How Much Does It Cost to Build a Car Rental App Like Hertz?

The auto industry, at its core, was all about horsepower; the new way is “app-power.” With worldwide revenues of the car rental industry expected to be over $140 billion dollars by 2027, moving to a ‘digital’ means of transportation is only going to become more widespread. If there is a company you are hoping to disrupt, more than likely it’s Hertz’s car rental application.

So what will it cost you to build an application similar to the Hertz rental application?

This complete blog takes a look at the process of designing and building an app, starting with the essential functionality, and also lists the many potential hidden costs of building a mobile app through a mobile app development company in USA.

What Is a Car Rental App?

Essentially, a car rental application serves as an online medium for both fleet owners to offer their vehicles for rent and for customers to reserve those vehicles. 

The application digitally maps out every phase of the car rental process, including searching for the desired vehicle, confirming the customer’s identity, picking up the vehicle without contact, and processing the customer’s credit card payment. 

By 2027, over 70% of all car rental revenue worldwide is projected to be generated through online bookings and mobile apps.

Types of Car Rental Apps

• Company-Specific Applications: Developed by companies such as Hertz or Avis that maintain their stock of rental vehicles.
• Peer-to-Peer Marketplace Applications: Applications similar to Turo that enable private vehicle owners to rent their personal vehicles to other users.
• Short-Term or Hourly Vehicle Rental Services: Focused on offering hourly or short-term rentals of vehicles, like Zipcar.

Opportunities for Innovation Within the United States Market

Consumer behaviour in the United States continues to evolve. To put it simply, modern travelers are trading waiting rooms for smartphone shortcuts. Here is how that looks in reality:

• The Old Way: Landing at the airport, dragging luggage to a shuttle, standing in a 30-minute line at a rental desk, and filling out paperwork by hand.
• The “Hertz” Way (The New Standard): Landing, getting a notification on your phone with your car’s location, walking straight to the parking lot, and driving away.

By teaming up with an experienced mobile app development company, you can create a vehicle rental application that fits the current demand for seamless, contactless transportation.

What Factors Affect the Development Cost of Car Rental Application Similar to Hertz?

Cost estimation for a car rental app like Hertz isn’t a straightforward process. As you develop your business and build out your technology, there are many moving parts that can all play a role in determining the final cost of the car rental application you’ll have developed.

1. Feature Complexity

An MVP version will typically cost less than an enterprise-grade solution, but depending on what features you’re trying to achieve (AI-based pricing automation, or Internet of Things-based mobile entry), the costs will scale accordingly.

2. Choice of Platform (iOS vs Android)

Creating an app that is designed for one platform (e.g., Android) is often less expensive, but in the United States, it is considered imperative to approach app development with a dual-platform mindset. Using a cross-platform framework such as Flutter or React Native can help stretch budgets while providing adequate performance levels.

3. The Location of Your Development Team

The average hourly rate of developers differs from location to location across the globe. While there are offshore developers available, choosing to work with a development company based in the United States enables you to fully understand and account for local regulations, understand time zones, and deliver to American users the same high-level product and experience they are accustomed to receiving.

Core Characteristics of Successful Car Rental Apps

If you are building your own Car Rental App similar to Hertz, then it must provide more than just a booking button to justify the costs involved. 

For Users:

• Smart Filter/Search options, allowing users to filter through available options based on vehicle type, fuel option, and price.
• Ability to schedule/Book in Real-Time via an Easy-To-Use Calendar interface for selecting Dates and Times.
• Multiple Payment Options, including Apple & Google Payments, along with Credit Card options.
• Document Upload & Verification through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Technology to scan a driver’s licence in real time. 

For Owners/Admins:

• The Fleet Management Dashboard provides owners/admins the ability to monitor vehicle condition, location, and availability.
• Dynamic Pricing Engine providing owners/admins the ability to Change Prices based upon Supply and Demand; Holidays; Local Gatherings and Events; etc.
• Analytics & Reporting providing Owners/Admins Tracking of Revenue, Popular Vehicle Types, User Retention, etc.

The Ultimate Car Rental App Development Roadmap

Developing an excellent rental car application requires a rigorous and consistent manner of building products. We utilize a “Consultancy-First” Approach to developing applications.

Phase 1: Requirements and Wireframes

We identify the user journey to characterize what causes a user to select the Hertz rental car application over another similar application. Every screen is documented in a manner that intuitively portrays the user’s journey from beginning to end.

Phase 2: UI/UX Design

When developing an application for the US marketplace, it is important to produce high-quality applications that do not have a “bad” appearance because they will not be sold. We will create a professional yet elegant design that the user will have confidence in since they will be renting a high-dollar item.

Phase 3: Development and Sprint Cycles

We develop applications incrementally using Agile methodology. Our developers will receive regular feedback to keep the final product aligned with what the client envisions.

Phase 4: Quality Assurance and Testing

Before the application is submitted to the Apple App Store, we conduct load and security tests to ensure that the application is stable and at an acceptable “Hertz” standard of quality.

Estimated Breakdown: Car Rental App Development Cost 

While every project is unique, here is a general breakdown of the Hertz like app development cost based on complexity:

Note: These figures include backend development, API integrations, and the administrative dashboard.

Choosing the Right Tools to Power Your Car Rental App

As you can see, the technology that powers a car rental app like Hertz greatly affects its production costs. Rather than simply selecting tools, Techugo creates a “Tech Ecosystem” for each car rental app that guarantees quickness, security, and scalability from 10 cars to 10,000.

Native or Cross-Platform: What’s Better?

For the majority of companies wanting to develop a car rental app, React Native and Flutter are the top choices.

• Advantages: With React Native or Flutter, you can develop one codebase for both iOS and Android platforms, which reduces costs for the construction of a car rental app similar to Hertz by almost 30% – 40% compared to creating two separate native apps.
• Speed & Performance: With these modern cross-platform tools, your users will barely notice the difference between their experience using your car rental app on either platform. Your app performs like a native app with the speed of cross-platform deployment.

Backend and Cloud Infrastructure

Since car rental applications are extremely data-intensive (tracking locations, managing reservations, processing payments), a solid backend and cloud infrastructure is essential.

• Database: We use either PostgreSQL or MongoDB, which allows us to have very fast, flexible access to all the necessary data.
• Cloud Hosting: We use either AWS (Amazon Web Services) or Google Cloud to guarantee that your app continues to run at peak performance, even during the busy holiday travel rush.
• Real-Time Tracking: We use Socket integration to provide real-time tracking of rentals.

Future-Proofing Your App: AI, IoT, and Beyond

As a mobile application development company looking to remain competitive in the market of rental car applications, it is paramount to consider what trends will drive future rental car app development. As a mobile application development company, allow us to translate ‘smart features’ into long-term value for your app.

1. Internet of Things (IoT)

The ability for users to unlock their rental vehicles simply by using their mobile device is a great example of providing the ‘contactless’ experience that many travelers desire today.

• Utilizing IoT sensors in rental cars provides users with this keyless entry experience.
• Telematics allow you to monitor fuel levels, tire pressure and engine health remotely. By reducing maintenance costs and preventing vehicle breakdowns before they occur, rental companies will save money.

2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) that Provides Personalized Experiences

Why would a solo business traveler be shown a minivan in a travel application?

• Our app developers utilize AI to create recommendation engines that suggest vehicles based on the user’s historical behavior.
• With the use of AI, rental car applications can adjust pricing dynamically. A rental car company can do this as airlines do, increasing prices during high-demand periods and decreasing prices during low-demand periods to maximize fleet utilization.

3. Blockchain Technology for Transparency

Trust is a key component of rental car transactions. By utilizing Blockchain for electronic contracts as well as for the creation of the vehicle’s service history, both the owner and the renter are able to have peace of mind.

Why Should You Partner With Techugo For Your Car Rental Business?

Not only does Techugo create proficient code, but they also assist innovators by developing operational and functional digital legacies to assist them in growing and developing their respective companies. As one of the best mobile application development companies in the USA, Techugo has been instrumental in supporting Startups as well as Fortune 200 companies.

Using our extensive experience and capabilities, Techugo has established itself as an innovator in the mobile application space.

• Agile Capabilities: Using Agile methodologies, we help you build your product quickly without sacrificing quality. Techugo is consistently producing high-quality applications at record speeds.
• IoT Integration: By integrating IoT technologies like keyless entry and GPS tracking, we can take control of your fleet’s management solutions and make it more intelligent.
• Support & Maintenance: After we have successfully launched an application, we continue to be there for you, helping to scale the application as your fleet expands.

We are always upfront with our clients and believe in creating trust through transparency. When you contact Techugo to get quotes on a car rental application’s cost, we will provide you with a detailed breakdown of how we arrived at the total cost.

FAQs

Q: What are the sources of income for a car Rental App like Hertz?

A: A car rental application generates sales revenue through more than the daily rentals. Some of the other ways a car rental application makes money are through premium insurance, various add-ons (i.e., GPS, child seats), convenience fees (i.e., pre-paid refueling), etc., and by using a pricing engine that is used by Hertz Rental Car Application, which allows you to maximize revenue for busy travel seasons.

Q: What’s The Advantage of a Mobile App Development Company Based In the USA?

A: Using a US-based partner will not only affect the overall cost of developing a Car Rental Application similar to Hertz, but it will also ensure compliance with the local data protection laws (CCPA), as well as having a better-designed application tailored to the American market. Working with an application development firm that operates out of the USA will also streamline communications and management of the project.

Q: What Security Features Are Essential?

A: Security is an important aspect of the cost of building a car rental application. Your application will require PCI-DSS-compliant payment processors, encrypted document storage for driver licenses, and multi-factor authentication for users’ accounts to help protect them and the sensitive information contained therein.

Q: Are Third-party APIs allowed to be used for your application, right?

A: That’s right, third-party APIs can be used to manage the development costs of your app. For example, you might use Google Maps API for tracking people’s locations, Stripe API for processing payments, and Twilio API for sending alerts. This allows you not to have to build an extensive system yourself, but still deliver a quality application without a high cost and without sacrificing the quality of the finished product.

Q: How does the application protect against vehicle damage?

A: High-quality developers now build digital inspection modules into their applications. When users take photos of their vehicle before and after the rental period, those photos will be attached to the user’s account in the application as time-stamped records. In addition to eliminating disputes regarding vehicle damage, this feature will expedite the insurance claim process.