蜜桃视频app

Living in a place known as the outdoor recreation capital of Canada, unsurprisingly, there are many things to see, do and photograph—but what if you don’t have the gear to do them? 

Well, the chances are someone nearby has what you need, just sitting around in their house or garage. 

Photographer and videographer was over having to drive to Vancouver to rent camera equipment, so he decided he’d launch his own app, , where people can rent out their own equipment locally. 

The idea

Around five years ago, Allen was off to a shoot when he realized he needed to rent some camera gear, and there was nowhere at that time in 蜜桃视频appor Whistler that offered this service. 

“I had to go to the city, had to rent the camera gear and drive back to the city when I was done. So it wasn't just the rental price, it was the rental price plus time, plus gas, and it was a big hassle,” Allen told The 蜜桃视频app. 

“So I had the idea of starting a camera rental business, and ... I let it fester for about a year and then I realized I don't really want to spend a million dollars on buying all this camera gear to be able to rent to people.”

After posting on his social media asking if any friends had the camera equipment he could rent, Allen had the idea that many others in the business were probably doing the same thing.

“It clicked in my mind that photographers and videographers already rent camera gear to each other, it's just no one really has a database for it. No one knows where this gear lives or who has what, and it's very inconvenient to be posting on your story to ask for this gear if you have to do this every time,” he said. 

“So I started working on this about two years ago, found a developer who developed an app while I was working on it behind the scenes as well, and that's kind of how the idea started. It was just from a local issue that we didn't have a solution for.”

But being an adventure enthusiast himself and already owning a canoe rental business——Allen figured the model would work for sporting equipment too.

“It doesn't just work for camera gear, it also works for outdoor adventure gear,” he said.

“It works for ski gear, it works for canoes, it works for camping gear. Everybody has this stuff sitting in their garages and their storages that costs a lot of money, but gets used a couple of times a year. 

“So it's kind of a cool initiative for locals to be able to make extra money off of their stuff they already own, as well as help save the environment to a certain degree. So not everybody needs to buy all this new stuff.”

How does it work?

According to Allen, renting equipment off the app is simple. 

“They download the Rented Local app and [go through] a verification process,” he said.

“Every user has to have a government-issued ID for security purposes. This is so if someone were to run off with a camera or whatnot, we're verified in that sense. So, you make your account verified, and make a merchant account so that you can work payments back and forth with other merchants in the app. 

“And then you basically select the products you want to rent, reserve them for the day, pay for them, and then that's it.”

Users are required to have insurance to rent anything from the app, which they can either bring themselves or purchase through the app.

Allen said there are also other processes involved to make sure the items are kept in good condition. 

“For example, let's say I'm renting a camera from you. When I pick it up, it's my job and your job to both take photos of the camera to show its usability and its workability and its condition that it's in,” he said.

“So upon return, it has to be in the same condition, or else, there's insurance claims, there's damage deposits and stuff like that get enacted.”

At this stage of the business, merchants are able to set their own prices for their goods, but 7% of the total rental fee goes to Rented Local as a platform fee.

“The owners choose their prices. Right now, our next big step is creating a minimum price, so we're not trying to undercut the industry at all, especially with the photo and video industry,” Allen said. 

“That's been a big concern of mine, especially coming into this space, we don't want to undercut other photographers and videographers who are renting their gear.”

A local service 

Rented Local launched officially on the App Store in May.

“We only have three locations, Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton right now, with plans in the near future to expand to other communities,” Allen said.

“We have a large list of places to service, because this is obviously something that's very needed in the smaller communities. For example, one of our main targets shortly is Tofino, because they have no camera gear rental … out there.”

Allen said that people from outside the current regions have the option to rent via the app, but would have to travel to pick up the items.

“If someone wanted to rent a camera from Pemberton to Squamish, they would have to drive and pick it up, or they could work out a delivery fee with the owner,” he said.

Aside from filling a gap in the market, Allen said the purpose of the app is to also help put some extra money in people's pockets.

“This money goes directly into individuals' pockets that help pay their rent, pay their bills, buy groceries, whatever it may be, buy more gear for their business,” he said.

“It's empowering people, and there's nothing truly like it in this area. And so I think in that sense, it just really makes sense for a place like Squamish.”

And while for now it may only offer photo, video and sporting equipment, Allen plans to expand the list of possible items people can rent to 99% of most household items.

“Right now, we're just sticking very niche with camera gear and outdoor equipment. So that could be skiing, biking, climbing, camping, water sports, whatever you're kind of trying to do in the outdoor industry. [But we have] a lot of plans to kind of just service a whole mass market,” he said. 

“So it could be lawn mowers, it could be all these random things, but that's further down the line.”

Rented Local can be downloaded via the

The 蜜桃视频appBusiness Beat was developed in response to local demand for more business-focused news. To be considered, please reach out to [email protected].