Need more information on how to start a rental car app? Check out our article to find all information on the app development processes for the car rental industry ✅
Table of contents
How to launch a car rental app for your business? What challenges can you face while building a mobile app for the car rental industry? Top three car rental apps on the market Essential features for your MVP How much does it cost to make a car rental app? Summing up
How to launch a car rental app for your business?
Mobile applications have changed every part of the business world, and the car rental industry isn’t an exception. Now users can easily book and rent a car in any part of the world via hassle-free online reservation systems and mobile apps.
Photo by Jasper Geys / Unsplash
And thanks to mobile apps, travelers can book a car and see the most exciting travel spots with ease. No one likes the bus traveling, do they? Let’s have a closer look at the car rental business industry, find out its peculiarities, and discuss how to launch a car rental app.
According to Statista , the car rental industry is highly profitable. By 2022, the revenue of passenger car leasing and rental is expected to reach $43,1. Taking into account Statista’s insights, the car rental sphere is a fast-growing and highly profitable. That’s two key reasons why you should develop a car rental app in 2020.
Did you know that the car industry generated $28,63 billion in revenue in 2017? According to the Auto Rental News , 2017 was the best year for the car rental industry and since 2017, the car rental sphere has been gaining momentum.
Before building a car rental app, there are lots of factors to pay your attention. Just contact us to find out all the Wh’s of mobile app development for your car rental business. Check out our portfolio . At mova.io, we’re building apps to help business get to the next level.
What challenges can you face while building a mobile app for the car rental industry?
While creating a car hire app, you may face several challenges. You can easily get away with them if you pay more attention to your app features, security issues, and brand awareness.
Security issues
The car rental business needs exact information on who rents the car and where the car is in order to prevent massive fleet losses. And GPS is the easiest way to track a vehicle. So your car rental app does need a GPS integration.
Lots of competitors
Your car rental app won’t be the only one on the app market. There are lots of worldwide car rental apps like Hertz and dozens of local car rental apps. The following makes it quite hard to stand out from the crowd and become a number one.
Before building a car rental app, you have to find out your major competitors, test their apps, and detect their weak as well as strong points. Based on your research, you can easily develop the best app on the market.
Photo by Grahame Jenkins / Unsplash Data collection
Modern apps collect information about users, learn their habits as well as preferences. It’s a current trend. The collected data helps improve the app and facilitate the customers to come back and use your app or service again.
If your app collects information, there should be a place where you can check the information. That’s why your app needs an admin panel where you can check your statistical data and make use of it.
Top three car rental apps on the market
Starting a car rental business may be quite tricky, especially if you don’t know your market and competitors. Thanks to mobile apps, everyone can easily rent a car without visiting a car rental office and filling in dozens of forms. Let’s check your three key competitors.
Hertz
Hertz is the oldest player on the market. The company is traced back to 1918. Waiter J. Jacobs started his car rental business with just 12 Ford Model T cars. Nowadays, Hertz is the largest car rental provider all over the world with more than 10,000 corporate and franchise locations.
According to the latest stats, the Hertz app got millions of downloads from the Apple App Store and Google Play. And their website gets 7 million unique visitors. It’s impressive, right? And frankly speaking, the Hertz app is the easiest and most convenient way of renting a car in any part of the world.
The app provides all the necessary information about your booked car (reservation number, a pick-up and drop-off spot, etc). The Hertz app works in spite of the internet connection. Users can check their reservation details both online and offline. Hertz also provides special offers as well as quick roadside support.
Why do users choose the Hertz app?
Trusted company with a long history
Fair prices
Lots of cars to choose from, including green and luxurious cars
Special offers and discounts for registered users
Seasonal promotions
Turo
Turo is almost a hundred years younger than Hertz. Despite being relatively a young car rental platform, Turo has become one of the largest car rental platforms for the US, Canada, and the UK.
Turo lets you rent vehicles directly from local owners and save a pretty penny. All the cars are insured by the company. And it means that users, as well as car owners, don’t have to worry about the insurance. Turo has a wide choice of cars to rent, including Tesla, F-150 Truck, etc.
In other words, Turo is similar to the Airbnb app. And its key idea is that a user rents a car from the person. Owners deliver a car and get paid.
Why do users choose the Turo app?
A wide choice of cars
Budget-friendly car rentals
Easy-to-use app
No extra insurance fees
You may also be interested in How to build an app like Airbnb .
Avis
Avis was founded to rent cars from airport spots in 1946. Actually, Avis was the first company to let travelers rent cars right at the airport.
Recently, Avis has updated its mobile apps and added several really useful features. Users can easily lock and unlock the car, upgrade the sedan to SUV, and flash the headlights to find the parked car.
Why do users choose the Avis app?
Trusted company
Convenient and easy-to-use apps
Forehead rentals
Loyalty program
Do you want to build an Android car rental app like Avis? Look through Android app development to find out all the wh’s of building apps for Android.
Essential features for your car rental app
There are several features that your car rental app should have. It’s better to start an app with the essential features and then add more. Let’s find out what features your car rental app should definitely have.
User account
All the apps dealing with personal information need a secure user account. When it comes to car rental app development, users need to share lots of private data including a driver’s license, address, and payment details.
GPS
Consider adding a GPS feature to your app. GPS can help users find the closes rental office to rent or drop off a car. Moreover, you can add a map to your app to show the shortest routes to your office.
Don’t forget to add all the essential information about your working hours and available vehicles for rent.
Photo by Trystan Lothaire / Unsplash Car booking
Whether you’re going to build an app like Hertz or Turo, you need a fast and secure car reservation system. The following feature forms the core of your car rental app. And building a car booking feature takes the lion’s share of your budget.
While booking a car, users need to choose dates. It means that there should be a built-in calendar. Then users need to choose a pick-up and drop-off place. And that means you need to implement both a GPS as well as a built-in map.
Moreover, consider adding search filters such as vehicle type, transmission, year, model, and availability. Don’t forget to include the information about the rates and what is included in your price and what extra fees users need to cover.
Payment
Users prefer paying by a credit card to paying in cash. It’s far more convenient and reliable. Integrate a trusted payment system into your app like Stripe or PayPal.
Admin panel
You need an admin panel to manage and sync your apps. Here you can check the reservations, income, send notifications, etc. An admin panel gives access to all statistical data as well.
Are you going to build a car rental ios app? Check out iOS app development for more information on how to create a car rental app for iOS devices.
How much does it cost to make a car rental app
Developing an app to rent a car requires both financial resources as well as time. Let’s focus on how much it costs to develop a car rental service app and how long it takes to make a car rental app.
Creating a car hire app is a multi-step process consisting of the following stages:
The idea, market research, and business analysis
Drafting technical documents for the project
UX/ UI design for the app
iOS and Android app development
Backend development
QA sessions, bug fixing, and maintenance
Budget
Time
iOS app
$12,000+
4 months
Android app
$12,000+
4 months
Admin panel
$5,000+
1 month
Designs
$1,000+
1 month
Total
$30,000
~5 months
Note, it’s difficult to estimate the cost to make a car rental app without knowing all the details. At mova.io, we can develop a car rental app like Hertz for $30k . For more details on how to build a car rental app, feel free to contact us .
Summing up
There are lots of big players in the car rental market, but there is a growing demand for car rental services. By creating an easy-to-use app for the car rental business, you can stand out from the crowd and fill the market gap.
Mova.io has proven expertise in developing mobile app solutions for iOS and Android. And we can build your car rental app! Feel free to contact us and share your app ideas.
Have a question? Just write to us at:
📮 mail@mova.io
