The basic idea behind peer-to-peer rentals is brilliant in its simplicity: make money letting other people use your stuff when you鈥檙e not. After all, most cars . And if you have houseguests two weeks a year, that spare bedroom (if you鈥檙e wealthy enough to have one, that is) is idle almost as often. Why not rent it out and make some cash?
In 2012, Spinlister brought the side hustle to the bike industry. But the service frequently struggled, mostly because it launched just after bike-share programs听 in the U.S.听and simple supply and demand wasn鈥檛 there. The logistics of pickup and drop-off are cumbersome. And it turns out it鈥檚 a lot harder to make a pile of cash renting a bike by the day than it is an apartment. In the end, there just , and Spinlister shut down a year ago.
But now it鈥檚 back,听with a new owner and a new plan. The owner: Mark Gustafson, who founded Story Bikes, an e-bike company (the companies are separate). Gustafson personally bought a majority interest in Spinlister in the听fall, while听previous owner Marcelo Loureiro retains a minority stake. Gustafson thinks there鈥檚 still a future for Spinlister,听just one that鈥檚 different than the founders envisioned, with less emphasis on peer-to-peer听and more on shops and other businesses.
Spinlister听previously tried to involve shops in the platform in 2017, when it started Spinlister Pro, an automated system built to handle every part of the rental process except听handing over the bike and getting it back.听Participating shops got a listing on the Pro site and could make use of Spinlister鈥檚 own online rental software and in-store kiosks. But not enough shops signed up. What will be different this time?
For starters, Spinlister is dropping its Pro fees. It charges a 17.5 percent commission on private listings听but will only charge shops 10 percent. The company will also offer a faster, easier-to-use version of its online and in-store rental software, Gustafson says. And Spinlister plans on becoming a kind of market maker, matching bike shops, especially mobile shops, with hotels, college campuses, and businesses that want the amenity of bike rentals or bike share without the management hassle. In that scenario, the shop owns and maintains the fleet, the hotel or college provides the users, and Spinlister is the automated platform for the transactions. Hotels 鈥渄on鈥檛 want to have to take a bellhop or concierge away from their job to fill out the rental paperwork and unlock the bike, and they definitely don鈥檛 want to have to worry about maintenance,鈥 Gustafson says. He听adds听that there are a number of different ways to structure fees where three partners are involved.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still peer-to-peer, but our biggest focus is bike shops听and mobile bike mechanics,鈥 Gustafson says. Spinlister wants to blend traditional听daily听bike rentals with the kind of hourly听rentals that the micromobility paradigm offers. 鈥淲e want to give [communities] a middle ground between a or …听and the old-school rentals,鈥 he says.听
That鈥檚 an ambitious plan, but it does conspicuously depart from the service鈥檚 origins. While Spinlister will retain peer-to-peer rentals, they鈥檙e pretty clearly not the emphasis now. Honestly, that may be for the best.
One of the things I never understood about Spinlister was why, as a cyclist, I鈥檇 want to rent the bikes I could find on the service instead of using another approach. Particularly with the rise of bike share听and scooter share, if I just want transportation in a downtown area, those systems are a lot easier for me to use鈥攁nd maybe cheaper, too. And if I want a nice road bike for a spin on vacation, a traditional bike-shop rental offers me an easier way to find a bike in my size, not to mention a more reliably maintained, higher-quality ride, and I don鈥檛 have to worry about whether the lister will forget or ghost me for pickup and drop-off.
Gustafson knows all that, which is why he鈥檚 de-emphasizing peer-to-peer as the basis of Spinlister鈥檚 business model听but not abandoning person-to-person transactions altogether. 鈥淭he problem for straight peer-to-peer is that someone has to take time out of their day to make this transaction happen, for not a lot of money,鈥 he says. This听limits sign-up. Some of the technical solutions Gustafson envisions for business partners may also work for peer-to-peer listers. For instance, the company is experimenting with keyless smart locks to simplify pickup and drop-off. But it鈥檚 still in beta and, while dockless bike and scooter companies seem to have the tech figured out, I鈥檒l believe it
Gustafson also says that Spinlister has a large network of users it never really capitalized on听and new ways of targeting them. Count me as slightly skeptical that Spinlister鈥檚 native network is that large. After all, the business shut down after it was , suggesting听that the volume just wasn鈥檛 there. And听until it quietly restarted in January, the site had been something of a zombie for eight months and didn鈥檛 allow transactions; even the listers and renters who did use the service may have shut down their accounts or simply left them idle and never returned. Gustafson didn鈥檛 directly address that in our conversation, but he did say that the company is pursuing a number of partnerships that will broaden its network, including with the advocacy group League of American Bicyclists听and CycleLifeHQ, a kind of online hub for cycling vacations.
The last big concern for peer-to-peer listings is liability. Spinlister鈥檚 rental agreement includes an indemnity clause and a damage-and-theft-insurance provision (up to $10,000 per bike) for the lister. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 ever had [an injury lawsuit] happen in our history,鈥 Gustafson says. But there鈥檚 no real protection for the renter, and no insurance coverage on third-party property damage or injury liability for the lister. That leaves a bike owner听vulnerable, because no indemnity clause is bulletproof, and homeowners-听and renters-insurance policies liability for commercial use (for example, they鈥檒l cover you if you loan a bike to a friend now and then听but not if you rent it out for money). The liability insurance offered by Uber and Lyft, for instance, isn鈥檛 perfect, it but offers up to $1 million in primary liability coverage when a driver has a fare. Spinlister offers only the indemnity clause; if a court rules it鈥檚 invalid, the lister is on the hook.
Bike shops, by contrast, have professional mechanics and their own liability insurance. That鈥檚 why I think Spinlister鈥檚 new shop-first approach is its only real option to survive. The peer-to-peer market simply hasn鈥檛 been there听because the logistics aren鈥檛 great for renters听and the profits aren鈥檛 there for listers.
If Spinlister can provide shops an easy plug-and-play option for online booking, as well as a solid marketing plan to drive business to a听shop, then it provides a viable service to shops. If it can enlist mobile shop franchises like Beeline or Velofix, which can do rental drop-off and pickup, and partner with tourism businesses like hotels to provide rental fleets and maintenance, then Spinlister offers something of value to listers and renters that doesn鈥檛 already exist. The combination of those factors could mean the difference between the company鈥檚 past struggles and a modestly profitable future.
That鈥檚 no small task. It鈥檚 one Spinlister has tried before and been unable to make work. But given the vastly different ways that shops currently approach rental reservations online, there鈥檚 definitely a market opportunity. Spinlister just has to convince everyone that it鈥檚 the solution.