Guidelines for establishing rental rates
 

Good morning all,

A friend of mine is looking into renting out his gear while he is between projects. I was wondering if anyone here is familiar with the guidelines of rental rate per value of kit to charge potential renters. Perhaps a ratio of rental rate per value in $1000's per day?

Insurance certificates are already being investigated.

Thanks!

Just one person's opinion...

Renting out one's production equipment is a bad idea. Insurance or not, sooner or later, it will turn around and bite your friend.

Here is one more...

Unless he REALLY knows the person(s) that will be using it takes really good care of it, i would advice not to rent out this kind of equipment. That is, unless he decide to go the whole distance to actually start a pure renting company.

The thin line between using / abusing delicate electronics are very difficult to define. Especially if it is prosumer class of equipment.

At first we was thinking about renting out our own equipment, but quickly decided that it was not worth it. Simply because the risk is too high.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll pass it on.

I thought the rule of thumb on renting was that the rental day rate should be about 1 - 3% of the total value of the kit

edit: PS not that I'm recommending renting your own kit. I used to work in a place that loaned cameras and you'd be shocked at the state they came back in (if they came back at all) - full of sand or water, bits broken off or missing (and no-one would ever tell you because they didn't want to get fined, so you would only find out when the next hirer would complain its not working properly)... its not like hiring out a car, if a car comes back with a broken headlamp you can fix it and send it out again, if a camcorder comes back with broken lens you may as well throw it away

3-5% a day is pretty common.
10-20% for a week.
20-40% for a month.

This would be insured and guaranteed of course, with a heavy deposit as well, to a legit company, not to your band of neighbourhood teenagers.

Thanks again. I believe his intent is to rent to production companies only, and would require the appropriate insurance certificates.