RentMama: Our own car rental marketplace
A custom Ruby on Rails marketplace we built ourselves: car rental search, fleet management, and renter-to-company communication.
The idea
We built an independent rental marketplace designed to connect car renters with car rental companies efficiently. The platform aims to give users quick access to the best rental offers, saving time and money. This is our own product. We took it through Startupbootcamp and Ignite 100 accelerator programs, traveled to multiple countries to meet rental companies face to face, and lived the chicken-and-egg problem firsthand.
What we built
Over several years, we evolved the platform from Rails 2.0 to Rails 5.0, continuously adding new functionality.
- UI/UX design Clean, intuitive interface with wireframing, prototyping, and user testing
- Advanced search and filtering Users search by location, time frame, car type, gearbox, car class, and rental company response type
- Request and fulfillment system Renters make requests that rental companies can fulfill or deny, simplifying the process
- Rental management tools Companies present their fleet, manage availability calendars, and use the platform as their rental management tool
- Enhanced communication Features improving communication between renters and companies throughout the rental process
- Backend evolution Progressive upgrades from Rails 2.0 to Rails 5.0, ensuring scalability and reliability
The result
The marketplace improved user experience through intuitive design and advanced filtering. The request and fulfillment system, combined with enhanced communication, simplified the rental process for both sides. The progressive Rails upgrades ensured the platform remained scalable. Building our own product changed how we approach client work: we now think about go-to-market, first users, and unit economics alongside features.
