2015 in travels
Although I’m inseparable from my car, the downside of living in Amsterdam is that you only get one parking permit per household. When the moment comes that you both need a car, you start looking at options. I’m excited to share my first experience with Snappcar.
What is Snappcar?
What Airbnb is for houses, Snappcar is for cars. Individual car owners can rent out their car to anyone using the Snappcar platform. As a car owner you can earn some extra money for a car that is just collecting dust. For a renter it’s cheaper than to rent a car from a company like Hertz.
How does it work?
Create an account on Snappcar.com, fill in your profile and upload a copy of your driver’s license. Creating an account is free of charge; you only pay when you actually start renting a car. The platform uses your location to show cars that are nearby, perfect to pick up and drop off since you won’t have to go to some distant location.
I found a nice 2001 VW Polo and requested a booking with some short information why I needed his car. Within 5 minutes I received a confirmation of the booking and could pay with iDeal. The fare was €30 per day and an extra €7,50 to reduce my own risk from €500 to €0.
After payment I received the exact address and an agreement I needed to print out. At the given time I rang the doorbell, the owner showed me his car, we checked any damages, the mileage and he gave over his key. I used the car to drive to work, parked it back in front of his house. Wrote down the mileage on my agreement and placed the key in his mailbox as we agreed.
My experience
I found the whole process very easy and I don’t mind driving an older car. But I’m writing this to share the best perk of all, especially in a city like Amsterdam.
These cars have a parking permit for the area their situated in. When you rent a car and park in the city, you can expect to pay a lot for parking. But with these cars the owner already has a permit, definitely a huge plus for Snappcar.
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