Getaround: Social Car Sharing

Living in a big city has many perks, but parking is certainly not one of them. While many urbanites rent a parking space that has a monthly cost rivaling a 3-bedroom house rental in many mid-western states, there are other city dwellers that opt for the commuter route. But, how does the latter deal with the bi-annual IKEA shopping extravaganza, holiday weekend getaway or even just late night travel? While there are taxis, Zipcar, City Car Share and various rental companies offering their services, they are often expensive and inconvenient.

Enter Getaround, a free “peer-to-peer car sharing service and local car rental.” Getaround offers a social car sharing solution for both owners and renters. Interested? Learn more after the jump.

The Lowdown

Getaround solves urban car-owning related problems with its social car-sharing network, which connects owners with renters. Started in 2009 by Sam Zaid, Jessica Scorpio and Elliot Kroo, Getaround’s app uses geo-locating to find cars available for rent in your immediate area. On the app, renters have the option to use their current location or a specific address to enable relevant choices via a map or list option.

Getaround uses your geo-location to find available cars in your area. These cars may be viewed in map or list format.

Getaround uses your geo-location to find available cars in your area. These cars may be viewed in map or list format.

The list option provides a listing for each available car. The car listing includes such pertinent items as a photo of the car, make, model, distance the car is located from you and the rating the car (and owner) has received. Unlike some superfluous rating systems, these ratings are actually a very worthwhile component. After every rental, the renter is asked to rate the user experience — commenting on everything from how clean the car is to communication efficiency (or failure) on the owner’s part. The order of the listings is dictated by the location of the car in relation to you.

Detailed information pertaining to the rental.

Detailed information pertaining to the rental.

After selecting a car you are interested in (hello Tesla Roadster), you are navigated to a more in-depth review of the car. The categories covered are: owner information, location, availability, top features, photos, owner description, pickup instructions and ratings & reviews.

More photos of the rental, the owner's description and pickup instructions.

More photos of the rental, the owner's description and pickup instructions.

The owner portion features a picture of the owner, their rating, their response rate (some owners are much better than others) and their average response time. The location is pretty self-explanatory and so is the availability, basically, a weekly schedule showing which days/times the car is available. Top features reveals the car’s basic features and the photos provided are, well, photos of the car. The owner description is an added bonus — you wouldn’t believe how many people name their cars. Pickup instructions are just that, however some cars are equipped with a Carkit option. The Carkit option allows renters to use their smart phone to unlock the car, cutting out of the equation the need to meet the owner for a key swap. And finally, the ratings and reviews section, which I find highly useful as it paints a broader picture of both the car and the owner.

More photos of the rental and an owner's description of a car (not the Tesla).

More photos of the rental and an owner's description of a car (not the Tesla).

Two other add-ons I should mention about this section, are that each car has a prominent hour/day/week rate option at the top of the screen and you have the option to “favorite” any car. This option is helpful if you want to browse multiple cars before making your decision.

What’s Next?

After choosing your desired rental, you are asked to confirm the date/time for both the pickup and drop off. You are allowed to request up to five rentals, for the event that one of your requests is unavailable.

Slick time/date picker and a review of rental request.

Slick time/date picker and a review of rental request.

Then it becomes a waiting game to see which owner responds first to your request in order to win your business. After you confirm with the owner that you are indeed still interested in renting, you are ready to roll.

Rental confirmation and extras.

Rental confirmation and extras.

When you are finished with your rental, you will be asked to rate your experience. Hopefully, it was a good one and did not involve any speeding or parking tickets.

Legalities

What about insurance? Getaround handles this poignant question with ease utilizing Berkshire Hathaway for its renters insurance, providing liability, collision and comprehensive coverage that replaces both the renter’s and owner’s policies during the rental period.

The Owner

For this review I focused on the renter’s side of the app, however, Getaround makes it extremely easy for the owner as well. If you have a spare car taking up space, you might as well be making some extra cash off of it. However, Getaround will commandeer a 40% commission in order to cover insurance and cover their service expenses.

Conclusion

Getaround is an extremely useful app for arranging peer-to-peer car rentals. The user interface is easy to use, and the Carkit feature is a nice touch. The overall design is uncluttered and functional. A component that I would like to see added is the option to choose certain features that would be useful for a renter, such as manual vs. automatic transmission, number of passengers, trunk space, pet-friendly, etc. As it stands, users have to troll through the listings to find the features they need. Regardless, it is still my number one choice when renting a vehicle in the Bay Area.

Getaround is currently only available in the San Francisco Bay Area, but it will be nationwide very soon.

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