Renting a car is the go-to approach for people visiting a different city, be it for work or holidays. After landing in a completely unknown place, not everyone has the time to book an Uber or wait for shared taxis. People who are getting late for meetings or specific events often choose to rent cars to reach their destination on time while enjoying the drive in a foreign place.
In saying that, however, renting a car is never an easy process, especially if the business from where one’s trying to rent the car works offline. Not only do people hate renting vehicles over the phone, they can never stay assured about their bookings or refund policies.
That’s why it’s extremely crucial for car rental businesses to leave behind the conventional brick-and-mortar business model and launch a website to put their brand in the digital landscape.
Having a digital presence will allow your customers to browse through different vehicle options, check the availability, and select the duration for which they want to rent the car. In short, they can book the car in advance without having to talk to a random customer care representative on the phone.
So, in today’s article, we’ll take a closer look at car rental website development and how a professional web development company can help you launch a feature-packed car rental marketplace.
How Does a Car Rental Marketplace Work?
A car rental marketplace has two primary stakeholders – the customer and the business offering vehicle rental services. Ideally, when we talk about a marketplace, it includes multiple service providers so that customers can compare different prices and make the right decision accordingly.
However, car rental businesses can also launch exclusive car rental websites for their brand and let customers avail the desired services more conveniently.
In this business model, the customers will only be able to browse through the services offered by the dedicated car rental business and schedule their bookings. The customer can start by comparing different services and move towards choosing the duration.
They are then asked to choose the preferred vehicle type. Based on their preferences, the backend automatically calculates the estimated cost, which rentee can pay using their preferred payment mode.
After scheduling a car, the rentee will receive instant confirmation on his/her phone with vehicle details.
What are the Key Features of a Peer-to-Peer Car Rental Marketplace?
Developing a car rental marketplace is not an easy process. Your web development team will have to integrate multiple features so that customers can go through offered services and book the desired vehicles. Some of the key features of a car rental marketplace include:
1. Vehicle Availability and Booking Calendar
The first thing a customer needs to know about a car rental service is the availability of the desired vehicles. Integrate a dedicated booking calendar that automatically updates the vehicles’ booking status after a customer has booked a car.
Having a dynamic calendar will provide customers with real-time status of a vehicle. Consequently, you’ll be able to avoid multiple bookings for the same vehicle and keep the entire process transparent.
The booking calendar will also let customers choose the preferred dates and go through the available options easily.
2. Secured Payment Gateway
A car rental marketplace also requires multi-payment support so that customers can pay the booking fees in advance using the preferred payment mode.
You can use any of the available payment gateway APIs to equip your website with multi-payment support. The general thumb rule says that the payment gateway you use must adhere to advanced encryption principles to provide a safe environment to the customers.
You can also integrate one of the “buy now, pay later” payment models as it will help you boost the overall customer retention.
3. Search Filters and Vehicle Comparison
When it comes to booking a rental car online, everyone looks forward to convenience. You can easily deliver a convenient booking process by letting customers search for the desired vehicle type and model name.
To do this, the web developers will simply incorporate a site-wide search bar along with advanced filters to help customers find the desired vehicle within a few minutes. You can also add the search bar to help people find pickup and destination points.
Vehicle comparison is another feature that’ll help you keep the customers engaged. Before renting a car, users must be able to compare different available vehicles. This will make it easier for them to make the right decision.
4. Chat Support
While renting a car, customers need to talk to a professional (not a bot) to find answers to a few common queries. Your website must offer 24/7 chat support to the customers so that they can book the desired vehicle without any hassle.
When it comes to integrating a chat API, there are different options to choose from. You can either integrate an existing API or build a chat panel from the ground up. Of course, choosing the right approach will mainly depend on your specific requirements.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Car Rental Website?
Building a website for a car rental business can cost between $10,000 to $80,000. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer in this scenario as the development cost depends on a plethora of factors.
For instance, if you choose to work with a native web development company, you’ll have to bear higher hourly development rates. On the other hand, if you choose an offshore web development agency, the hourly development rates will be lower and you’ll be able to launch the website at a pocket-friendly price.
Like the preferred development team, several other factors such as the integrated features, API integrations, preferred tech stack also influence the overall development cost of a website.
In short, if you need an exact quotation for web development cost, you’ll have to get in touch with a team of professional web developers. They’ll analyze all your development objectives and come up with a custom development cost accordingly.
The Bottom Line
The world is going digital. Even car rental businesses need to move with this wave to ensure they don’t lose valuable customers. With a website, car rental companies can leverage the benefits of an online presence and let customers schedule appointments right from the comfort of their homes.
In addition to enhancing customer service, a website will also help car rental companies get ahead of the curve. At NetSpark Solutions, we can help you get started with car rental website development as we have a team of expert web developers. Our developers specialize in various development technologies to build high-performance websites that cater to specific business objectives of a car rental company. So, contact our team and let us build a roadmap for your web development journey.
