Earlier this month, I used Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing service, to rent a Tesla for the first time. Incidentally, since I'd just turned 25 in July, it was my first time renting a car at all — and I can see why Turo became a pandemic darling.
As the pandemic raged on through the summer of 2021 and travelers turned to rental cars for domestic vacations and road trips, Turo's business boomed, and in the fall, the company confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering. In January of this year, Turo disclosed its finances for the first time, revealing that through September, its revenue had jumped 207% year-over-year.
I thought the overall experience was exceedingly easy and convenient — and though I felt the app fell short in a few ways, I don't know if I'll ever rent through a traditional car-rental service like Hertz or Enterprise.