News: Spinlister bike share app connects like-minded bike owners and bike renters
Spinlister is a a peer-to-peer bike rental platform connecting the cycling universe. Photos courtesy of Splinster
In this day and age of peer-to-peer internet interactions, new possibilities are becoming possible as folks are able to buy and sell and even rent from each other. Renting a house, a car, a parking space are now becoming feasible with sites and apps that enable reservations and transactions. Airbnb is an example of a house renting system that has proved successful. Folks are able to rent out their house conveniently and renters are able to get the right fit for them at a good price. The upside is all the prohibitive landlord fees and arrangements are avoided.
For bikes, we now have a this similar concept in Spinlister. Anyone can put up their bikes for rent and potential renters can search the inventory easily to find the perfect match for them. The price is often much cheaper than what bike renters or what bikeshops charge, and the choices can be potentially vast.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6uSCwW056A
But there are hurdles of course, as Spinlister needs to get enough listers so there will be enough bikes and ‘the lights are on’ in major cities. We checked San Jose and there are road bike options but really very few mountain bikes at this point. Other issues are theft and privacy, damage and the usual rental possibilities. To this end, Spinlister has insurance and will cover up to $10,000 in damage and theft issues. We are investigating exactly how this process would work.
Spinlister is getting involved with many communities too, as they are forming partnerships with many groups and cities. For example, starting today, any Portland-area theft victims listing stolen bikes with the Bike Index will receive a $30 credit towards their first day of rental with Spinlister.
We checked out their site and the UI seems intuitive and clean. We’ve asked to rent a bike from a local lister and we’ll see how the experience is. We’ll put up a couple bikes to rent as well and report back.
Would you use this service or have you used a similar one before?
For more information visit www.spinlister.com and www.bikeindex.org.
The post News: Spinlister bike share app connects like-minded bike owners and bike renters appeared first on Mountain Bike Review.