Ground transportation at the Boise Airport includes a number of familiar options: Valley Regional Transit, taxis, rideshares and rental cars. And then there’s something called Turo – something new at the airport beginning this month.
“We reached an agreement with Turo, and those vehicles are allowed to park in any of our public parking facilities when those transfers occur,” said Boise Airport Deputy Director Sean Briggs. “The renter of the vehicle pays parking fees as well when they exit. So not only do we get the 10% cut of gross revenue, but we also get [parking fees] associated with the vehicle.”
It's a peer-to-peer transaction. Simply put, it means a consumer communicates directly with the owner of the vehicle, and instead of heading to an airport rental counter or rental parking facility, the consumer heads to a Boise Airport parking garage. The process is dubbed “an Airbnb of cars.”
And while it’s new to Boise, it’s already in-place in a number of other cities.
“Talking to many airports. They have said you'll be surprised about the amount of activity that occurs during that [first few months],” Briggs told the Boise Airport Commission this month. “So, we're looking forward to seeing how this first works out.”
But Turo attracted some undesired publicity in two high-profile incidents earlier this year, when company officials acknowledged that vehicles used in New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks were rented through the Turo app.
A Turo spokesperson told Axios that the company was “outraged by the misuse of our marketplace by the two individuals who perpetrated these acts.”
Previously known as RelayRides, Turo was created in 2009. And NBC News reports that as of last fall, Turo had about 150,000 active hosts worldwide. Turo’s website says hosts are “safe” in trusting the platform because Turo “screens each guest.”
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
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