Car hire via SnappCar

SnappCar is a platform where people can share their cars. Someone can offer their car for rent on the website and set their own asking price. SnappCar claims to be 30 to 50 percent cheaper than standard car rental companies.

The idea behind SnappCar

Your car stands still more often than it drives. What a waste, really. Why not ‘share’ your stationary car (or rather, rent it out) to others and earn a bit from it? That question was the starting point of SnappCar, which was founded in 2011 through crowdfunding.

Hoe werkt SnappCar?

Landlords can easily register their car and set their own daily rate between 13 and 55 euros. You can also determine the number of days per month (1-20) that you make the car available. The daily rate usually includes 100 or 200 free kilometres. Above that, you pay per kilometre driven.

The car is insured via SnappCar during the rental period. As a landlord, you don't have to worry about your no-claim discount being jeopardised. There is also 24/7 breakdown assistance.

As a tenant, you can search the website for someone in your neighbourhood who is offering their car. Have you found ‘your’ car? Then you can indicate on which date and time you wish to pick up and return the car. Now it is simply a matter of clicking ‘rent’ and waiting for a response from the landlord.

Of the amount you pay to SnappCar, approximately 70 percent goes to the owner and 30 percent goes to SnappCar.

Disadvantages of SnappCar

SnappCar claims to be 30 to 50 percent cheaper than regular car rental companies. We conducted a small sample and SnappCar often turns out to be cheaper indeed. This is partly because the cars offered are usually older than the rental cars at regular car rental companies. The disadvantages at a glance:

• One disadvantage of SnappCar is that you are dependent on the availability in your area, unlike a car hire company, where you can choose from various makes and types in different classes.
• The average age of a Dutch car is almost ten years old. This will therefore also apply to the offerings on SnappCar. The fleet of a car rental company is usually a lot younger and excellently maintained.
• On SnappCar, renting a car for a day is easy, but renting for a longer period, like a week, proves to be considerably more difficult. After all, the owner still drives their own car ‘as usual’.
• Many landlords have a minimum age requirement. For example, on SnappCar it's very difficult to rent a car if you are under 25 years old.
• On SnappCar you can hire a car by the day, whereas with car rental companies you can also hire a car for just an hour or part of a day.
• The range of removal vans on SnappCar is limited. At present (as of 28-6-2016), not one van can be found in the vicinity of Maastricht or Heerlen. This is despite vans being among the most rented vehicles from car rental companies.
• As a platform for private individuals, SnappCar is ultimately not suitable for business renters in principle.

The future of SnappCar

Will everyone be sharing their car soon? No. People who need their car daily to travel to work or take their children to school will not rent out their car so quickly. The irony is that the people who rent out their car via SnappCar are also the ones who would benefit from renting one. But that's logical.

Would you share your car with someone else, or perhaps do you already have experience with the phenomenon of car sharing? Let us know in a comment! Car hire in Urmond Alternatively, you can do it at Adrem.