For an upcoming vacation, I was checking out prices for bicycle rentals, and it was really pretty nuts: $45 a day for a basic mountain bike, and $60 per day for a higher-end model.
You can rent a car for less than that! And in many cases, much less than that. My last car rental was something like $30 a day.
A bike, even the fanciest one you can think of, costs far less than even the most basic car, so it’s not the upfront cost that makes a bike rental expensive.
Is it insurance? The driver/rider usually covers that, so that shouldn’t be part of the fee.
Liability insurance? Is a bike rider more likely to be injured than the driver of an automobile? I wouldn’t think so. And again, the customer’s insurance should pick up most costs there.
Maintenance? Motor vehicles often require more expensive maintenance — oil changes, tune-ups, tire rotations, etc. — than bikes do.
Is it solely a matter of volume? More people renting cars than renting bikes, so the costs of purchase, maintenance, and administration are amortized over a larger number of transactions? Perhaps, but I’d think that the lower costs of buying and maintaining a bike would more than offset that.
So why are bike rentals so darned expensive? I don’t get it. Do you know?
Image courtesy the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center.
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I found your blog because I wanted more information on bicycles. I run a bicycle blog and I am looking for good content to link to for future posts. I like you site so I am adding you to my google reader.
I spent a month in San Francisco where rental rates are generally insane. I bought used bike on Criaigslist for $100 and sold it for $50 when before I left.
Demand perhaps?