A car rental booking system can be successful in big cities. The more people your business attracts, the better. First of all, this business focuses on visitors: tourists or those who came on a business trip. Many of them will be interested in renting a car to move comfortably around the city. But locals will also contact you, say for a person whose car is being repaired, your offer may be a great alternative. Also, among other things, car rental agencies are regularly contacted to rent wedding and executive cars.
What does a car rental business plan consist of?
Buying a car. To get started, you will need to purchase at least 5 cars of different classes. You can buy new cars, which can cost up to $100,000, or you can save money by buying used ones. The main thing to remember here is that this approach entails the need for regular maintenance. So make decisions based on your current financial status and future prospects.
Choosing a location. Location plays a huge role in this business. If you want to be in demand, your office and parking must be in a prominent place. Ideally, somewhere near the freeway. This way, you will be easy to find, and some new clients will appear after seeing you on the street.
Hiring staff. In order for your business to function to its full potential, you will need:
- a manager (customer service);
- an accountant, or you can contact various companies that provide this kind of service;
- a technical worker, more precisely an auto mechanic who can also work as a driver.
It is impossible to make a calculation regarding their salaries, since many factors influence this. Therefore, in order to correctly calculate your costs, just learn how much this or that specialist costs in the market of your country today.
Founding the company. We strongly recommend that you contact a good legal adviser, so you can eliminate all kinds of errors in the implementation of this procedure. Approach documentation as seriously as possible. Remember that even minor errors can cost you dearly.
Choosing the right software. In this business, a lot depends on the quality of the software you work with. Today, one of the best car rental booking software systems is RentSyst. We highly recommend it to anyone who prioritizes convenience and speed.
Advertising. Promotion methods are standard: leaflets, ads in various media, your own website, online ads, social networks and more. In this sense, car rental business is not much different from any other. Also, a great solution would be to launch an Internet site with prices for services and real photos of cars. Tourists are looking for cars specifically in the network, and with contextual advertising, you can establish a constant flow of customers. If we consider car rental as a business, then, perhaps, contextual advertising is one of the most effective tools in this area.
Registering insurance. Here, first of all, you need to understand that car insurance is mandatory and this is the first thing you will need to do after buying your vehicles. You are not required to insure the business and the rest of the property. You will need to weigh the pros and cons to see if this is right for you. Again, we recommend that you contact a specialist, since insurance is a very expensive procedure and you must be very careful in choosing the company with which you want to conclude an agreement. As a rule, most of them try to avoid liability when their client wants to receive an insurance payment, so seriously analyze the contract and do not make hasty decisions.
Nuances and pitfalls
The cost of renting a car for one day varies in the range of $15 – $35 per day. Practice shows that the profitability of such an enterprise is about 20% – 25%. However, to achieve this result, your cars should not gather dust in the garage. You will need regular customer demand. Therefore, when developing a rental business plan, estimate the car load of at least 65% – 70%.
The car rental booking engine is a relatively new niche, so the overall degree of competition here is much lower than in other business areas. However, the “youth” of this direction has a downside. It lies in the fact that not all people, in principle, know about such a service, and therefore their attention will still need to be captured by active advertising.
At the same time, if we talk about problematic moments in general, the main thing that needs to be highlighted is the difficulty of the start. At its initial stage, this business will require you to make really big investments and will force you to take into account many legal aspects. However, if you have the necessary capital and have a good business plan for further development, soon your work will begin to bring tangible income.
Conclusion
Summing up all of the above, we can say that the car rental business is a young and promising direction, the success of which depends on many factors. However, if you seriously take up the implementation of each of them, the profit will not be long in coming. The main thing to remember is that great success requires serious investments, and serious investments can easily go nowhere in case of an irrational approach.
