade to their premium package
• SaaS software come with limited scalability options. In order to increase the number of listings, transactions and users, you are again required to pay more
• The majority of SaaS software available in the market either support rental operations or multi-vendor operations but not both

3. Self-Hosted Software

Self-hosted software are also readymade solutions with dedicated features to support rental operations. They are tried and tested for multiple business use cases and because of their vast support and long-term affordability, can be used to develop your Airbnb for car rental.

Some reasons to select self-hosted solutions are:

• Self-hosted solutions are available at one-time costs and unlike SaaS solutions, have no recurrent pricing
• There are no restrictions on the number of listings, transactions and user profiles
• You get access to all features of the software right from the beginning
• Highly cost-effective in the long term
• Provide you complete flexibility to select your own hosting server

Step 3: Deploy and Market

Self-hosted and other readymade software can be quickly deployed on your hosting server. Once deployed, do some primary configurations such as setting the marketplace logo, social media handles, contact us page, about us page, homepage banners, footer section, and more. You can also change the theme color and font and make sure that the entire marketplace is ready to onboard car owners. 

After full system-wide configuration, promote your Airbnb for cars for both car owners and customers. To onboard car owners, you can provide them with various incentives. Take a look at this blog to get some idea about the marketing strategies you can implement to attract and onboard car owners. 

For lead generation purposes, initially, you will need to simultaneously invest in paid campaigning and organic marketing. After developing a strong SEO base, you can decrease the expenditure on paid campaigns and rely on word of mouth, social proofing, and SEO rankings. Likewise, you will also need to come up with a markdown strategy to gain traction in the market.

Recommended Car Rental Software- YoRent

Yo!Rent car rental software is meticulously developed after taking into account the minute requirements of car rental businesses. Being a multi-vendor software, it is the industry’s finest marketplace solution for P2P car rental operations. In-built with all essential tools and features that can help you facilitate, manage, and grow your car rental business, Yo!Rent simplifies P2P operations like no other software. Furthermore, due to its unlimited listings, transactions, and user profiles, you can scale and grow your business as much as you want. 

Some reasons to select YoRent are:

• Comes with all the essential features for car rental operations
• Rental industry’s leading marketplace solution
• Pre-integrated with 25+ payment gateways
• Comes with a lifetime license at a one-time cost
• Fully scalable and customizable
• One year of free technical support
• Highly cost-effective in the long term

Conclusion

The primary areas of attention in launching a P2P car rental startup are selecting the right software technology and timely onboarding of users in lucrative business regions. As more people find out about the benefits of renting out cars from peers, you can expect the entire P2P car rental marketplace model to grow. Due to this and limited competition in numerous regions, it is the right time to capitalize on a P2P car rental marketplace business. Furthermore, because of their asset-light nature, running an Airbnb for car rentals is also highly cost-effective.

Saunas are an essential part of Scandinavian culture with a wide range of health benefits, including increased blood circulation, body detoxification, stress management, pain relief, and improved cardiovascular health. However, in modern times, the application of saunas has also extended to leisure and recreational purposes. For this reason, the need for sauna rentals is witnessing a notable incline. 

In contrast to European countries, saunas are considered a luxury amenity in North American countries. Due to this, the rental prices for saunas are very high, ranging between $100-$500 per day. Adding to the prosperity of the business idea, currently, there are no market giants present in the sauna rental market. This opens a wide opportunity for new entrants to enter the market and establish their name. 

For capitalizing on the industry, let’s take a look at types of saunas, top markets, business models, revenue models, and the software technology required to build your platform.

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Types of Rental Saunas

Rental saunas can be classified on both mobility and the mechanism used for heating. Based on the market viability, you can select to invest in any of these saunas.

• Tent Saunas

Tent saunas are highly portable saunas that can be set up in both indoor and outdoor settings. They provide all the benefits of traditional saunas and mostly burn wood for heating purposes. Additionally, they are also highly cost-effective. The only downside to them is their small size and low durability. 

• Trailer Saunas

These are high-quality saunas built to last long. As the name suggests, they can be towed away to any outdoor location and are mostly used in public and private events. Due to their strong build, they can be heated up via both wood burning and electrical mechanisms. However, trailer saunas also require heavy maintenance for which the business owner may need to hire additional personnel.

• Electric Saunas

In comparison to traditional saunas that burn wood, electric saunas use electric stoves for heating purposes. They also provide precise temperature control and can be heated up very quickly without increasing the overall humidity. Just like trailer saunas, electric saunas are also strong and made to last long with high power efficiency. 

• Infrared Saunas 

These are mild heat saunas that instead of steam, use infrared lamps to provide heat to the body. Because of no hot temperatures, infrared saunas are very safe to use. They are highly preferred by audiences who cannot tolerate high temperatures but look forward to receiving the other benefits of saunas.

• Hot Tubs

Similar to saunas, the hot tub rental niche is also on the rise. Hot tubs provide a familiar experience to saunas and are used for recreational purposes. They are usually cheaper than saunas but require frequent cleaning and maintenance.

Top Countries Where Sauna Rental is a Normal

The spa and sauna industry is proliferating rapidly with a CAGR of 7.43% in the projection period 2024-2029 and is expected to reach a market share of $194.5 billion. With increasing preference for rentals, we can expect the sauna rental market to become one of the primary contributors to the industry. 

As per our reports, the following regions and their neighboring countries are the top markets to start your sauna rental business. 

• Finland
• Norway
• Sweden
• Denmark
• Iceland 
• USA
• Japan
• Canada
• Russia 
• Turkey

How the Sauna Rental Business Model Works?

There are two possible business models in the sauna rental industry. Both of them vary based on vendors and required investment.

• The P2P Sauna Rental Business Model

Under this business model, various sauna owners sign up on the P2P marketplace and list their saunas. When customers rent those saunas, the marketplace owner gets to keep a commission as their earnings. A key benefit of this business model is that it is highly asset-light, you only need to provide and manage the rental marketplace. A private fleet is not required.

Workflow of the P2P sauna rental business model:

• Sauna owners sign up on the marketplace and list their saunas
• Customers browse those saunas and enter their preferred rental dates 
• To place an order, customers submit a rental security amount along with the rental fee
• The stored rental fee and security amount are stored in the sauna owner’s eWallet
• The sauna owner fulfills the order as per the selected fulfillment method
• On return, the sauna owner inspects the sauna for any unexpected damages and reports them to the marketplace owner
• The marketplace owner reimburses the damages and returns the rental security amount to the customers.

• Single Vendor Sauna Rental Store

In contrast to the P2P model, in the single-vendor sauna rental model, there’s only one vendor, which is also the store owner. This business model is highly suitable for those entrepreneurs who want to start their own sauna services, or are already in the industry and want to make the digital leap. A key benefit is that the store owner gets to keep the entire rental fee.

Workflow of a single vendor sauna rental store:

• The store owner uploads detailed sauna listings on the platform
• Customers browse those listings and enter their preferred rental dates 
• To place an order, customers submit a rental security amount along with the rental fee
• The store owner fulfills the order via the selected order fulfillment method
• On return, the store owner inspects the sauna for any damages and reimburses the same from the rental security
• The remaining rental security is returned to the customer

How to Generate Revenue on an Online Sauna Rental Marketplace

Being online comes with the advantages of utilizing multiple revenue generation streams for your business. These streams vary as per the business model, market trends, and business preferences. On an online sauna rental marketplace, you can consider using the following revenue generation streams:

• Rental fees: When renting out your own saunas (or in a single vendor sauna rental model), you can keep the entire rental fee as your earnings.
• Rental commission: On a sauna rental marketplace model, where different vendors rent out their saunas, you can keep a portion of their earnings as your marketplace commission.
• Featured Listings: In the marketplace business model, you can also charge small fees from top-performing vendors to display their listings in the featured collections of your website.
• Subscription packages: You can provide subscription-based sauna services on your rental marketplace. These work similarly to gym subscriptions. Customers can buy a sauna subscription for a month and use saunas as per the inclusions of their subscription. Likewise, the subscription model can be used for renting out saunas to event managers and concierge managers for months.
• Rental add-ons: In countries where saunas are a cultural tradition, consumers also like to rent out add-ons such as chairs, tents, barbecues, cold tubs, etc.
• Display ads: You can charge other businesses to display their ads on your website.
• Gift cards: Saunas are very popular in various regions. In those regions, you can sell gift cards to help customers provide quality relaxation time to their loved ones.

Top Features Required on a Sauna Rental Marketplace

Considering the massive business opportunity in launching a sauna rental marketplace along with the comprehensive workflows of the multi-vendor model, it has become important to ensure that your marketplace has all the essential features. Below, we have briefed some must-have features for your sauna rental platform. For more guidance, you can consult our business analysts who recommend you readymade solutions or help you find out the complete scope of work in your sauna rental project.

• Map View Filter

In terms of providing a superior user experience, GPS-enabled search results or a map view filter do a better job. They display nearby saunas to customers, which are in their close vicinity or can be delivered or picked up in a very short time frame. The map view filter also helps build the authenticity of your platform.

• Tiered Pricing Module

Different customer segments rent out saunas for different durations. For example, where tourists and residents may rent saunas for a few days, event managers can require them for a few weeks to months. Thus, to cater to the rental requirements of all customer segments, a tiered pricing module can help you set daily, weekly, and monthly rental fees for saunas.

• Rental Booking Calendar

Rental operations are a bit complex than sales operations. This is because their workflows and algorithms are different. In rental operations, you require a rental booking calendar that can display available dates to customers and accept rental date inputs. These rental date inputs from the booking calendar are then used to do invoicing for the rental orders, which is also inclusive of any rental add-ons and security deposits.

• Rental Add-ons

Rental add-ons are the complementary products and services that are often required along with saunas. As briefly described in the revenue generation section, these can be chairs, tables, barbeques, music systems, and even bath towels and cleaning supplies. In the case of wood-burning saunas, extra wood for heating the sauna is often required. Having add-ons on your sauna rental marketplace can immensely assist you with upselling and cross-selling.

• Document Verification

As a standard practice, it is safer to verify customer documents before renting them out saunas. These documents can either be identity proofs, address proofs, business ID cards, etc. For document verification purposes, your marketplace can simply ask customers to upload their documents at checkout. While processing the order, you can verify those documents.

• Rental Agreement Management

On a sauna rental marketplace, every vendor can have different terms and conditions for renting out their saunas. For example, some of those conditions can be no jewelry, electronics, or inflammable objects inside, or they can also mention the minimum required age for renting. Thus, to sanction these terms and conditions, your sauna rental marketplace requires rental agreement management and eSign features.

• Late Cancellations Management

Late cancellations can be detrimental to your business in many ways. They lead to losses in terms of order processing costs (be it cleaning costs, labor costs, and delivery costs) and also reserve your inventory unnecessarily to impact your order fulfillment rate, which incurs additional lost opportunity costs. Thus, to encourage timely returns and evade the aforementioned problems, it is better to have a late cancellations management module.

• Order Management

Order management is one of the most essential modules in any eCommerce business. On your rental website, the order management module should keep you updated on all orders and send real-time notifications. Additionally, it should also provide you access to various order details such as customer name, payment details, etc., and with certain options including order cancellation. 

• Vendor Management

On a multi-vendor sauna rental marketplace, vendor management features are required to perform administrative actions on vendor profiles. For adequate management, your marketplace should have features to verify vendor profiles, manually approve listings, and set minimum withdrawal thresholds and withdrawal interval periods. Lastly, the marketplace should also provide you with access to vendor performance and other related details. 

• Rental Maintenance Period

After every rental order, your sauna may require inspection and maintenance. During this period, it cannot be added back to the inventory for renting. Thus, the rental maintenance period is required to sync under-maintenance saunas with the online inventory. You can pre-define the maintenance period on your system and it will sync the inventory accordingly. 

• Discounts and Promotions

To accelerate business growth, you will need to deploy various discounts and promotion campaigns as well. The discount features can include percentage and fixed-price markdowns or duration-based discounts. Similarly, promotional features such as SEO optimization and homepage banners will help you attract new customers as well. 

• Reports and Analytics

Analytical features are essential for all eCommerce platforms. They help you make data-driven decisions to turbocharge growth and overcome challenges. On your sauna rental platform, you should have proper analytical features to provide you with accurate insights on revenue generation, most rented saunas, most purchased add-ons, top paying customers, and more.

Creating your Sauna Rental Platform with Readymade Solutions

Although a sauna rental marketplace can be developed with multiple approaches, including both custom development and readymade software, using a readymade software remains the safest. This is because of three primary reasons, which are:

1. Readymade solutions are tried and tested
2. They are highly cost-effective
3. Reduce the overall Time-to-Market

Thus, instead of paying hourly development charges for a software, it is wiser to opt for the readymade solutions on which the existing rental industry relies. There are basically two types of readymade rental solutions:

• SaaS Rental Software

SaaS rental software refer to the solutions that are hosted on the software provider’s own servers and provided as a monthly service. Thus, the name Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). SaaS solutions are primarily useful for small businesses and solopreneurs who want to validate their market ideas. Key benefits of using a SaaS rental software are:

• These are tried and tested solutions
• Are very easy to set up

However, while selecting SaaS, it must be taken into account that the software provider gets complete control over the hosting server. For this reason, there can be some restrictions on the number of listings and transactions on your platform. To overcome those restrictions, you will need to frequently upgrade your package, which may result in a monthly increase in costs.

• Self-Hosted Rental Software

A solution to the SaaS recurring costs and scalability problem is self-hosted rental software. These types of rental software provide complete freedom to business owners in selecting the hosting server, which can either be a third-party hosting service provider or an on-premise server. The top benefits of using a self-hosted rental software are:

• One-time costs for a lifetime license
• As these are hosted on your choice of servers, there are no limitations on the number of  listings and transactions
• Self-hosted solutions are highly cost-effective in the long run. Any changes in the price of the software do not affect existing customers.

Moreover, as self-hosted software come with a lifetime usage license, founders can easily migrate to any other software without worrying about any reinvestment costs.

Conclusion

With rental saunas emerging as a leisure trend in the North American market and their cultural significance in various other parts of the world, investing in a sauna rental marketplace can be a profitable business decision. However, to streamline operations, you need a readymade solution with advanced features and intuitive workflows. This is where YoRent rental software helps. Being a highly reliable and fully scalable rental software with advanced rent-centric features, YoRent supports all sauna rental use cases right out of the box. For a personalized one-or-one demo or software consultation, feel free to get in touch with YoRent experts.

Due to clean energy utilization and silent engines of electric vehicles (EVs), imagining a future with gasoline-free air and quieter city roads has become possible. The eco-friendly nature of EVs is also the reason behind the numerous incentives rolled out by world governments to encourage their use. Along with governments, the general public is aware of these benefits and is more willing to use EVs than ever before.

In a poll conducted by Verra Mobility Corporation in 2023 on US consumers, it was found that rental is the most preferred method of early adoption of electric vehicles. Out of 2000 participants, 78% considered renting EVs over buying to experience the technology. EV rental is further backed by positive growth statistics that show a growth of USD 7.4 billion in the period 2023-2027, marking a splendid CAGR of 15%.

Furthermore, with COP28, an annual UN meet on economic crises signaling the “beginning of the end“ of the fossil fuel era, the dependency on EVs is only expected to grow. All these factors highlight a lucrative opportunity for launching an EV rental store. To assist founders in finding the best business model for their EV rental business and the most effective approach to launch their EV rental stores, we have drafted a detailed roadmap below.

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Jake Burton Carpenter was a US citizen, born in Vermont, who enjoyed snowboarding in the sport’s early years; the ’60s period. Back then, we used to have different snowboard designs, called ‘snurfer’ boards, made by connecting two skis together. Jake was not only passionate about snurfing but also shaped it.  In 1977, he came up with a snurf board design that had bindings to secure feet. This design became widely popular as what we know today as snowboards, and Jake got global recognition as the inventor of modern snowboards.

In the same year, Jake launched his company, Burton Snowboards, which witnessed tremendous growth in the following years. Jake demonstrated his designs in various National Championships and expanded business operations to Europe, raising global awareness for the sport. In the 21st century, Burton Snowboards is still a leading player in the snowboard rental industry, generating an estimated $400 million in revenue per year.

One of the primary reasons behind Burton’s popularity is their unique value proposition. Snowboarding enthusiasts can simply rent or shop for snowboards and related equipment, and get them delivered to their doorsteps. Having a wide range of products for men, women, and kids, Burton’s primary target audience is entire families, tourists, and snowboard enthusiasts.

There are numerous other winter sports rental platforms like Burton operating in the market. Their primary products include rental skis, snowboards, and protective gear. Let’s understand everything you require to start your own online ski and snowboard rental business.

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To stay relevant and compete with modern players, providing a rental option has become essential for equipment dealers. What bloats the need for rentals are many incentives, such as low tax liability on rented equipment, no maintenance costs, and better business capital utilization. In addition, if we consider the current market landscape that is saturated with both commercial and residential projects, the demand for rental equipment is further expected to surge in the near future.

Stating some facts and figures, there are billion-dollar construction projects already in progress in regions such as the US, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India and Russia. Countless smaller residential, renovation and infrastructure development projects are also inflating the market size for equipment rentals. Specifically, in 2022, the market size was a whopping $193.10 billion and is expected to reach $275 billion in the next eight years.

The aforementioned insights are indicative of the lucrative business opportunity in building an equipment rental store like United Rentals and Sunbelt Rentals. While it may require considerable time and effort to reach the success level of these leading players, but, with technological advancements, you can get similar software technology as theirs and deliver the best value proposition. This blog will introduce you to the best solution, allowing you to thoroughly explore and test it for each aspect before making a decision.

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Every startup begins with the identification of a market demand. Be it retail eCommerce businesses that brought window shopping to our homes or rental businesses that provided an alternative to purchasing short-term usage items. One such demand that still exists without a proper solution in many markets is plantscaping, i.e., designing and installing custom plant setups in homes and offices. In general, the demand for urban plantscapes, such as patios and indoor plants is flourishing.

The environmental sustainability, therapeutic benefits and aesthetic look that plants add to any property are the primary reasons behind the never faltering demand in the industry. However, not many people have the resources required for full-fledged plantscaping. At many places, such as rental properties and events, plants are also required for only a short-term basis. Thus, a more relevant solution to meet the market demand more accurately is to launch a plant rental marketplace.

While many incumbents already exist in the plant rental industry, only a few of them have taken the digital route to market, leaving a clear scope of advantage in the online sector of the industry. To help you capitalize on the opportunity, we have introduced several insights on market dynamics and also the key considerations to help you launch your own plant rental marketplace.

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The online rental industry is proliferating into diverse niches like automobiles, heavy equipment, tools and fashion. With this development, there is a rise of online marketplaces and stores to rent out numerous household items, recreational products and utility equipment. Where launching an online store for any type of business used to be a daunting experience a few years ago, no code software has simplified the task for all entrepreneurs.

In this article, we have shed light on what is no code development and made a fair comparison between no code and traditional software development to help you find the better option.

Furthermore, we have listed the types of no code software you can select to build an online rental marketplace.

Table of Contents

• What is No Code Software Development?
• What Makes No Code Software Development Highly Relevant?
  – Time Saving
  – User-Friendly
  – Cost-Effective
  – Easily Accessible
  – Business Specific
• Selecting a No Code Software
  – Types of No Code Solutions
  – Features to Look for in a No Code Rental Marketplace
• How YoRent Helps?
• Conclusion

What is No Code Software Development?

The no code software development approach refers to the development method that requires minimum to no programming skills, for example, building the software using form field options or a drag and drop builder. It is perfect for those entrepreneurs who have a clear understanding of their requirements, business workflows and payment methods but lack the necessary programming skills to develop a full-fledged source code.

No code development approach works in a simple manner and adheres to the concepts of abstraction and encapsulation in OOPs to ensure rapid delivery. While the concept of abstraction conceals the incomprehensible and irrelevant processes from the entrepreneur, encapsulation refers to the concept of binding important data blocks together so that a single input from a GUI (Graphical User Interface) is enough to update the source code.

What Makes No Code Software Development Highly Relevant in 2024?

With advancements in technology, adapting to the latest technology makes businesses highly agile. For rental businesses, using the no code software development is more logical because of various reasons:

1. Time Saving

In a recent 2022 business building survey, McKinsey found out that 74% of customers want product availability to be shown online. Meeting this expectation requires rental businesses to have an online rental store and no code development is the fastest way to do so. It significantly reduces the Time-to-Market (TTM) by providing a tried and tested source code that requires no to minimum changes. Moreover, documentation and support is readily available for onboarding.

2. User-Friendly

A no code software is developed with a user-centered approach to ensure ease of deployment and match the expectations of modern day users. It is basically a prototype with next level UI/UX capabilities that requires basic inputs and administrative settings for quick deployment. As a no code software is developed incrementally after taking early adopter feedback, its GUI is more intuitive and user-friendly for smooth interactions.

3. Cost-Effective

The traditional route to software development is inclusive of extensive planning, consulting, and hourly development rates. All of them are heavily cost-inclusive and vary on multiple things. In contrast, no code development does not require programming expertise or resources, It is a tried and tested solution which eliminates factors like hourly development rates, in-depth business analysis and testing. This makes no code development highly cost effective.

4. Easily Accessible

No code development solves the problem of knowledge gap and accessibility. Both technical and non-technical users can develop software with no code development and give shape to their different business perspectives. Some no code solutions allow full customization, which is either managed by API integration or low code programming, all while keeping the integrity of the no code development approach.

5. Business Specific

No code software is expertly developed after conducting a thorough research of the targeted industry and resolves numerous consumer pain points. Due to this, a no code solution is very business specific. Today, entrepreneurs can find no code solutions for their rental marketplace startup, cab booking starting, food delivery startup and more. Thus, opting for no code development in the rental industry is more practical than selecting the traditional development approach where you will be first required to analyze the market and do logic designing.

To sum up the difference that no code development makes in one go, have a look at the comparison table below:

Selecting a No Code Software for Developing an Online Rental Marketplace

While there are some dominant no code development options for sales operations, such an option is currently missing in the rental industry. However, there do exist no code solutions that are very capable and feature-extensive to support and streamline end-to-end rental operations. You can take assistance from the following points to select the right solution.

1. Types of No Code Solutions

There are two types of no code rental solutions available in the market today:

Self-Hosted Solutions:

Self-hosted solutions give flexibility to the entrepreneur to select a fast or more secure hosting server. He can also host the software on an on-premise server. The key advantage of using a self-hosted solutions is that it gives the entrepreneur complete control over the software. As the rental software is installed on the entrepreneur’s own choice of server, there are no monthly recurring costs.

SaaS (Software as a Service) Solutions:

Rental SaaS solutions are installed on the software provider’s very own servers and available as a monthly subscription to entrepreneurs. This means that neither do they get full control over the solution nor the choice of selecting a more secure server. Moreover, the storage capacity available is also dependent on the selected monthly plan. However, the entrepreneur can upgrade his plan anytime and benefit from multiple broken down monthly charges.

Self-Hosted vs SaaS: Which No Code Solution is right for you? 

If you want more security against cyber crimes or want a fully-enabled solution, then self-hosted solutions are right for you. On the other hand, if you are a solopreneur or targeting small markets, opt for SaaS solutions. Do note that while SaaS solutions look more affordable at first, they are more expensive in the long run and require one to upgrade to the top package in order to access full functionalities.

2. Features to Look for in a No Code Rental Marketplace Solution

What makes rental software solutions different from sales based solutions is their features and functionality. Due to an entirely different business model, sales based no code solutions cannot support rental operations.

For example, just to accept rental orders, your marketplace needs to have an option to accept rental date inputs. Placing the ‘add to cart’ button alone in this case won’t work. Likewise, your solution needs to have options to manage rental security and verify documents. The majority of sales based no code solutions lack these features.

Along with the aforementioned features, there are various other important rental features that you should consider to select a no code rental marketplace solution. We have made a list of all necessary features below:

• Booking Calendar: A feature to accept rental date inputs. It also assists in preventing double booking, showing product availability and invoicing.
• Rental Security Management: The option to collect rental security and use it for reimbursing damaged equipment.
• Document Verification: The document verification option on a no code rental marketplace is important to collect and verify identity proofs, address proofs and any other statutory documents.
• Product Inspection: An option to inspect rented equipment and report any damages or issues to the marketplace admin.
• Maintenance Buffer: A buffer period between two rental duration for the maintenance and surveying of returned equipment.
• Late Cancellations Management: An option to manage late cancellations by defining tiered cancellation periods and penalties. Late cancellation penalties can also be deducted from the rental security. 
• Overdue Returns Management: An option to define tiered late returns period and levy respective penalty charges from the rental security.
• Rental Add-ons: Rental add-ons option in a no code rental software will allow the entrepreneur to sell complimentary add-on services and products. They also act as an additional revenue stream.
• RFQ Management: Some rental options can be very complex, including different rental duration for various products. To support such orders, an RFQ management option is required.
• Discounts Management: On an online rental marketplace, business owners can provide various types of discounts such as flat rate discounts, percentage discounts, bulk volume discounts and rental duration discounts.
• Separate Seller Registration Form: Apart from custom sign up, a rental marketplace should have a separate  vendor registration form.
• Minimum Withdrawal Interval: The option to select a minimum interval period for vendors to withdraw balance from their ewallet.
• Minimum Withdrawal Limit: There should also be a minimum threshold limit on a rental marketplace that the vendors should reach before being able to withdraw their balance.

How YoRent Helps in Creating No Code Marketplace?

YoRent is a next-gen rental marketplace software that automates the daily operations of a rental business. From taking orders to managing inventory, returns, vendors, payments and marketing, Yo!Rent is highly capable of dealing with your numerous rental business use cases. Furthermore, being a self-hosted solution, Yo!Rent is available at a flat rate pricing which makes it highly suitable for growing businesses. Some other benefits of Yo!Rent are:

• It is a fully scalable no code solution. With its unlimited listings, user profiles and transactions, Yo!Rent can support your rental marketplace operations at all stages of growth.
• Yo!Rent is built with an industry specific approach. After analyzing and encompassing all popular rental niches, Yo!Rent has been divided into four primary industry specific solutions, which are multi-niche rental software, equipment rental software, fashion rental software and automobile software. These primary solutions can be used to launch a rental business in all types of rental niches like car rental, truck rental, furniture rental, AV equipment rental and more.
• For targeting diverse audiences, YoRent comes with multi-lingual and multi-currency support. Both can be used to target non-native English speaking audiences.
• At one-flat fee, business owners also get a lifetime usage license and 1 year of free technical support including training, documentation and bug fixes.
• Along with the rental model, Yo!Rent has full functionality to support sales operations as well. Meaning, it gives business owners the flexibility to lend and sell products on a single marketplace.
• Yo!Rent comes with 20+ pre-integrated payment gateways that simplify payment solutions for both the business owner and customers.

Click below to see All Features of YoRent.

Conclusion

No code software development methods have helped thousands of businesses in materializing their online business ideas. Even in the rental industry, no code solutions are powering highly advanced rental stores. Major reasons behind the popularity of no code solutions are their increased accessibility and cost effectiveness that even allows non-technical business owners to create highly-functional online stores. If you begin with the no code software development method today, you can create and launch your online rental marketplace in less than a month.

The baby products industry is vastly driven by sentimental values, due to which parents often tend to buy a lot of equipment, including the ones they may never use. Additionally, inflation rates in the industry make baby equipment very expensive and there’s a need for repeated purchases at various growth stages of the infant. Thus, after usage, all unrequired baby equipment, despite being in a good and reusable condition ends up creating a lot of waste. As a solution to this problem emerged several baby equipment rental stores.

An online baby gear rental business primarily targets parents looking for safe and hygienic baby gears for long durations. To fulfill these requirements, rental businesses provide properly cleaned and sanitized products. If you want to join the online equipment rental industry, you will need to make a proper business plan and invest in equipment rental software. You can take help from this quick guide to get a general overview.

Table of Contents

• Business Plan
  1. Figure Out Your Requirements
  2. Select the Software Type
  3. Do a Competitive Analysis
  4. Set Rental Pricing
  5. Diversify Income Streams
  6. Create a Marketing Strategy
  7. Launch and Manage Your Business
• Most Recommended Rental Software
• Conclusion

Exemplary Business Plan for an Online Baby Gear Rental Business

In our exemplary business plan, we have covered everything you need to set up your online rental website or marketplace and start your business operations.

1. Figure Out Your Requirements

You need to analyze and understand consumer buying signals, their shopping patterns and on-going trends to find out what you really need on your online baby gear rental store. This will include things like figuring out the type of inventory, warehousing, delivery partner, and ways to resolve numerous customer pain points.

Types of Baby Equipment you can Lend

1. Cribs
2. Cradle
3. Strollers
4. Car seats
5. High seat chairs
6. Bathing products
7. Toy packages
8. Bouncers and swings

You can also consult the business analyst of an equipment rental software provider to help you refine your requirements and find the right solutions. Based on our analysis, you will require the following features on your rental software.

Features to Look For on a Rental Software

• Booking Calendar: An online calendar to select rental booking dates. This feature is also helpful for invoicing and preventing double booking.
• Overdue Returns: An option to view all pending returns and send timely reminders for returning the equipment or extending rental period.
• Order Cancellation Module: An option to set and define varying cancellation periods and penalties for recovering lost order processing costs
• Rental Security Management: To reimburse any product damages and collect penalties for overdue returns and late cancellations.
• Maintenance Buffer Periods: An option to define custom maintenance periods for inspecting returned products. The product is only added back to the inventory after completion of the maintenance buffer period.
• Request-for-Quote: A module to accept and fulfill custom quotation requests. This option is helpful to attract large orders and negotiate pricing.
• Rental Add-Ons: Rental add-ons enable business owners to add and sell complimentary products, such as bed sheets for cribs, child pillows, plush toys, etc.
• Duration Discounts: Custom rental duration discounts to encourage long-term rentals.
• Marketing Features: Various marketing tools and features like meta tag optimization, social media sharing and discount coupon management
• Reports and Analytics: Support for various types of reports such as sales reports, marketing reports and inventory reports.

2. Select the Software Type

For effective digital enablement, you are also suggested to select an off-the-shelf equipment rental software. Off-the-shelf software solutions are comparatively more cost-effective than custom development and expertly developed to deal with a number of challenges and reduce time to market. Custom development, on the other hand, is only suggested in cases where off-the-shelf readymade solutions are not able to match your business requirements and can also be very costly.

Some types of rental software available in the market are:

• Self-Hosted Software: These types of software are hosted on your own servers. You can either set up one on-site or purchase third-party hosting. A top benefit of using self-hosted equipment rental software is that you can opt for a secure or faster server. There are also no monthly recurring costs involved.

• SaaS or Hosted Software: The term ‘SaaS’ refers to Software as a Service. This type of software is pre-hosted on the software provider’s server and as suggested, is available for businesses as a service, which is charged on a monthly basis.

3. Do a Competitive Analysis

We can consider this industry to still be in its nascent stage. However, this does not mean that the industry is free of competition. The competition might be low but can help you figure out various market dynamics and consumer demands. You can also learn a lot from your competition, such as their pricing strategy, marketing channels, sales channels, shortfalls, and more. Getting a competitive advantage can be helpful in the long run and thorough competitive analysis will help you gain the same.

Top Players in the Online Baby Equipment Rental Businesses

4. Set Rental Pricing

After conducting a thorough competitive analysis, you will gain insights on competitive pricing. You can set the rental fee of your baby equipment based on your competitor’s pricing and introduce attractive discounts. Apart from this, there are also various other pricing strategies that you can implement:

• Cost Plus Margin: This is the most economically viable pricing strategy in the rental industry. It primarily focuses on recovering capital costs in the shortest period of time to start earning profit. For example, you can set the rental fee of a $200 cradle as $20 a day to recover the capital cost within 10 days and enter the profit stage from the 11th day. 

• Bundle Pricing: Don’t rent out certain items as standalone. Instead, bundle them together to set a higher but discounted pricing. The discounted pricing motivates customers to rent the bundled equipment instead of one product and thus will increase the average order costs for you.

• Demand-based Pricing: You can charge a higher rental fee for certain brands or product categories that are high in demand. Similarly, low demand products can be lent at a lower prices to manipulate and increase their demand, or simply for loss minimization.

5. Diversify Income Streams

The digital capabilities of online mode of business also offer an opportunity to diversify income streams. This simply means that along with earning by lending baby equipment alone, you can aggregate several other sources on your rental marketplace to increase your revenue.

Some additional online income streams you should consider are:

• Subscription packages
• Third-party advertising
• PPC marketing
• Rental Add-ons
• Paid delivery

You can also make your business asset-light by developing a community of contributors just like BabyQuip. This will make your rental business a peer-to-peer rental marketplace where you don’t need to own any inventory. Instead, various contributors will upload their products and you only need to manage the website and marketing. If you plan to launch an equipment rental marketplace, then you will also get the access to the following revenue streams:

• Rental commissions
• Featured listings
• Paid listings
• Delivery services

Your software requirements may also vary in case you wish to launch a peer-to-peer equipment rental marketplace.

6. Create a Marketing Strategy

To finally step in the industry you will require a marketing strategy that keeps the targeted audience in the center. For this, you initially need to find out your brand propositions and Unique Selling Points (USP). They will help you create effective ad copies and show value to customers in your baby equipment rental store. Once your USPs are clear, you can begin with the execution of a proper marketing plan.

The marketing plan of your online rental store can include the following:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Being an online business, appearing in Google search results is an imperative. The higher the rank you get on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP), the better you can reach customers and increase awareness about your business. A common approach to do so is Search Engine Optimization, where you optimize your website content for search engine rankings.

Search Engine Advertising

Another way to get better visibility in SERPs is to do search engine advertising where a small ad snippet of your rental business will be displayed right above the search results. You can also create custom landing pages for search engine advertising.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing assists in developing a likable brand identity and increasing business awareness. The main purpose of social media marketing is to increase engagement with customers, which can be done by uploading and sharing quality social media posts. Additionally, you can also use your equipment rental software’s marketing features for promoting discounts and offers.

Referral Marketing

Reaching a wider audience should be the goal of startups to expect more leads and conversions. Along with digital marketing, word-of-mouth marketing is also very effective at building that audience. To encourage your customers for word-of-mouth marketing, a proper referral marketing strategy is highly recommended. You can give some discounts to your customers for inviting their family and friends to your online rental store.

7. Launch and Manage Your Business

Once everything is ready, it is time to launch your online baby gear rental business and expect to receive orders within the very first month. Use your rental software’s administrative features for managing orders, taxes, inventory, returns, user profiles and more. Over time, there will also be a need to update the banner image for promoting new products and discounts. Regarding other areas of management, business owners are also required to gear their efforts towards business accounts management, rental security management, handling customer data and providing effective customer support.

Most Recommended Rental Software for Online Equipment Rental Businesses

While there are many software solutions available in the market, we recommend you Yo!Rent equipment rental software that comes with both single-vendor and multi-vendor variants. With its help you can launch both B2C and P2P equipment rental businesses and use its advanced features to simplify your business operations. Furthermore, Yo!Rent is also self-hosted and available at a one time cost. To check complete functionality, you can also check Yo!Rent’s instant and free to explore demos.

Why Select Yo!Rent? 

There are not one, but multiple reasons to select Yo!Rent for your baby equipment rental operations:

• Advanced feature set including rental security management, rental add-ons, Request-for-Quote, late cancellation/returns, and many more. 
• Fully customizable software to support any additional or preferential requirements
• Fully scalable to support unlimited listings, transactions and user profiles
• Up to 90 roles and permissions for sub admin accounts
• Available at a one-time cost
• One year of free technical support

The Bottom Line

Every startup venture is challenging and launching an online rental business is no difference. However, with clear goals and a straightforward approach, you can accomplish even the riskiest assumptions. For this, you need to plan ahead and gauge the market from multiple perspectives. Be it technology, logistics, team, finance or marketing, with everything in your foresight, you can draft an effective strategy that takes your business idea to feasibility.

As the mechanization of agriculture gains momentum in both mature and emerging markets, there’s a subsequent increase in demand for ag tractors and combines. The North American region witnessed a 20% and 7% production increase in ag tractors and combines respectively in 2021, compared with previous year’s totals. It was a similar story in the rest of the world(16% & 7% increase for ag tractors & combines). Amidst this boom of production, various rental startups have aligned their offerings to suit the farmer’s interests.

Table of Contents:

• Farm Equipment Rental – Key Growth Drivers
  – Affordable Cost
  – Access to Advanced Machinery & Equipment
• Software Technologies & Their Role in Farm Equipment Rental Management
  ― Equipment Booking & Reservation
  ― Streamline Operations
  ― Reduce Equipment Downtime
  ― Reports & Analytics
  ― Integrated CRM
• Key Capabilities To Expect in Your Farm Equipment Rental Software
  ― Software That is Pre-Configured For Your Business Operations
  ― Software That is Adaptive To Dynamic Changes or Disruptions
  ― Software That Offer High-Grade Security & Seamless Integration
  ― Software That Allow For Innovation & Improving Customer Experience
• Conclusion

Farm Equipment Rental – Key Growth Drivers

The farm equipment rental market is certainly progressing at an upward curve. As of 2021, the global farm equipment rental market was valued at $45.82 billion and it’s forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% by the end of 2028. There are chiefly two key drivers for this growth viz.
– Cost effective use of equipment and by extension reduced financial burden on the farmers,
– Access to the new, advanced and wide range of equipment.

Affordable Cost

The cost benefits of farm equipment rental are manifold. Firstly, the cost incurred on renting can be written off on annual tax returns. Next, some categories of large equipment like forage harvesters, mower conditioners and tillage equipment cost a lot of money and it’s difficult to realize profit from them in the short-term. Acquiring these equipment on rental is far more affordable.

Access to Advanced Machinery & Equipment

Majority of the farm equipment rental companies keep their equipment well maintained and that has its benefits in terms of farming output. Additionally, rental companies by means of long-standing ties or vast vendor networks are able to purchase new and advanced equipment at special pricing, which can then be made available to farmers on rental. This gives farmers a major technological edge.

Software Technologies & Their Role in Farm Equipment Rental Management

With eCommerce becoming the force to be reckoned with across all industries and market sectors, it’s hardly a surprise to see businesses in the farm equipment rental market adopt the digital technology to manage their operations and adapt to the evolving needs of their clients. Making this digital transition often calls for an eCommerce platform, upon which you can build a system to execute all your online functions; this is usually referred to as a content management system. Before we dive into the specifics, lets’ first have a look at how these rental software bring about operational efficiency:

1. Equipment Booking & Reservation

A farm equipment rental software provides customers with a self-service portal where they can search and view rental equipment availability and pricing in real time; a trademark characteristic of the eCommerce industry and one that’s associated with increased levels of customer satisfaction. But sophisticated rental management software go beyond this traditional role. They can track multiple meter readings, which allows owners to charge customers an appropriate rate for an equipment, in case of over-usage.

Transparency of effective and expiration rental dates makes the booking and reservation process much more efficient. Customers can easily get the exact equipment as per their needs, minus all the confusion or miscommunication that’s involved in the booking process.

2. Streamline Operations:

When you’re operating a farm equipment rental business, you need to have quick access to details like assets’ inventory, inspection, maintenance, and servicing. This wouldn’t be ideal through a large, heavy logbook that’s chock-a-block with all manner of entries that certainly lead to more confusion than resolution.

It’s much easier to store and retrieve all this information on a software. You could even upload relevant documents like invoices, rental contracts, insurance and certificates of your farming equipment for future reference.

3. Reduce Equipment Downtime

Through advanced equipment/asset management features, crucial metrics like overall usage, depreciation, maintenance and repair schedules can be determined. Depending on an equipment’s historical data, predictive or preventive maintenance can be scheduled.

Timely maintenance and repairs increase the lifespan of farming equipment and thereby increase your earning potential from rentals.

4. Reports & Analytics

Decision-making is becoming increasingly reliant on the availability of data and a farm equipment rental software provides plenty of that through real-time reporting and analytics.

Stakeholders can get their hands on data broken down by equipment type, OEM, model and even unique serial numbers. This enables executives to get a microscopic view into overall machines’ usability, viz. which are most and least utilized.

This way, strategic financial decisions can be made such as by slashing pricing of low-utilized equipment and increasing that of high-utilized equipment.

5. Integrated CRM

Most farm equipment rental software come pre-integrated with CRM functionality. It provides sales reps a complete overview of customers’ profile, their past orders, previous interactions and other helpful information to make focused and confident decisions to close deals. Moreover, businesses don’t necessarily need to rely on internet connectivity to implement CRM as they come with interactive configuration and offline sync with the system as soon as connectivity is restored.

Key Capabilities To Expect in Your Farm Equipment Rental Software

Having considered different merits, we’ll now take a look at the key capabilities that should be considered as you begin your search for a rental business management software.

1. Software That is Pre-Configured For Your Business Operations

Given farm equipment rental is a niche segment of the wider rental industry, it might not be advisable to ‘plug and play’ any random rental software package. Instead you should look for a solution that offers industry or niche specific templates as a first step. This way you can determine the functionalities that resonate with your business and increase operational efficiency as much as possible.

To sum up, it’s best to opt for software that offers you advanced technology along with pre-configured packages. Right away, this leads to quick deployment time as there’s no coding involved in deployment. At the same time, operators find it much easier to manage such software.

2. Software That is Adaptive To Dynamic Changes or Disruptions

Rental industry is continuously evolving and while ordinary software with its asset management and quote to invoice might be helpful to some extent, it can’t get you through when stakes are high. Therefore, it’s advised to opt for a rental software that offers optimum flexibility. This could mean implementing mobile solutions, incorporating new capabilities, expanding offerings, increasing locations, strengthening ties and moving to new online channels.

It’s true that predicting future trends or demands can be challenging and even difficult, how a given software will address those uncertain demands. However, software built on a modular approach and a reliable technology base, with easy access to information should fit the billing. It can ensure stability with expansive functionality and flexibility to accommodate any future needs or disruptions.

3. Software That Offer High-Grade Security & Seamless Integration

Any type of customer data is sensitive information and it’s something that needs to be kept secure at all times. At the same time, increased security shouldn’t become a hindrance to ease of information sharing(role-relevant). For this particular reason, software built with role-tailored security should be the obvious choice as they allow seamless flow of information with proper filtering.

Moving on, how well your software handles integrations should be a point for discussions as the rental landscape is constantly evolving with mobile apps, self-serving portals and IOT becoming the norm. It’s crucial to know your software has the capability to handle such integrations.

4. Software That Allow For Innovation & Improving Customer Experience

As discussed earlier, software nowadays is expected to have potential for innovation with mobile apps, customer portals and IOT. Mobile apps make light work of managing various types of equipment maintenance and simplify customer documentation for field technicians. With IOT, you can track the exact location and usage of your rented equipment through metered readings. Lastly, customer portals keep customers apprised with listed equipment and their real-time data.

Conclusion

We’ve seen through the course of this blog that software with advanced technology and feature offerings immensely improve the operational efficiency of farm equipment rental businesses. Moreover, software that is flexible and built on a modular approach can be leveraged to tackle the evolving landscape of the rental industry. At FATbit Technologies, we help rental businesses meet their technology needs through our dedicated, multi-niche rental software – Yo!Rent. To learn more about the software, click here.

The technological advancements in the oil rigging industry are expanding the business horizons beyond expectations. They are making oil extractions more economic and attracting many new players. However, to get started, those new players require various oilfield equipment. You can fulfill the increased demand for the same by building an online oilfield equipment rental platform. For this, you also need to have a few prerequisites, which include understanding of the business model, oilfield rental software and key features required.

This article attempts to outline the aforementioned and several other related parameters of the oilfield equipment rental industry to assist entrepreneurs in launching their online oilfield equipment rental platform.

Table of Contents

• Business Model of an Online Oilfield Equipment Rental Business
  – Multi-Vendor Oilfield Equipment Rental Business Model
  – Single Vendor Oilfield Equipment Rental Business Model

• Types of Equipment you Can Rent Out Through Online Oilfield Rental Platform
  – On-Shore Rigging
  – Off-Shore Rigging

• Top Players in the Online Oilfield Equipment Rental Industry
• Important Features Required in an Oilfield Rental Software
• Conclusion

Business Model of an Online Oilfield Equipment Rental Business

To understand the primary functioning of an online oilfield equipment rental platform, it is important to have a look at its business models. The business models will include the basic workflow of the rental platform, including how business owners lend oilfield equipment and what are the key operations that an oilfield rental business needs to take care of while lending equipment.

Multi-Vendor Oilfield Equipment Rental Business Model

In a multi-vendor business or online marketplace business, the business does not require to own any of its inventory. Instead, different vendors sign on the platform to rent out their equipment, whereas the marketplace owner primarily earns via rental commission. Being an asset-light business, it is easy to launch a multi-vendor business instead of a single vendor storefront.

The workflow of an online multi-vendor oilfield equipment rental business is as follows:

• Multiple vendors register themselves on the marketplace platform and upload detailed equipment listings.
• Oil companies/contractors browse those listings and add all required equipment to their cart with the help of an advanced booking calendar.
• The oil company submits a rental security deposit and necessary ID proofs along with the rental fee in order to place an order.
• The marketplace owner deducts his commission from the rental fee and adds the rest to the vendor’s eWallet. Meanwhile, the marketplace owner also takes care of the rental security. 
• On the return of the equipment, the vendor inspects the equipment for any damages and reports, if any, damages to the marketplace owner.
• The marketplace owner reimburses the vendor from the oil company’s rental security and returns the rest.
• Now, once a vendor reaches a minimum threshold amount in his eWallet, for example, $100, he can transfer his earnings to his actual bank account. Note that the threshold amount is set by the marketplace owner and the $100 here is only an exemplary figure.

Single Vendor Oilfield Equipment Rental Business Model

In this business model, the oilfield equipment rental business enlists all its equipment online. The oil rigging company visits the business’ official website and places orders. These orders do not require to be necessarily for the entire duration of the oil rigging project but can be for short fixed routines as well. Later, the rental period for the rented equipment can be extended.

The workflow of an online single-vendor oilfield equipment rental business is as follows:

• The oilfield equipment rental company lists all the equipment on its online storefront.
• The oil company browses the equipment and adds it to the cart with the help of an advanced booking calendar.
• The oil company submits a rental security deposit and necessary ID proof and workplace address in order to place an order.
• On the return of the equipment, the oilfield equipment rental company inspects the equipment for any damages and deducts an reimbursement from the company’s rental security.
• The remaining security is paid back to the oil company.

To materialize both these aforementioned business models, we recommend you Yo!Rent oilfield rental software that has been dedicatedly developed with advanced industry-specific features. As it is also fully customizable, you can make any adjustments in the software as per your business requirements.

Types of Equipment you Can Rent Out Through Online Oilfield Rental Platform

Oil rigging operations are conducted on both on-shore and off-shore sites. On-shore sites include all those operations that take place on land. Due to technological advancements and easy availability of rental equipment, oil companies now can set up a smaller infrastructure for on-shore rigging.

In contrast, off-shore oil rigging takes place on sea surface and thus is more challenging. Setting up an oil rig underwater is an intimidating task for many entrepreneurs. However, using quality equipment can assist in managing all types of rigging operations. On-shore and Off-Shore oil rigging involves the following type of equipment:

On-Shore Rigging

The site preparation for on-shore rigging involves the leveling up of land, creating a rectangular pit for working, digging a well for drilling purpose and a reservation pit for disposing waste such as mud and rubble. All these operations require the following oilfield rental equipment:

• Oilfield Trucks
• Solids Control Equipment
• Well Control Equipment. 
• Crawler Rigs
• Rotary Drill Rigs
• DTH Drill Rigs
• Top Hammer Drill Rigs

Off-Shore Rigging

While the solid and waste control equipment remain the same in off-shore rigging, it is the type of rigs and the efforts to set up the complete infrastructure that make off-shore rigging more challenging. Below are some types of rigs that can be set up for off-shore rigging purposes:

• Barge Rigs
• Submersible and Semi-Submersible Rigs
• Floaters
• Drillship
• Platform Rigs
• Compliant Towers

Top Players in the Online Oilfield Equipment Rental Industry

The following groups are leading the online oilfield equipment rental industry. However, they face a strong competitive environment with an increasing scope for many new entrants to enter and establish their place in the industry in different regions throughout the world.

Important Features Required in an Oilfield Rental Software

To help you effectively launch and manage your oilfield equipment rental business, Yo!Rent rental software has the following features:

Request-for-Quote Module: Oilfield equipment requirements can be very complex and stretched for a long period of time. Between this time, or if we say rental duration, the equipment may require maintenance, servicing or replacement. While all such requirements are handled under a contract-based business model, a dedicated Request-for-Quote (RFQ) module can also help online oilfield equipment rental businesses in accepting and negotiating complex rental orders along with their associated terms.

Rent Plus Sell: The demand for certain equipment in the oilfield industry is repetitive. Instead of renting such equipment again and again, your clients may prefer to purchase them. The same will be the case in operations where oil rigging operations may last over years. Instead of paying a recurring payment, clients will prefer to buy the equipment at a more economic one-time payment. Thus, to meet purchase requirements, your oilfield equipment rental platform should have the feature to rent out and sell equipment as well.

Advanced Booking Calendar: Regular business softwares and eCommerce softwares fail to facilitate rental softwares as they lack the basic functionality to accept rental dates and do invoicing for a rental order. A booking calendar is capable of doing both. Instead of going for a calendar plugin or third-party integration, we recommend selecting a software that comes with an in-built booking system.

Document Verification: Renting out expensive oilfield equipment is not easy for any entrepreneur even after having insurance. So, to ensure equipment safety and comply with statutory requirements, your oilfield equipment rental business software should also support a document verification feature. With the help of this feature, you can collect the address proofs and identify proofs of all your customers.

Rental Security Management: Along with document verification features, rental security management features will also assist you in ensuring equipment safety. With the help of these features, you can collect rental security from customers at the time of checkout and use it for various purposes, for example reimbursing any damages, deducting late return charges or collecting fines for violation of terms and conditions.

Late Return and Late Cancellations: Both late returns and late cancellations are not good for a rental business. While late cancellations result in the loss of order processing costs, the former limit the capacity of the business to fulfill the next order. Thus, to overcome this problem, your oilfield rental business software should have features to define and levy return and late cancellation charges.

Rental Agreement and eSign: In a multi-vendor oilfield equipment rental marketplace, different vendors can also have their own terms and conditions. To apply those conditions, you will require a rental agreement management feature. Complemented with an eSign feature, clients can sanction those terms and conditions directly on your online rental marketplace.

Bulk Volume Discount: Oil rigging operations are very comprehensive, due to which an oil company may require various types of equipment in bulk quality. Instead of manually handling bulk volume requirements, with a volume discount feature, you can easily profile pre-defined volume discounts on a percentage or fixed-rate basis.

Conclusion

Having understood the business model and after selecting the right oilfield equipment rental software, the ideal approach to begin with your business operations is to start networking with oil companies and related people in your industry. After gaining the first few customers, you can expect the business to grow. Other factors on which you can count on for business growth are a competitive pricing policy, customer satisfaction and marketing. All these will help you develop a structural base for your online oilfield equipment rental business and are bound to show results over time.