How to Build a Car Rental App From Scratch

Mobile applications are changing many industries, including the car rental industry. Renting a car has become a hassle-free process thanks to car rental apps. The industry has experienced tremendous growth over the years.

Statistics reveal that the industry will earn over $100,000 million in revenue by 2024. If you have a knack for creating apps, now is the time to start building the next car rental app. You don't even need coding skills to build a great car rental app. You only need a viable idea that can solve car renters’ needs uniquely. If you have a great idea, you can hire professional developers to help you with the process. Here are tips to help you build a car rental app from scratch.

1. Do Market Research

The initial step to building a car rental app is doing thorough market research. Know the car renting trends in your area. What population prefers renting to taking public transportation? Carry out a survey and ask people what features they'd like included in a car rental app.

Also, do a competitive analysis of the best car rental apps in the market and develop a great app strategy. Learn about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and plan how to counter them. Evaluate the risks in the industry against the opportunities and decide if building an app is something you want to do.

2. Create a Plan

Building a popular car rental app from scratch requires a proper guide. Create a list of the must-have features and consider future needs. Some basic elements include payment methods, maps and route building, GPS navigation, in-built chat, fare calculator, push notifications, ratings, and reviews.

You'll need to add security features and know the best platforms to run the app. You can then calculate the total cost and develop a budget based on the project's scale and complexity.

3. Hire a Great Development Team

Building a car rental app is a collaborative effort. You'll need several professionals with different levels of expertise and skills to oversee the process from conceptualization to development and testing.

Learning how a good car rental app works are key. Don’t be quick to commit your money or to hire app development experts. Decide if you'll need a project manager, a UX/UI Designer, and app testing tools upon completion. It’s worth mentioning that your team will also depend on the project’s magnitude and available budget.

4. Monetize Your App

Your ultimate objective as a car rental app developer is to have as many downloads as possible and generate good revenue. There are two approaches to making money using a car rental app.

You can buy a fleet of cars or used cars for sale and market them to car renters or get car owners to list their cars in the app and charge a small service fee whenever someone books a car using your app. The second option is ideal for startups; you can take that route before your app becomes popular. Here are more app monetization strategies.