Why NOT to rent on Facebook Marketplace

When we first started CLINK, we had to ask ourselves the question, “Will people rent their construction items out to others?” One quick search on Facebook Marketplace for “Rent skid steer” and you’ll find the answer. Yes. People have been renting trailers, equipment, dumpsters and the sort on Marketplace for quite some time. So why the need for a different app? In this article we will discuss the major reasons why NOT to rent on Facebook Marketplace. 

Marketplace Nightmare 

We know a guy that has multiple items on CLINK. He has a mini rental business and is consistently adding inventory. He told us a story about renting his John Deere 317 skid steer to someone that found him on Marketplace. The owner does things top notch, including getting a deposit and a copy of the renter’s drivers license. The renter initially paid for a week’s rental. Part way through that first week he called the owner and extended the rental another week. And then he vanished. 

Police Report

“You’re never going to see that skid steer again and we probably won’t catch the guy either,” the officer admitted to the owner. The saving grace was that he had general liability insurance on the unit so he was able to get compensated for the skid steer, but he lost all the time and energy that went into the entire ordeal. These are the stories we look to eliminate through the CLINK platform. We want our owners to feel confident and comfortable making extra money renting their items out to others in their area. 

Insurance, ID verification and Collecting Payment 

We have always strived to create a platform that was safe and secure. We knew early on that item protection and security of payment were the top two features our users were asking for. Three aspects we have built into CLINK to promote these solutions are:

1. Rental protection for every item during the rental period. 
2. ID verification within the app for every owner and renter on CLINK. 
3. We collect and distribute payment for the owners so they don’t have to worry about hunting people down for money. We use Stripe’s secure payment platform.

We take responsibility for the difficult and challenging aspects of being a private owner and renting your items out. On top of that we bring you a pool of active users looking to rent items. You don’t have to maintain and weed through the millions of messages you get in Messenger. Our renters are serious and most of the time when you get a notification in CLINK it’s a rental request looking to give you money and not ask you a stupid question.

For additional reading on similar topics check out our articles Payment & Protection Using CLINK, How do I get paid?, and 8 Marketing tips for owners.