How a retired travel agent started over on Turo at 72

posted on April 19, 2022

For Elizabeth H., joining Turo felt like a natural continuation of her career before retiring. At 72-years young, Elizabeth found a profitable way to reinvent herself while still operating within her comfort zone.

“I was looking for something extra to do. I was getting bored. I had been working in the travel industry for 34 years, so I was familiar with car rentals and making travel arrangements for other people. So this kind of fit me perfectly.”

When she stumbled across Turo, she chatted about it with her daughter June, a commercial airline pilot for Air Canada and mother of two, who joined Turo back in 2020. June owned a Tesla, and Elizabeth figured it would be a great way for her to earn extra money during the pandemic. June went on to become a successful All-Star Host who quickly earned double her car payments thanks to her mom’s original suggestion to join.

“June was very quick. Quicker than me! She got into it before I did and I followed a month after.”

Joining Turo made sense to Elizabeth. First, she had a trusted mentor: her daughter. Second, she was already experiencing the benefits of the peer-to-peer economy by sharing her house on Airbnb and she wanted to find a way to do the same with her car.

She listed her Tesla Model 3 in January 2021, choosing to take her listing photos against colourful backdrops to help her listing pop.

“I think it was a more exciting picture than a boring street or a building or something,” explains Elizabeth, who is mindful about staying on top of trends and making one’s surroundings aesthetically pleasing. She recently spruced up her house with modern artwork to give it a more youthful appearance.

Her marketing savvy paid off. She quickly had a trip request and says her first experience went as well as could be expected.

“It was very normal. My first or second trip was with a local real estate agent. She took the car for a week and she was so happy and she was so bubbly and she had a great personality. So it was nothing but a happy experience.”

In May, she bought two more cars: a Fiat 500 and a Jeep Wrangler. When summer arrived, her cars were gone every weekend. To date, all of her cars are paying for themselves. In November, she sold her Tesla for a profit, but she’s since put in an order for a new one (arriving this summer) and is on the waitlist for a cybertruck because of how popular EVs are.

“People were making comments, ‘Oh, this was so great. We didn’t have to pay for gas.’ And they do make comments on gasoline cars, on the Jeep especially, ‘Oh, it takes so much in gas.’ So I’m trying to go with technology advancements, and trying to serve the market.”

Offering Teslas gives her an edge in several ways. One, EVs are becoming increasingly popular with guests. Two, Tesla dealerships usually only offer 15 minute test drives while someone can spend the entire day or more trying out a host’s Tesla. It also helps that Elizabeth can empathize with guests. She gives first-time Tesla drivers the tutorial she wishes she had especially given her own Tesla learning curve that she overcame.

“I had a grandma renting a car. She came here from Windsor for her eight-year old grandson and the son knew everything about Tesla! They booked the car for his birthday just to have him experience being in Tesla.”

When talking about the experience of being a host, Elizabeth highlights her favourite things about the platform: the flexibility of not being tied to a nine-to-five job, and the peace of mind of knowing the Turo Support team has her back.

“There are no specific tied up hours to do things. You just work around people’s schedules, and it’s something that doesn’t tie you up for eight hours, four hours, whatever. And there’s variety. Every trip is different.”

She especially appreciates the reassurance that comes from having a strong customer support team.

“With Turo, whenever I call, I get the answer on the same call. I love it … I am really, really happy with the way support works. Very polite and very quick!”

Given her year of car sharing, would Elizabeth recommend Turo? “Yes! Yes, I would. One hundred percent.”