STR-Anyone also renting golf carts or EVs?

[Clint Harris]

My wife and I own 14 short term rentals in Carolina Beach, NC, and we also co-own a property management company that manages another 54 listings.  We’ve tried to vertically integrate and we just signed on our own linen facility, we own our cleaning company, etc.  One thing that we really noticed is that four or five times a week we have one of our guests reach out to us about where they might be able to rent a golf cart. There is one main golf cart rental company on our island, it’s a very golf cart friendly community, they have 150 golf carts and are at 100% occupancy throughout the season.  We are completely booked with fantastic occupancy for the lion’s share of the year in our listings, and although I don’t want to compete directly in the golf cart space, I do think there’s some opportunity here for us with a little bit of a unique offering.  This week I purchased three Moke vehicles, they are the small diesel cars popular around the Bahamas and the Caribbean that some of you may remember from one of the old 007 movies.  There’s a new company in the US that produces them as electric vehicles, they have back up cameras, are street legal, Bluetooth radio, etc. A lot of our short term rental listings are on the high end, and so our plan is to direct market some of these vehicles to our guests.  basically after someone books, an hour or so later they can get a text message with a link for them to be able to direct book an EV for their stay, we can offer pick up and delivery from their listing sites, its street legal, 45 mile range, top speed of 35 miles an hour.  Looking at the comps of some other people that are doing it in Florida and California, adjusted for location, pricing in our market would be around $175 for the first day, and then pricing would go down from there depending on how long they were renting it for.  First of all our company just needs to spend some money, so I’m happy to just buy some for me and our staff, but really we’re just going to be experimenting with them and see if it’s worth buying 10 or 15 more. Has anyone else experimented with doing electric vehicle or golf cart rentals? What kind of insurance was necessary, what are the pitfalls, is the juice worth the squeeze, etc.?  We can figure it out on our own, but I would much rather learn from someone else’s mistakes if possible. In any input would be appreciated.  Here’s one of the Mokes that we bought for reference

[Erik J Courson]

Originally posted by @Lisa Graesser:

I have a golf cart at each of my rental homes in a golf cart community.  The cart is included with the rental cost. The cart stays in the garage so its included whether someone wants to use it or not. I manage remotely so giving the option to rent it separately is not an option. I know you are  more interested in having the "cart" available if wanting to rent it separately. So this situation is not the same. I do have insurance for each cart that covers liability for the guests use of the cart. I also have a waiver that the guests have to agree to when making the reservation that is included with my rental agreement. Our carts are for use on multi modal paths, not street legal. Having a cart included is not unusual in the community my rentals are located in. Those with the cart can charge a higher nightly rate, but I haven't put in the time to really study what those without the cart charge and compare their occupancy rate. I know guests do look for homes with the cart included if they want the use if the cart, so I would say my rentals would be occupied prior to those that do not offer them. Those that do not offer the carts with their rentals are mostly concerned with the liability issues.

 I manage remotely as well, but charge extra to rent my golf cart.  It's cheap, one rate for duration of stay which rivals the rate for one day at the local places.  Most guests rent it.  I collect the fee, deposit, and have them sign an agreement digitally, which also requires upload of DL.  Key is kept in separate lock box, code only shared once red tape is completed. 

my golf cart does not have to be registered and titled but is allowed on neighborhood streets, so it's not treated as a street legal motor vehicle.