Running a business as a Turo host doesn’t always go smoothly. When renting your car to strangers it’s not hard to picture all the ways things can go south in a hurry. Well, this week a bunch of those things happened all at the same time.
My Horrible Insurance cost increase
Let’s begin with my insurance. I’ve been a Lula customer ever since they began operating in New York, which was sometime in late 2022. They offered off-rental coverage for $99/month per car, or $495/month total. It was great…while it lasted. They recently announced the sale of their insurance business to New Era Risk Solutions. But the sale isn’t expected to close until sometime in June, meaning policies would be terminated in May. My search for a replacement policy was a nightmare, as nearly every company I contacted said no either because the cars are on Turo or because the cars are in New York. ABI was the exception, but they delayed processing the new policy which resulted in a gap in coverage. I expect to be hearing from the DMV any day now.
Anyway, I was with ABI when I first started on this Turo hosting journey in the summer of 2022. They offered a similar price as Lula at the time – around $100/month per car. Boy have things changed since then. My new rate is nearly $180, plus the required monthly cost of tracking devices for each car, bringing my new insurance cost to $936/month!
As a business owner, it’s devastating to have a fixed cost DOUBLE from one month to the next. But this was just the beginning of my terrible week.
My No Good Car Accident
One of my cars was involved in an accident resulting in over $6000 of damage and an estimated three weeks being out of commission…during the busy season in my area!
Accidents happen, and as Turo hosts we should expect these at least a couple times per year. But it’s never fun having to deal with them. This is my second one this year, following the total loss of my Tesla in January. I’m just thankful no one was hurt in either accident. But now I’m down a car during a holiday weekend (Memorial Day).
And to pour salt in the wound, I was thinking about selling that car and had a decent Carvana offer pending. This was of course based on me selecting “No Accidents” when describing the car. I wonder how much that offer will drop now. My no good week continues.
My Very Bad Guest
So I recently rented a car to a guy for three weeks who was late returning the car. He kept giving me all these excuses for two days, then finally messaged me saying the car was impounded and he had been arrested.
I went to the police station to get the release form, then picked up the car from the tow yard a couple days later only to find it covered in used needles and all kinds of other garbage! Even after having it deep cleaned the next day, there’s still stains and a weird smell that my Spiffy deodorizer couldn’t get out.
I got some seat covers for it but haven’t been able to install them yet. I refuse to rent that car until it’s in satisfactory condition so I have it blocked for the moment. So, I’m down another car for the busy holiday weekend (for now…I’m gonna put in some work to try to get it back in order by the end of the day).
The silver lining in this situation was that Turo was great in getting me reimbursed quickly for the damage and hassle. Shout out to Zuleika on the investigation team, she was awesome!
Takeaway
Let this be a lesson to anyone looking to get into Turo. This is NOT passive income (but Turo does have a program now if that’s what you’re looking for). This is not easy and hassle free. It’s work – basically a part time job unless you hire a team. So expect the unexpected and plan for worst case scenarios.
I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!
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