Renting a motorcycle is difficult, time-consuming, and doesn’t feel safe.

On the other side of the globe from Thailand, Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues a warning for people traveling to Thailand regarding vehicle rentals. They describe multiple red flags warning about scams. No one can deny the reputation of the rental industry for tourism in Thailand is bad and that something should change.

We spent a while analyzing people’s posts on social media, trying to learn what kind of things they want and need. These were our key findings:

1. The industry has a bad reputation, and people experience fear of getting scammed.
2. The rental process, including picking up the bike, maintenance while using the bike, and dropping off the bike, is time-consuming.
3. Communicating with rental companies may be difficult due to language challenges, leading to confusion.
4. Some rented scooters are old or in poor condition, leading to safety issues or at least a bad user experience.
5. There is a narrow selection of scooter models available. In many cases, the scooters are heavy, large, and hard to handle, which can be an issue for people who do not ride scooters often.
6. People want short-term rentals and flexibility. Some want to do a quick exploration in nearby areas or simply hop on a bike ride to the closest market and back to the hotel.

Do you feel the same? Have you noticed other challenges?  

If you calculate the cost of traveling and accommodation for a two-week stay, it can easily rise to as high as 10 USD per hour. It’s clear that traveling from afar with an airplane and staying in a hotel is not a small thing—it is a major investment, to which you expect a return.

• One’s time is valuable and should be focused on the mission at hand: experiencing, creating memories, and having fun—not dealing with bike problems or haggling with local shops over minor issues.
• One does not want to spend time figuring out which rental shop is trustworthy and which is not.
• One doesn’t want to spend this time thinking about the bike.

Cocovolt’s “North Star”

This is not the way things should be, and we felt a change was needed!

Travelers should be able to:

• Trust the company they deal with.
• Rent quickly and effortlessly.
• Ride bikes that are in good condition and safe to drive.
• Focus on the mission at hand: having fun, gathering memories and experiences, and getting the most out of the investment made in the trip.

We decided to define our North Star, a promise to our future customers, business partners, team, and ourselves:

• Customer experience is our top priority when we design and improve our processes. We don’t just want to make it work—we want it to be great!
• The services are environmentally sustainable. To make a concrete difference in reducing pollution, we rent only electric scooters.
• Our chosen scooter model is easy to handle and safe, even for people who do not drive scooters often. The electric engine gives out a good amount of torque and, due to its characteristics, is very agile and simply fun to drive!
• The fun to drive extends to the scooter’s appearance. It shall be fun-looking, bright yellow like the sun, and we will be known as “The Yellow Scooter Of Samui”, spreading energy and joy to anyone who sees it.
• The services are easy and quick to use.
• The services should be fun to use.
• We treat our customers with honesty and transparency.
• We act responsibly towards our customers, team, business partners, and the community. We stay true to our word towards all parties and expect the same from our team.
• We strive for excellence and the best possible solutions, but we always do it in a smart way and keep it simple.
• “Things don’t improve when lending them” is an old proverb, and this applies to scooter rentals. We understand they will wear and tear, and this should show in how we act.
• We take pride in the good condition of our scooters and ensure every customer receives a scooter following this golden standard. We prepare to renew our fleet continuously to maintain our standard even as years go by.
• We do not ask for a deposit nor will we ever ask customers to hand over their passport. We trust our customers and expect them to take good care of the scooter even without a deposit.
• We earn our reputation decisively over time, one happy customer at a time.
• We use technology and digital solutions to enable a smooth and modern way of renting scooters.
• To make it as easy and comfortable as possible for our customers, we provide our services in several languages covering the entire digital rental process as well as chat services.
• We enable customers to pay digitally using a trusted payment service provider and let this service provider safeguard all credit card information, which we actually don’t need to store in our systems at all.
• We enable a 24/7 self-service rental model where no contact is required to rent a scooter.
• We create and publish valuable and timely relevant content not only for our customers but for all to see. This includes information about local points of interest, instructions, advice on driving in Thailand, deep insights into the local culture, etc.

The Charging Challenge is now a strength

When choosing to go with fully electric scooters, we created a new challenge for ourselves to solve. Electric scooters need to be charged. In many places around the world, this same topic is a challenge even with electric cars. How can you drive one if you don’t have the necessary infrastructure to charge the vehicle?

One option would’ve been to organize an infrastructure covering the whole island with self-service battery switching cabinets. This is a quick way to switch a battery, but it would’ve required our customers to handle the batteries, which, even though easy to handle, can be a little off-putting to some people.

We looked back at our North Star and realized we need to be better, we need to do more, and we decided to take an approach that combines three ways to charge the scooter:

1. Self-service charging: With the travel-size charger we provide with each of our scooters, our customers can charge the scooter by plugging it into a normal household electric outlet in 2-3 hours at the cost of only about 10 THB.
2. Battery switch at your location, at the time of your choosing: Our team is on standby for orders from the field, and their only duty is to keep customers happy. When a customer sends us a request, our fleet agent meets them at the time and location of their choosing. Within 5 minutes, the battery is switched to a fresh one, and they are ready to go.
3. Establish a HopPoint network and enable scooter hopping: Cocovolt’s HopPoint network consists of several local businesses around the island. They host our scooters and allow 24/7 access to them. You can pick up and return scooters as a self-service. Once we reach our service’s evolution 3, we will enable you to return your scooter and hop onto a new one with a fresh battery with ease and speed.

So, we took the challenge of charging with the aim of turning it into a strength. Not only do you not have to worry about charging anymore, but compared to a traditional fossil-fueled scooter, you have not only one but three options to choose from: do it yourself, let us do it, or use fixed locations to “refuel.”

Enter the New Era of Scooter Rental

We selected an industry that causes a lot of pollution in the area. The industry has a lot of problems and currently suffers from a bad reputation. Customer service in this line of business, in our experience, has not met the standard we expect as customers.

We wanted to make a change in the way things are done and make a positive impact on the environment. We took this as a challenge to solve, and this is exactly what we are doing.

We believe our service sets a new golden standard for the industry on how flexible and easy it can be to rent and use a scooter, and we hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to the new era of scooter rental – Welcome to Cocovolt.