About 7 years ago, when we had our second, we were gifted one of the best travel cots around – the Baby Bjorn Travel Cot.
But, as most parents would know – travel cots are used only a few times a year – late dinners at friends houses, or the occasional trip away when the AirBnB didn’t have a suitable cot.
The Travel Cot was the inspiration for me to launch Kindershare – wanting to make money from things sitting around the house – while still having them available when I needed them.
7 years later, the travel cot still looked quite new, but with a friend recently having had a baby, I passed on the travel cot to her and sat down to check what had gone so well…
Over the 6 years I had the cot listed, the cot was booked over 30 times, with most bookings being for 1 weekend only. Occasionally, the cot was booked for a 2 week period. I had 4 “regular” renters – people who lived locally and didnt want to buy their own travel cot, because they realised renting it at $20 a pop was much cheaper than buying it new for $550… And that’s before you consider the approx 50kg in carbon emissions to make the cot.
What worked Well?
Having a high quality cot meant people understood how easy it was to open and pack away. It avoids the horrors of trying to get the cheaper cots to “work”. As a bonus, it is super easy to pull apart and throw in the washing machine between rentals.
Always having it ready to go – many of my bookings were requested with 1 or 2 days notice. Because it was always washed and packed away after each rental, I could respond immediately and provide the cot.
Offering free local delivery – I’m always out and about, driving 2 minutes out of my way was no big hassle and meant one less worry for the parents or grandparents who were renting it.
Including sheets and a mattress protector so that the cot is ready to go. Again, you are removing a hassle from the renter, which makes them more likely to rent again.
Be reasonable with pricing – I experimented with pricing quite a bit, and found $20 to be the right point for a weekend rental. Longer than that, and people were willing to pay more, but it was unusual that someone would rent it longer than 5 days.
In total I made $1,550 from my Bjorn Travel Cot. Not bad for a gift!!
Melissa Drennan CEO of Green Friday Australia live on Nine News on the 25th October 2023 promoting the launch of Green Friday Buy Better 2023 Event running Oct 27 – Nov 3.
Watch the video below which also mentions Kindershare, now part of the ReleaseIt Family.
Kindershare user Rachel was recently featured on a Yahoo Finance Blog where she explained how she earns up to $400 / month by renting out her baby gear on Kindershare.
It has been an amazing 5 years since we launched Kindershare. We have helped thousands of families find baby equipment at a low price, close to where they need it. We’ve also helped hundreds of families make money from their unused baby equipment.
Today we’ve conducted the first update to our terms in a while. Please read below to find out more.
What is staying the same?
The Kindershare guarantee remains untouched. If your items are damaged or lost during a rental, and you have a bond in place worth at least 20% of the replacement value, we will provide up to 75% of the replacement value of your item after our team have had a chance to make an assessment.
We do not charge you to list items, we still check to make sure that your items meet Australian standards before listing them, and we will do our best to make sure you get as many rentals as possible.
What has changed?
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on our lives. It has significantly impacted business. But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
What you might not know is that the insurance market has also been significantly impacted by covid. What this has meant is that Kindershare’s insurance policy has changed. Many rental businesses are not able to get insurance cover.
We have been frantically searching to make sure we could continue to offer similar cover, but have not yet been successful.
Until today, Kindershare’s public liability policy covered both Kindershare AND all the owners that transacted on our website. From today, the public liability coverage is limited to Kindershare only. We are continuing our extensive search to find replacement cover that will cover all of the owners, and will update you as soon as we have more information.
What does this mean for you?
As of today, owners on Kindershare do not have public liability cover. We are desperately trying to a replacement policy that covers all owners, but despite hours spent on the phone, we have not yet been able to get cover.
After months of searching, the good news is that we have found a broker who is able to provide cover for our owners individually. We are happy to provide the contact details – just reach out!
Thank you for continuing to support Kindershare – we look forward to hopefully being able to get back to where we were soon.
Like you, I’m in a strange sense of disbelief over what is going on at the moment. There is a lot of moving parts and a lot of information out there, so will keep this note specific to Kindershare only.
What’s happened so far on Kindershare
We have seen a huge decline in the number of new bookings coming through – and for the first time in about 12 months, we have had days with zero enquiries – quite a scary position for small business to be in.
We have also received a significant number of cancellation requests as families cancel trips interstate or overseas.
What Kindershare is doing now
It is a tough decision to make, but we have decided to allow cancellations for all bookings on the renter’s (or owner’s) request.
If you or your renter would like to cancel, please get in touch with our support team (here or chat on the screen from 9am – 10pm) and Lorna, Rachel or Vivian can arrange the cancellation directly. This is a ‘no cost’ system, which means that you will not receive any cancellation fees for this period unless the renter has offered to pay.
If you have been ill, please let us know so that we can temporarily shut all of your listings until you have recovered.
Yes, this will hurt us all financially, however I strongly believe it is the right thing to do in the circumstances.
Bookings that are still going ahead
While many of our travel-related bookings are being cancelled, people are still having babies and need baby gear.
We ask that our owners take the following steps for any items being returned / rented out:
Ensure all hard surfaces (eg. Pram frames, bassinet frames) are wiped down with alcohol wipes (eg. Dettol wipes, isopropyl, household disinfectant etc)
Ensure that all soft fabrics (eg bassinet liners, bouncer fabrics, etc) are washed with Dettol wash or similar.
Try to limit contact with the renter during drop-off and pickup
Hi everyone,
