First case study close to home, and in a market we're considering serving soon.
Start with Anacortes, where you catch the ferry for the islands. Visitors might rent bikes here and bring them on the ferry, or rent them on the islands directly.
These folks in Mt Vernon have got it right, doing $40 per day, $75 for 3 days to 1 week and offering pickup and delivery. Only downsides are they aren't located in Anacortes near the ferry and they only operate may through september. But this market may be more highly seasonal than Seattle. They are renting comfort bikes, Treks it looks like, which will make many people happy except for bikers, but these are an excellent choice to suit a wide variety of people.
http://www.countrycycling.com/Bike%20Rentals.html
In Anacortes Skagit bike center keeps coming up but I can't find any rentals on their site and the direct link to the rentals gives a "not found". But part of the site is working, tough to figure out what's up here:
http://skagitcyclecenter.com/articles/bike-rental-reservation-form-pg479.htm
The day is $40/$60 and the week is $160/$240 for a good/better bike. Their "better" bike is around $600, so that would be competitive to what SMBR offers. They charge 3x more than we do for that bike, an extra $160 per week.
In Friday Harbor we've got Island Cycles at $175 per week for a hybrid similar to the SMBR offer, $40 per day. They are also offering mid-range and higher-end road bikes and correspondingly higher prices.
Lopez Island is a terrific place to bike, and seems to get more than its fair share of bike tourists judging by my one summer visit there. There, Lopez Bicycle Works is doing $30 per day, $130 per week rentals. This is getting closer to what SMBR would offer, and these prices seem accessible enough that they likely get their share of longer term renters. Village Cycles, which is apparently for sale, is doing the same rates. Lopez is a rarely competitive and relatively well-priced area for bike rentals.
On Orcas we've got Wildlife Cycles at $35 per day and $115 per week. Again, the prices here are surprisingly good. More demand equals lower prices?
That covers it, daily rentals at $35-$60 and weekly at $115 - $240. Anacortes for some reason is a bit less competitive than some of the islands, but a detour to Mt. Vernon could be worth it for the budget-minded. Getting closer to big European city pricing here, but none of these are competitive by international standards.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Case Study: Paris
Paris is famous for its city-sponsored bike-share program, Velib. Prices are $2.20 for a day-use pass and $10 for a weekly pass that allows unlimited rides of 30 minutes or less. Additional half hours are $1.30. This is a completely different range of prices from standard bike rental, even by Copenhagen standards. Even if your ride each way every day takes an hour (or, say, 40 minutes, which is quite plausible) you're still looking at a mere $17.50 in overage charge and $10 base charge, or $27.50 for a week of bike commuting both ways. This is super cheap by any standard.
For those who are not familiar with bike-share, this is a terrific system for casual biking and tourism but it is not for everyone. In particular the bikes are typically heavy, they are not a standard hybrid bike with many gears, so they offer a lesser biking experience and are only comfortable for shorter rides. The system also requires that you drop off the bike at another bike share station -- if you are staying at a hotel and your work destination does not have a share station nearby, this makes bike share close to useless. So depends on your particular destination. Bike share is fundamentally a different product from standard daily or long-term bike rental, and it is terrific for casual sight-seeing and short commuter rides where share stations are close by. For longer rides or most commutes it is not very practical.
Two other important notes of a more practical bent. Velib is subsidized by advertising and a slight public subsidy-- it is more like a subway or bus or other public transportation than it is like car rental or standard daily bike rental. (The public subsidy issue here is complex and debatable -- short version bikes get broken and stole and the city has to pay to replace them). Also, with Velib the bikes are not guaranteed to be present, or working (a backwards seat indicates a broken bike) at every station. So your travel plans might be disturbed, especially on a nice day, when you don't find a bike present. Not a problem for casual sightseeing, otherwise its an issue. The NY Times story on this is illuminating: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/world/europe/13paris.html?pagewanted=all
The most prominent standard bike rental is fat tire bike rentals, at 25 euros per day 100 per week -- $32 per day and $130 per week. The bikes are not hybrids, but beach cruiser style bikes, these are not a great option for getting around by bike over longer distances, great and fun (although not my first choice) for cruising around and tourism.
Looks like other shops are renting more standard hybrid bikes with more gears and better (lighter) frames from 15 euros per day, or about $20. After lots of digging you can find an example online, maybe their SEO doesn't work for english? An example would be:
http://www.parisvelosympa.com
Which is charging 20 euros per day + 10 each extra day -- that's $26 plus $13 extra per day, putting a week at $104. They are renting city bikes and basic mountain bikes, that look much more comfortable and easy to ride than the Velib offers. None of these shops is offering an online reservation system, although it seems they have enough capacity to ensure rentals most times.
For those who are not familiar with bike-share, this is a terrific system for casual biking and tourism but it is not for everyone. In particular the bikes are typically heavy, they are not a standard hybrid bike with many gears, so they offer a lesser biking experience and are only comfortable for shorter rides. The system also requires that you drop off the bike at another bike share station -- if you are staying at a hotel and your work destination does not have a share station nearby, this makes bike share close to useless. So depends on your particular destination. Bike share is fundamentally a different product from standard daily or long-term bike rental, and it is terrific for casual sight-seeing and short commuter rides where share stations are close by. For longer rides or most commutes it is not very practical.
Two other important notes of a more practical bent. Velib is subsidized by advertising and a slight public subsidy-- it is more like a subway or bus or other public transportation than it is like car rental or standard daily bike rental. (The public subsidy issue here is complex and debatable -- short version bikes get broken and stole and the city has to pay to replace them). Also, with Velib the bikes are not guaranteed to be present, or working (a backwards seat indicates a broken bike) at every station. So your travel plans might be disturbed, especially on a nice day, when you don't find a bike present. Not a problem for casual sightseeing, otherwise its an issue. The NY Times story on this is illuminating: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/world/europe/13paris.html?pagewanted=all
The most prominent standard bike rental is fat tire bike rentals, at 25 euros per day 100 per week -- $32 per day and $130 per week. The bikes are not hybrids, but beach cruiser style bikes, these are not a great option for getting around by bike over longer distances, great and fun (although not my first choice) for cruising around and tourism.
Looks like other shops are renting more standard hybrid bikes with more gears and better (lighter) frames from 15 euros per day, or about $20. After lots of digging you can find an example online, maybe their SEO doesn't work for english? An example would be:
http://www.parisvelosympa.com
Which is charging 20 euros per day + 10 each extra day -- that's $26 plus $13 extra per day, putting a week at $104. They are renting city bikes and basic mountain bikes, that look much more comfortable and easy to ride than the Velib offers. None of these shops is offering an online reservation system, although it seems they have enough capacity to ensure rentals most times.
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