Airbnb for cars

You can rent out your basement, your house, yourself as a private driver, all for some extra cash but what about handing over the keys to your car? Now there’s an app, the first one in Canada, for owners to share their car.

It’s called Turo and it’s like Airbnb for cars. Car owners snap a picture of their ride and register on the app setting availability and a daily rental rate. To list your car it has to be less than 10 years old with fewer than 200 000 kilometres or considered a classic. Like other sharing apps no cash changes hands and there’s a rating system.

But who’s on the hook if something goes wrong? Well Turo provides a safety net. It’s partnered with Intact insurance but the car owners have the make the switch to Intact as well and drivers are pre-screened.

Turo says it has about 3 million users world wide.