How Carvia Works
Carvia is a peer-to-peer car rental marketplace: hosts list their own cars, guests book them, and everything in between — pricing, check-in, protection, payouts — runs through the app with nothing hidden.
The short version
You find a car near you, book it for the dates you need, and pick it up from the host (or have it delivered). You handle check-in and check-out right in the app with a quick photo walkthrough, so there's a clear record of the car's condition on both ends. Your price is shown in full before you pay — trip cost, our service fee, and your protection plan, all as one number, with no line items that show up later at pickup.
For guests: booking and driving a car
1. Search. Browse cars by location, dates, and filters like vehicle type or features.
2. Book. Choose your protection plan and any extras (child seat, extra mileage, and so on), then check out. Some listings confirm instantly (Instant Book); others go to the host as a request, with a 12-hour response window. See Instant Book vs. Request to Book.
3. Check in. At the start of your trip, you and the host document the car's condition with timestamped photos before you drive off. See Guest Check-In: How To.
4. Drive. The car is yours for the trip, covered by the protection plan you picked. See Choosing a Protection Plan (Guest).
5. Check out. Same photo process in reverse when you return the car. See Guest Check-Out: How To.
That's the core loop. Along the way you can message your host directly in-app, modify a booking if your plans change, and see your full receipt at any time. See Booking a Car: Step by Step for the detailed walkthrough.
For hosts: listing a car
Hosts list a vehicle, set their price, and choose an earnings plan that trades payout share for lower damage exposure (or vice versa). When a trip books, the host earns money on a fixed schedule — twice weekly, every Tuesday and Friday — with no ambiguity about when funds land. Hosts don't have to accept every request; Instant Book is optional and off by default, so a host can review who's booking their car before saying yes. If you're a host or thinking about becoming one, see How to List Your First Car.
What makes Carvia different
A few things guests consistently ask about, because other rental marketplaces don't do them this way:
- One flat service fee. We charge 12% of your trip subtotal, always, shown as a single line at checkout. No fee that "varies by factors." See Understanding Your Trip Price: Fees Explained.
- No cash security deposit. We place a card authorization hold, not a charge, and release it automatically 24 hours after your trip ends if nothing's flagged. See Security Deposit Explained.
- Instant Book is a host's choice, not a mandate. Some hosts want to review every request; we let them.
- Photo-documented check-in and check-out. Your own pickup photos are the strongest evidence in a damage dispute — if damage shows up in your photos, a claim against you for it is automatically rejected. See the Protection Plans Terms.
Getting started
Ready to book? Start with Creating Your Account and Verification, then head to Booking a Car: Step by Step. If you run into an issue anywhere along the way, our support team is reachable in-app any time.