Rentoid blog

Get a free iPad! (No this is not a scam, really!)

Calling all rentrepreneurs!

iPads are the hottest, most requested item on rentoid

- They get at least 100 searches a day

- The 3 or so that we have available on the site are always rented out

If it is so obvious that there is such a high unmet demand, why don’t you go buy one yourself and list it on rentoid? Think about it, a new iPad 2 costs $580, if you rented it out for $20 a day you would have it paid off in 29 days! After that you’ve got yourself a free iPad! Or if you want, you could continue to rent it out and make some PROFIT for doing almost nothing! This sounds unethical but you are in fact providing a valuable service to people.

First go to the rentoid home page and do a search to make sure there are other people using the site in your area. If there aren’t, the first step is to tell your friends, family and neighbours about rentoid - share it with them via facebook. Once you are sure there are local people using rentoid it’s really as simple as going out, buying an iPad, listing it on rentoid and waiting for the flood of phone calls and emails.

Also, make sure you remember to get your renters to place a bond down in case the iPad or anything else you rent out gets damaged.

Happy renting!

Geordie

How to be your own boss, make money and create value for your community - become a rentrepreneur!

I’m sure that most of you have heard of a little company in silicon valley called eBay yeah? (If not you’ve probably been living under a rock, but that’s ok!). Well I don’t know this for sure, but I would guess that the vast majority of people that use ebay are ordinary folk like you and me - people who want to sell something they hardly ever use or buy something online because it is often much cheaper. Well did you know that there are also a large number of people who sell things on eBay for a living, not just for a bit of extra cash? So here’s a thought, why not do the same thing on rentoid?

1. List the items that you already have and that you are happy to rent out on rentoid
2. Tell your friends, family, neighbours or heck, anyone who will listen to do the same
3. Ask those people to also list which items they would like to rent themselves
4. See which items are in high demand on the rentoid wanted list
5. Go and buy those items yourself, list them on rentoid for a price that is fair and will cover the cost of the item and there you have it! You have set up your own mini rental business!

By doing this you will:
-help your community make money from their idle assets
-help your community save money by encouraging them to rent instead of buying goods that are used infrequently
-help your community create closer relationships by doing business with one another
-save the environment too by reducing the number of things that need to be produced
-create value for other rentoid members, because like the telephone or the Internet, the more people use it the more valuable it is. You know it makes sense - Jusk like Keka said.

So give it a go, and please let us know if there is anything you would like help with that we could cover in future blog posts - such as how to convince people to use rentoid (it makes perfect sense to us! But we realise the rentoid model is something that most people are new to).

Cheers, Geordie.

We’ve decided to make rentoid Free to list your items to rent. After a few years of trying to work out the best system, we think we’ve landed on what works best for everyone. It’s sometimes known as the ‘Freemium‘ model.

So what does this mean for you?

1. It is still free to join.
2. It is now free to list as many items as you like.
3. You still pay the rental fee to the owner of the item when you exchange the goods.

We will shortly be adding some very nice ‘paid only features which people renting out their goods - to make their items more attractive. But more on that in later posts.

Why have you done this?

It’s pretty simple from our perspective - we want to reduce the barriers that exist for peer to peer renting. What we are doing here is very important to us - personal in fact. While we have had steady growth, most people are slow to embrace the idea of renting instead of buying. (Not you - hey, your reading this!) Sure, we’ve got a loyal group of innovators, but a bigger community will benefit everyone using the site.

How will rentoid make money now?

Well thanks for caring, but that too is not important right now. It’s more important that we create as much value for our community as possible and that’s why we are reducing the barriers to come and play rentoid style.

So feel free to spread the word to your ‘less adventurous’ friends.

The rentoid team.

We had a rentoid customer asking for advice on how to get more rentals. We sent him the information below and thought it was worth sharing here on our blog. Our little bag of tricks!

We get many thousands of rentals every week. There are however some keys to getting your items rented out and they are as follows. I guarantee if you follow these rules you will get rental income:

1. Make sure your pricing is right. We recommend the following pricing structure (that is rental fee on your items).

• Charge 1% of the items value for 1 day rental.
• Charge 2% of items value for a weekend.
• Charge 5% for a weekly rate. and
• Charge 10% of items value for a months rental.

Check your pricing.

2. Write a long and detailed description of your rental items. People want detail so they don’t waste their time. Give your item the full description.

3. Have many photos. You can upload many photos for each item. Make sure you have pictures which show what they are renting so there are ‘no surprises.

4. Share your rental listings. Once you have listed an item on rentoid.com - make sure you share it on your facebook account and twitter (if you have one). You can also like your own items on rentoid… so your friends will see your stuff for rent. You’ll notice every item on rentoid has the ability to “like” it on facebook and also twitter. Just click it - it is very easy. This also adds your Google ranking of your item.

5. Share rentoid - the more people that use / know about rentoid the more they share it - which equals renters for you. So share the goodness. Post it on your facebook page…. tell / email to friends. Favourite the rentoid facebook page - share it:

6. List items people want. Like all businesses it is about 20% of the itms that get 80% of all the rental transactions. So make sure you are renting stuff people need / want. The most popular items are those things that people only use temporarily. eg A Lawn mower, A caravan, a tent, A nintendo Wii, a jetski. Stuff we love to use on a weekend or for an event / party or for a project. These are the things that people need and want, and would rather rent than buy. If you want to know what people want. Then a good trick is to check the catalogs from retail stores. People generally rent the same things that people buy…. items in demand.

7. Trial - A lot of people rent things as a try before you buy. I personally rented out my iPad and had it ‘paid off’ in 5 weeks because so many people wanted to rent it before they bought one…

8. Send us a list of the items you want to list. We’ll give you some advice on their demand (how often they are searched) and some pricing / promo advice.

9. Have a ‘reasonable’ bond & terms on conditions which are ‘fair’. If your bond price is crazy people will say ‘too hard’ and rent the next thing…. Just make it like 20-40% of the items retail value.

Let us know if you would like any further advice - also send me some links to your items and I’ll put them on the blog to promote them for you which will help for sure.

Cheers, the rentoid team.

At rentoid we are about to change our payment system. We are removing the 5% rental fee we take on all rentals and replacing it with a pay to list your items system

The good news:

• All your current listings remain - free
• Our research shows people are more than 10 times more likely to rent an item when they can speak to you on the phone first
• More rentals occur when people don’t have to pay anything up front
• The rental process will be much easier for your rental customers
• You can still list as many items as you want for free until this goes live in about 2 weeks.

The not as good news

• You have to pay $4 to list an item, or $30 for as many listings as you want for a year.

The reality is, you’ll make heaps more money with this rentoid system, and $4 is a small investment to turn it into $50 or even $500 depending on what you are renting out…. It’s a good deal.

If you have any questions or want to chat in more detail feel free to call me directly on + 61 438 779566 -

Steve Sammartino, Founder www.rentoid.com

To follow us on twitter - click icon below…

We’ve just updated our site on rentoid which is super awesome.

But there is only 1 new feature. Yep, just one. Which is a rating system. So after each rental you’ll be able to document your experience with your other rentoid member. Both the renter and the rentee get to rate each other and make some comments. It’s so simple to use I don’t need to explain it here.

There is nothing else which is new. Instead we’ve just made everything we already had easier to use.

Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

rentoid team.