'Airbnb' of Rental Cars Launches in Canada

San Francisco-based rental car company, Turo, plans to expand into Canada soon. Turo announced on Tuesday that it will have a limited launch in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, with a wider expansion once it irons out the final insurance kinks in the remaining provinces, The Globe and Mail reported. 

Airbnb of car rentals

Founded as RelayRides in 2009, the company allows car owners to rent out their vehicles to strangers. To encourage car owners to rent out their cars, Turo emphasizes that the average active U.S. member can make $600 USD per month! 

"We like to think of our mission as one aimed at putting the world's one billion cars to better use," Andre Haddad, Turo's CEO said on Tuesday. "There are a lot of cars that may at one point in their life cycle be underutilized. That's a lot of economic waste," he added. 

The average compact car costs about $9,500 CAD to maintain every year, so Haddad hopes that people get a better return on their investment with this service. Because so many Canadians already use Turo when they visit the United States, expanding into Canada seemed like the logical next step to Haddad. 

Turo's offered rates are generally 30 percent lower than those from car rental firms. Users and car owners must pass a screening process issued by the company, only cars that are less than 10 years old with less than 200,000 kilometres are eligible to be listed.