Rent-a-Bike Ripoff

[StuartG]

I'm off to Fuertaventura shortly. Thought it might be nice to rent a couple of bikes to get around a bit (we're tourers rather than racers). The best Tripadvisor recommended renter charges 12 euros/day for a city bike. 20 for a road bike. That would be 24/40 for us as a couple.

I thought this a rip-off. Instead I'm going to be a polluting moton. But for only 14 euros/day I got an Opel Corsa from the Tripadvisor recommended renter. That means I don't have to pay getting from/back to the airport. I don't have to worry about the wind or my legs on the climbs. But I'm sad it has to be that way.

How can renting a simple bike value, say 250 euros cost almost as much as a car, say 8,000 euros to rent? I mean the insurance/maintenance/depreciation/computing system (if any) must also cost a tiny fraction of the car renter. This seems a general trend abroad though I have occasionally paid 4-6 euros in some places who haven't yet realised British cyclists are good for a ripoff.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Lovely place, have you been there before? Did you check any one else for bike rental?

 

[Drago]

I would suggest that If you were that worried about being a polluting moton(?) you wouldn't be flying abroad in a highly polluting aircraft.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Scale of markets could be the likely candidate for the cause of the price difference.

 

[mjr]

for only 14 euros/day I got an Opel Corsa from the Tripadvisor recommended renter. That means I don't have to pay getting from/back to the airport. I don't have to worry about the wind or my legs on the climbs

That means you do have to worry about petrol. It means you do have to worry about parking charges. It means you do have to worry about finding somewhere safe to park. It means you can't go as many places as a bike can. It means you can't randomly turn into a walker to look at something interesting for a bit where there's no safe car parking spot. It means you do have to worry about all the usual car rental sharp practices/borderline-scams.

It's a very different experience. It is strange if the bike hire price has gotten as high as car hire, though.

 

[bigjim]

It is just what people are prepared to pay. Last February in Mallorca I rented a new Fiesta for ten days for £25. I avoided the usual scams as I took out the xtra ins in UK. I also rented a carbon road bike and paid £100 for 7days. It is ridiculous when you look at the costs of the two items. Plus you can split the car cost between four of you. Mallorca probably rents out as many cycles as it does cars but it is a bit of a cartel and nothing you can do. The bike companies are well aware of the high ripoff cost of flying your own bike. Ryanair now £60 each way! I'm off to Portugal next week and bike hire is £125 for ten days for an Aluminium basic road bike. Thats with a group discount.

 

[Cold]

Easier to get the bike off the island than a car.

 

[Beebo]

It is strange if the bike hire price has gotten as high as car hire, though.

It is more likely that the car has dropped in price because it is january on a holiday island so they are desperate to shift some hire cars.
The hire price for the bikes seems reasonable to me, probably less than what you would pay in the UK.

 

[screenman]

The manufacturers give a huge helping hand, your local small body shop will pay £80 a month for their new loan cars, the rental companies even less.

 

[bigjim]

Easier to get the bike off the island than a car.

They still take you accomm details and passport copy so not really. The reason you have a low crime rate is you have to get past an officer of the law to leave the island.

 

[MarkF]

You fly 1000's of miles and are able to can rent a bike locally for a tenner a day on your hols, that sounds fine to me, it isn't high enough to send me looking for a car, when I wanted a bike?

 

[bigjim]

You fly 1000's of miles and are able to can rent a bike locally for a tenner a day on your hols, that sounds fine to me, it isn't high enough to send me looking for a car, when I wanted a bike?

I don't think that's the point. Anyway I imagine he was more interested in the €20 a day bike.

 

[MarkF]

I don't think that's the point. Anyway I imagine he was more interested in the €20 a day bike.

It is tho', the thread title includes "rip off" and he wanted bikes but rented a car because of the relative costs. I regularly rent at those prices and have never thought them anything but reasonable, a weeks rent is less hassle cheaper than flying out my own bike.

 

[bigjim]

It is tho', the thread title includes "rip off" and he wanted bikes but rented a car because of the relative costs. I regularly rent at those prices and have never thought them anything but reasonable, a weeks rent is less hassle cheaper than flying out my own bike.

I agree about the less hassle thing.. But we accept reasonable, IMO, because thats what we expect to pay now. I've been riding on Mallorca for more years than I care to think about [my sister lives there] but I have seen prices rise and rise in tandem with airline prices. I used to fly a bike to Mallorca and not have to pay any extra.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I could get Jens, who runs a bike hire operation here in cph, to explain.

But I doubt you'd agree with his arguments. When I wanted to rent a bike for six weeks he sold one to me. "More than 20 days? Buy a farkin bike."

Yet my hotel will happily rent me one at 150DKK (£15) per day for as long as I am prepared to rent it.

The model is 20 days rental pays for the capex, all else is pure profit, barring maintenance, sell it on second hand at the end of a season. Car hire model will work on same principal but with longer hire life.

Jens ships his 'end of season' bikes to Africa for re use. I gave him the bike I bought when I relocated to sthlm.