Car sharing company Turo, often referred to as “the Airbnb for cars,” has grown throughout the United States since it was founded in 2009. Consequently, the innovative platform has branched out across the world and has now entered one of its most important markets to date: the United Kingdom.
The company, which allows private cars to be rented via online and mobile interfaces, announced its U.K. launch on Monday. Currently, Turo has over eight million users throughout 5,500 cities in 56 countries, one-third of that eight million having joined in 2018 alone.
“By launching our full peer-to-peer marketplace in the U.K. we’re taking another major step closer to putting the world’s one billion cars to better use,” said Turo Chief Executive Officer Andre Haddad. “The U.K. is our most-searched-for destination outside North America, and British guests in the U.S. and Canada represent our largest portion of international travelers. This makes us confident that now is the right time to expand here.”
Turo is aiming to make use of the 31.3 million cars that can be found in the U.K.
It claims that the average transaction earns an owner £130, and they receive 75 percent of that money within five days. All rentals are covered by Turo’s European insurance partner, Allianz.
Turo previously launched a Commercial Host program in the U.K. back in 2016 and has garnered the interest of 50,000 people over the last two years.