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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Rent Me: New iPhone App Released for REDusers

Sneak Peak at v1.1

Sneak Peak at v1.1

Folks,

Here's a look at the new add screen. Check out the menu options on the bottom.

Torrey
 

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Android version will come once the iPhone version has all the features. They want to maximize the app's potential before they move to another platform.

However, at that point the code should be somewhat straightforward to port. At least that's what they tell me since its all Greek to me...

Tor
 
Just bought it. Great app. We can all benefit from standardization, even if your actual prices deviate. Would be awesome if you could somehow email the day/week/month calculations. Can we get it to be able to rotate to landscape in the iPad?

Looking forward to v1.1. And another vote for android here. Hope this thing takes off.
 
Thanks for a great app. Though it's quite straightforward and I extracted the formula from there and built an appropriate google docs that now calculates all the rates for me, basing on my gear (including the volume-based discounts), it totally worth it )
 
Just purchased the app, and I'm assuming rates are directly determined by the purchase value of any given piece of equipment. This does not strike me as accurate since one piece of kit depreciates differently than another- lenses versus digital camera bodies for instance. As much as I'd like to rent out my Zeiss CP.2 set for minimum $585/day, the market price is more like $375/day.

Also, is there supposed to be a way to view a listing of local rentals via this app?
 
Folks--new version is in beta testing now (internally) and should be submitted to App Store within next week or two.

Features implemented for v1.1:

Gear Checkouts
Mooch List
Multi-item packaging and bundling
Overall user interface improvements

Torrey
 
Torrey Loomis said:
Market research and some digging. Call your local rental house and see if they'll give you their formula...

:-)

TL
Click to expand...

I've done my own extensive research and I'll save everybody $6.99. The magic formula for a daily rate is 5% of the full retail price (except for sound gear, which, strangely, varies from 2-5%). That's a basic rule of thumb. Expect some local variation. Also, expect an increase for hot items, scarce items, or delicate items. Expect some room for negotiation, especially on large packages. In other words, gear that can easily be used over and over again with little chance of wear (such as filters and grip gear) are pretty spot on the 5% mark.

There are some exceptions. For example, Chimeras seem to rent for about 10-20% of the retail. The daily rate for HMI lights is about the same price for a lamp (for 2500 watts and below). (HMIs can be used over and over, but the lamps get used up after a short time). They record the serial number on the lamp and require broken lamps to be returned. This prevents people from renting an HMI and swapping out their own personal bulb that has since been used up or broken. In other words, by charging a rental fee high enough to cover a new lamp, there is no incentive for people to try and rip them off.

Rental houses also do some things to make life easier for themselves, such as pricing all filters, or all 18 x 24 flags/nets/silks or all 6x6 rags at the same price. This time-saving behavior will also result in prices that stray from the 5% rule since a 12 x 12 white double net is way more costly than a 12 x 12 flag. Some rental houses follow this one-price for-all policy and some do build in a price premium for the exceptions. A second thing they do is to round up or down to an even number (who is going to list $4.29 for an item? It will either be $4 or $5).

There is another way of looking at this. Rental houses are at their most efficient when they do long-term rentals, such as feature films. Feature films last about 3-4 weeks. A production can either rent the gear or buy new gear and resell it after production ends. Resale prices are generally 1/2 of retail. So rental houses know that a production has a buy or rent decision that equates to roughly 50% of the retail price. But the production company also has to spend some time and money to buy and resell the gear. So, a rental house can offer a 10-day month at a 5% daily rate (for a total of 50% of the retail value) and the production company gets a better deal (since they save the time and money of purchasing and reselling and remove the uncertainty of selling in the used market). Anytime an accountant can get a few percent cost savings (and remove uncertainty for potential losses) they are going to take it.
 
Folks,

New app has been delivered to me and the graphics team from the coders. We're beta testing overnight.

Tor
 
Beta v1.1 is good. There was one feature missing that we asked to get implemented that makes it work better--rental logs. Roy is writing in the capability to capture rentals to a log as well as moocher history to a separate log. Once that's done and tested, it goes to the App Store.

Other features such as rental inventory syncing across different devices will come down the road in the next version.

TL
 
Torrey, when can we expect an update to be available in the App Store?
 
Version 1.1 has been submitted for approval.

TL
 
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