There’s nothing quite like exploring a new place on a bicycle.
That’s part of why city-sponsored bike and scooter rentals have soared in popularity in recent years. But the demand for human-powered transportation continues to increase, and Bike.Rent thinks it has created the formula for dominating the nascent bike rental industry.
The company has spent the last 10 years developing software for bike stores to manage their rentals. Now it has built a platform that allows consumers to connect directly with rental shops around the world: Bike.Rent.
The platform currently has connections with more than 650 bike stores, the company said in a news release. It allows users to see how many bikes are available at a given shop and when they’re available. So cyclists can browse and book third-party rental providers, in real-time.
“Our platform, for the first time, combines this technology to provide a searchable and bookable system for cyclists,” Doug Stoddart, CEO of Bike.Rent Manager said in the release. “With over 40,000 bikes across 27 countries, cyclists can search the database to find the perfect bike for them. No longer do they have to find a store online before making a booking by phone, email or online, instead, they can simply use our site.”
The founders of Bike.Rent have raised more than £750,000 in capital for their new business. Ultimately, they think the service has the potential to grow into the booking.com of the bike industry.
Any cyclist who has experience with rentals understands that it’s often a difficult and costly process. Knowing the options often involves checking each shop individually. Even after finding one, there’s no guarantee that it will have bikes available — or that the price will be reasonable.
Bike.Rent attempts to simplify the process for consumers, allowing them to see all the possibilities close by in one place. All the stores use software created by Bike.Rent to manage bookings, so “fulfillment is guaranteed,” the company said.
Search functions on the platform allow for location, date, bike type, bike shop, and specific bike availability. That personalized search approach, combined with a live data stream to the back office of bike shops, makes it easier for customers to feel confident they can find what they want.
“But this is really just the beginning,” CEO Stoddart said. “We plan to add thousands of stores over the coming months and years. In fact, we are calling on our growing community of cyclists and store owners to help us grow this community. As we build out the population of stores we will be adding powerful new functionality to benefit both the cyclist and bike store.”
