My e-bike adventure

Thanks Frank.

It is apparent we Warriors would like to offer up advice, as it was asked for...but we don't know what to advise on, so CLARITY might be the thing a new Warrior should strive for.

What will your app do that my iPhone can't do as GPS, mileage, etc., etc. do?

What is the current state of the ebike business? Well, I can speak to two areas, S. CA and San Diego in particular and Northeast Ohio. So, if I were to once again stay at the Hotel Del Coronado, they already have bikes available, and ebikes are rampant with many services offering curbside pick up.

One thing I noticed with this site:
https://wheelfunrentals.com/ca/san-d...de/bike-share/

was their association with both the City of San Diego and the SD Convention center, which appears to be a good idea, get the city and the local convention centers involved.

Locally, if I were to book a room at the Sheraton in Cuy. Falls, they could get me an ebike from a local bike rental shop, with a phone call, which they would probably just give me the number for. It is hard to imagine many hotels without a bike rental service already available, and I don't see the upside for the hotel itself, but again, I may be missing something.

You may have vetted this concept and have proof of it already, but the Original Post is unclear, and seems you might be putting the cart before the horse.

The hotel industry does have turn over, so the person you speak with today may not be the decision maker of tomorrow, wouldn't it be better to wait until the app is fully devloped or what are we missing here?

GordonJ

Thanks Frank. The GPS is primarily a security device, to try prevent and contrast theft. The other applications are a little extra, that also gives us the possibility to expand in other markets (flee floating in small towns would be itneresting). Thank you again. Any other idea would be very appreciated.

Focusing on the bike and the hotel market, do you think it makes sense to try funnelling or it is not the right market for it?

I figured you were figuring a "Round Trip" type model. and I get it, it makes sense... However, the point of entry is very limited - Hotels

But we have to look at the working ( functional and dysfunctional ) models that are present in the marketspace. There are 3 that come to mind. There is rental from a shop / kiosk etc There is a free roaming base station model,and then there is this what I would consider dysfunctional free roamiing model.

shops is a no brainer and functional, and maybe something you should spend some time looking at it is closest in parallel to your current hotel concept. The end user goes to a shop, a kiosk, or in your case I will assume a smart rack and rents a bike, in your case I presume for the day? and then atthe end of the rental period returns the bike to the same location.

The functional free roaming model is then what you might find in NYC. and as goof ball as this sounds you should go and see the systems first hand for yourself - as in road trip. Basically smart racks dispersed through out the city, you grab a bike, and when you get to where you want to go you insert the bike in a rack. You then want to leave there, you go out to a rack and grab another bike. I believe the term is "bike sharing" THIS is the model most present in Europe as well from what I have read - havent been there myself as of late so couldnt tell you.

You then have what i call the dysfunctional model, and the San Diego scooter market would be a great example of this with employees every night going out grabbing the scooters and charging them and then placing them at pick up points. There are many many articles of scooters all over the city basically like littering the sidewalks and streets.

My business mind... the one that looks at growth and all of that says the Hotel only model is very limiting. BUT I will add would be a good start. There are X hotels, and if you put 10 bikes at each hotel, you will hit a wall of average rentals per day, per month per year right? Growth will only come by adding facilities. Growth will NEVER come by maximizing the commodity itself - the bike. Make sense?

Looking at Citi Bike again, look at the map it kind of says it all. You can then maximize the commodity, vs trying to maximize the location. And I will explain. You can BRAND and advertise your service ( renting bikes ) at large, OR you can place effort in each and every facility to get those specific visitors to rent a bike. Basically you are decentralizing your advertising in a more free float model ( long term ) vs centralizing your efforts based on each and every single location.

So lets get into exactly what you are renting - I would say you are NOT renting bikes, you are renting an "experience". Your company is developing an app that with the use of GPS is going to offer points of interest. The idea being you want to showcase the best of the best for the community you are serving. You do understand each and every pin on that apps map is monetizable right?

Again we are drawn back to the city you are operating within. City development of green initiatives, chamber of commerce, Do some research and you will find localized business associations. Minority business', I will bet more than likely there will be a local history association, etc etc

At the end of the day you need to be looking at this as a business. and YOU the current marketing guy needs to be looking at an amount of matrix to determine your sucess. Here is a list to start with Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue. Putting your service in front of people that may have an interest, Selling that offer ( renting a bike ) to that person(s), if they are there for 3 days rent to them all 3 days, get them to tell others about the experience, and THIS is how you make money.

I really cant stress this enough, Spend some time and go through your cities City Council meeting notes for the last few years. Study what they have in mind in terms of a green initiative. Align your service infrastructure and service to that blueprint, set the meeting with a single council member, get them on board, that will in turn get others on board, and this becomes your foot in the door to working with hotels at scale.

The Chamber of Commerce and each and every hotel you want to get into will have a relationship... you simply need to leverage that relationship to your benefit... by leveraging your benefit to your communities green initiative it will be a no brainer decision for all involved.

I havent done this for e-bikes, but I have done this - it works