Opening a Scooter Rental Company - Input/Advice?  By  scootscoot (Read 1,297 times)

Thanks for the nice words! I will have one waiting for you!

They are nice scoots but you will have a hard time competing with the the other guys at those rates. I Live in PCB and scooters places here are going for 5 per hour and 40 per day. I imagine that that since it's only 30minutes away that the guys with the Chinese scooters are renting for the same thing in Destin. Since you're starting small you may be ok with the few that are willing to pay that day rate. As soon as possible I would add some Chinese scooters so that you can compete with the other guys. Get a dependable mechanic and you shouldn't have a lot of issues as far as that goes. I personally would have went with the Chinese scooters because of cost of scooters and parts. At 1900 for a base model Honda you could have bought 3 times as many Chinese scooter. Anyway good luck with your new business and let us know how it goes.

Thanks for all of the responses. I will only be renting and only open for the season. I have other sources of year around income. My order will not be processed until tomorrow. Tell me more about the Linhai Aeolus 50. How easy is it to get parts when needed? How do they compare with the Metro on durability and reliability?

The Linhai Aeolus 50 is just another brand of scooter coming out of china. Most of the parts are coming from the same place as the other scooters. It has the same motor and body as the ones you can order for $599 and the same ones that all of the other scooter rental places are using. You would basically be paying double for the same scooter.
They are renting the $599 scooter out until that get about 5000 miles and then selling them. That averages out to 150-220 rentals on that scooter. That $6000-$8800 you have made on one scooter that you paid $599 for. Now the good part, You get to sale that scooter for $350-$400 dollars when you are done with it.
If someone wrecks a scooter and it's not usable its no big deal because now you just strip it and use it for parts. I could go on but you would get tired of reading. Just keep doing research.

The advise I'd give, is go with something GY6 based. Parts are easy and cheap to get. Also, before you select a model, make sure you can get replacement body panels, cheap and in color. How good your scoots look will be a direct reflection on your business. People don't want to rent something that looks junky. If you get scoots with trunks, keep duplicate keys in a key box in your office, incase someone locks the keys in. (it will happen)... a decal under the ignition with your phone number on it can be helpful as well.

If you do go with trunks, don't use the cheesy one's that come with the scooters.... they are crap, garbage, like to pop open, not shut... feel cheap, yada yada... you can get a decent truck for 40 or so on ebay. You could even have two rental rates... with trunk and without. (removable trunks would be awesome)

You might think about getting an extra swing arm. That way if one does go belly up, you can change it out quickly, and get that scooter back out on the road earning you money, then you can rebuild the swing arm at your leasure and not stress if you have to wait a few days for a part or two.

It's just what I'd do...

Call John at Valley Scooters. He should be able to give you good info on the Linhai's. I believe Linhai has some sort of connection to Yamaha, not just cloned copies.
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