[avalaunch]

I doubt you'll get many casual renters because of the friction of having to go out of your way to meet someone (that might not show up, or might show up late) for small amounts of cash. I also think not having a good conflict resolution plan (or insurance) in place is going to be a huge issue preventing people from using your marketplace. As it is now, I just wouldn't feel comfortable renting out my stuff without charging a near 100% deposit and as a rentee I wouldn't feel comfortable giving a deposit anywhere near that amount.

Some ideas:

1. Figure out a way that I can just drop off my stuff and you'll take care of renting it out for me, over and over again. I would love to make some extra cash for my stuff but I really don't want to spend the time and pain of scheduling, driving to meet the rentees, waiting for them to show up if they're running late, dealing with it when some of them invariably flake out at the last minute, ect... I would approach local consignment shops and see if they'd be interested in being intermediaries where all they have to do is act as dropoff/pickup locations for your customers. In exchange, you pay them a either percentage or a flat monthly rate.

2. An alternative might be a sort of rent it forward strategy, where instead of returning an item to the owner the rentee holds onto it until someone else rents it, and then passes it along to the next renter.

Of course, both of these ideas make it much harder to gauge whether the items are in approximately the same condition as they were when initially rented. And, at least for idea #1, you'd probably want to add a clause that any item not rented out within a month needs to be picked up, else the renter will be charged a storage fee.

3. Look on craigslist and ebay for professional sellers and ask if they'd be interested in renting out some of their stuff on your platform instead of selling it. That might be a good way to populate your inventory in various cities quickly while making them more money than they'd make by simply selling the stuff. You might also ask local thrift stores, flea market sellers, and consignment shops if there are any items they'd like to rent out on your marketplace.

[qopp]

The rent it forward strategy can be completely resolved through just completely selling the items each time. This resolves the issue of value depreciation and items getting worn out by using the free market.

For low cost items (i.e. the items on this site)- the price of space exceeds the cost of the item. In this way goodwill/salvation army could be seen as a place where you can rent items indefinitely and just pay for the shelving space.

[avalaunch]

Selling the item each time requires each party to research the resale value based on current condition. It's easier to agree on a rental rate than a resale value. Also, the original owner might not want to sell it but instead make a little money renting it when he's not using it. I assume in a tent it forward system the original owner could request to have it returned at any point if they needed it.

The cost of space differs greatly per area. In some areas the cost of space exceeds the cost of certain items but in others not so much. In the Midwest, for example, a 2500 sq foot house only costs 200k.