by Steven Perez
posted on June 14, 2017
BOSTON HOST & TURO ENGINEER, SUJAN B., DISCUSSES HIS HOST EXPERIENCE RENTING OUT HIS CARS
A great number of employees at Turo are also hosts on the platform. One such employee is Sujan B., one of our crackerjack engineers who also happens to be a veteran host with multiple cars in the Boston area. Sujan lives in Malden, Massachusetts and has worked at our Cambridge office for well over a year, and his experiences renting out his cars on the Turo platform have proved invaluable to his role at this company.
Sujan had heard about Turo (RelayRides back then) before he began working here, but he hadn’t used the service before, and was curious to engage as fully as possible with the community.
Since Boston has a solid public transportation system, he didn’t need his car a lot during the week. So at the same time Sujan joined the Turo team in Cambridge, he listed his personal car, a Mercedes-Benz GLA 250, for rent on the platform. Once the GLA gained traction on the market and was booked more frequently, Sujan started really enjoying his interactions with his guests. He discovered that, for him, a majority of his customers were locals, and were using the cars for uses he did not expect.
Sujan’s Mercedes-Benz GLA Class
Of course, many people need a car for weekend getaways and road trip vacations. But some people would rent the Mercedes just to have a nice car for graduation, or a big date night. Some would want to test drive his GLA because they were thinking of buying one and wanted to feel what it was like to live with the car for a few days.
Soon, though, Sujan found himself wanting a car to drive when the Mercedes was rented out. So he bought a Volkswagen Jetta. And then a very sleek BMW 5 Series. Today, Sujan’s cars have seen over 100 trips combined, all with glowing reviews from satisfied guests.
Sujan’s VW Jetta
Sujan notes that the Boston market is a strong one. “The turnover is very good and my cars are often rented out for most of each month.” He says it’s good to see how people are using our platform and learning about it as time goes by. Since he first listed his Mercedes, Sujan has seen demand in the Boston area swell. “The knowledge of Turo and the demand in Boston has significantly risen in the last year or so.”
The lively New England market has brought many opportunities to interact with both the community and the product. Sujan says his hosting experience strengthens his commitment and belief in the company. “If I can’t confidently rent out my own cars, how can I trust other people to have confidence in the service?” Sujan says that the Boston area has “a lot of good people, a lot of smart people.” He gets a ton of feedback from talking with his guests, and is encouraged by their enthusiasm for the service.
Sujan’s BMW 5 Series
The lessons he’s learned as an owner also inform his work on the project side. “It drives me to work on the right things. For example, I worked on the reimbursement tool, because I went through that process myself and I know the sentiment of the owners during that process. I call it eating my own dog food.”
Be sure to swing by our Boston community party tonight to chat more with Sujan and the Turo team about the New England community, the Turo platform, and the business more broadly.
Steven Perez
Steven is an avid car guy and content maker at Turo. Between Golden State Warriors games he can be found getting lost somewhere in California.
