In 2012 Arriendas launched the first peer to peer car rental website in Latin America. The site generates an insurance policy and essentially allows an individual car owner to lease their car to Chilean residents and tourists. Over 200 car owners have registered their car for private rental and the company continues to show steady growth each week.
They are serving a huge need in Chile’s car rental market which is serving the ‘under banked’ (those unable to obtain credit through traditional financial sources). An individual in Chile can rent a car through Arriendas without a credit card whereas traditional car rental companies in Chile require both a credit card and a guarantee deposit.
Effective since June 7, 2013, as part of their continued efforts to support entrepreneurs throughout the country, the local Chilean government (City of Santiago) is allowing the general public to rent their car through the Arriendas.cl website and receive full coverage via BCI Insurance. The car owner must register and travel to the Arriendas office to survey and photograph any damage on the vehicle. They also need to show proof of ownership.
How it works
Upon registering one’s vehicle in the Arriendas wesbsite, a contractual framework and insurance policy is created allowing an individual to list their car for rental and manage it as a business. To this point, registered car owners essentially start building a business with their car and Arriendas provides the back end support and technical assistance for the rental and payment processing.
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Cars can be rented by the hour, day or week. And car owners can lease their cars once a week on average. Registration is free. Anyone can upload their car (if it has less than 12 years old) and start leasing it after completing a damage report at the Arriendas office.
The development of a policy that covers rentals was a joint effort between BCI and Arriendas.cl. The policy covers theft, destruction and damage and it took 15 months to design.
The Team
All of the Arriendas team is from Chile except for the founder of the company, Argentinian Germán Rimoldi.
Mauricio Rojas, Miguel Castillo and Patrick Lopez Cerda oversee the development team. Javiera Cruzat is responsible for web marketing. And Rimoldi focuses on new business development and manages relationships with car owners and clients.
Rimoldi states that he was very excited to launch the pilot in Chile and argues that it is the best country in the region to implement a venture.
We agree (:
