photo credit: Okko Pyykkö

Trying to decide between hiring and buying? Here are 20 reasons why you should hire!

1. It’s cheaper up-front
2. It’s less of a commitment
3. You nearly always get up-to-date stuff
4. If it doesn’t work it’s not your problem
5. You can get advice from the people you hire from
6. You have less to store
7. You have less to transport if you move abroad
8. You have less to get stolen
9. It won’t go out of date
10. It’s more fun
11. You can try different ones each time
12. You won’t suffer from buyer’s remorse
13. It’s not a big deal if you don’t use it much
14. You can always buy one later
15. Someone else will maintain it
16. It doesn’t matter if you change your mind
17. You can get a better one next time
18. You don’t have to worry about depreciation
19. It’s better for the environment
20. You support the hire company

With blogs continuing to grow in popularity, more and more people are writing about their hire businesses. Writing a blog can be a great way to establish your authority online, attract search traffic to your site and, in the best cases, get some valuable feedback from your customers.

Here’s our round-up of the 5 best UK hire blogs out there today:

1. topskips.com

A fantastic example of finding great content based around what you might expect to be a dull subject. TopSkips cover plenty of relevant, often light-hearted skip-related stories and news items. Where do they get all their ideas from? A masterpiece in creativity.

2. Avis - We Try Harder

An award-winning blog, written in a friendly, nicely non-corporate way. It’s full of relevant photos, video clips and polls. It has a really good mixture of material and engages its readers very well.

3. LoireChateau.com

OK, so this one’s not strictly British. It’s based in France, but I’m going to include it anyway because of the great photos. Check out their post on Snailing in France for example!

4. Nationwide Vehicle Contracts

This blog from a contract hire company uses a simple format. The posts are mostly describing their latest models and offers. High-quality photos of the cars in question make for an attractive blog.

5. IGOE PA Hire

A straightforward, matter-of-fact record of the jobs they’ve done, listing all the equipment they provided. Simple, but probably effective for bringing in search traffic.

photo credit: Kapungo

My previous post listed the top 100 UK hire searches, but a lot of them were for self-drive car hire. It wasn’t so easy to see what was popular outside of that. Here’s a bit more hire industry research. It’s another list from Wordtracker; the same idea as before, but this time the top 100 UK searches including the term ‘hire’, but excluding searches that are obviously for self-drive car hire.

1. van hire
2. coach hire
3. limousine hire
4. marquee hire
5. freezer van hire
6. limo hire
7. caravan hire
8. motorhome hire
9. hire purchase
10. skip hire
11. van contract hire
12. camper england hire van
13. hire limousine
14. chocolate fountain hire
15. plant hire
16. hire centres
17. tool hire
18. hire
19. ball gowns hire
20. truck hire
21. camper van hire
22. catering equipment hire
23. minibus hire
24. casino hire
25. sunbed hire
26. caravan hire motorhomes
27. air conditioning hire
28. marquee hire surrey
29. av hire
30. generator hire
31. container hire
32. projector hire
33. dinner suit hire
34. contract van hire
35. halls for hire
36. camper hire
37. hire dinner suits
38. mini digger hire
39. ball dress gown hire
40. chauffeur hire
41. pa hire
42. campervan hire
43. hire lcd projector
44. canal boat hire
45. office furniture hire
46. trailer hire
47. motorhome hire uk
48. hire home hymer motor
49. area marquee hire
50. marquee hire essex
51. marquee hire kent
52. catering hire
53. marquees hire
54. marquee hire scotland
55. marquee hire uk
56. contract lease hire
57. marquee hire west midlands
58. marquee hire middlesex
59. rodeo bull hire
60. costume hire
61. sound equipment hire
62. dress hire
63. hire starlimos limousine
64. motor home hire
65. linen hire
66. hertz van hire
67. limousine hire uk
68. hire campervan
69. plasma hire
70. staging hire
71. speedy hire
72. exhibition equipment hire
73. menswear hire
74. van hire kent
75. digger hire
76. stage hire
77. hire projector
78. hampshire hire home motor
79. laptop hire
80. marquee hire suffolk
81. hire purchase calculator
82. excavator hire
83. marquee hire devon
84. garden tool hire
85. camcorder hire
86. hire long term van
87. marquee hire south devon
88. plasma screen hire
89. marquee hire york
90. ladder hire
91. commercial hire purchase
92. herne bay van hire
93. sound hire
94. limo hire uk
95. vehicle hire
96. marquee hire isle of man
97. chair cover hire
98. marquee hire dorchester
99. marquee hire nottinghamshire
100. marquee hire nash

As before, don’t read too much into individual entries as automated scripts can sometimes be running lots of searches which can skew the results. But the list is certainly an interesting read. Where’s your favourite hire product on this list? Is it as popular as you thought?

photo credit: coxy

Have you ever wondered what keywords people use when they’re searching for things to hire? Wordtracker provides data on such things and here’s what they have to say. Here are the most popular UK searches including the term ‘hire’:

1. car hire
2. contract hire
3. van hire
4. coach hire
5. limousine hire
6. car contract hire
7. car hire cyprus
8. car hire uk
9. cheap car hire
10. marquee hire
11. freezer van hire
12. car hire spain
13. limo hire
14. car hire france
15. car hire usa
16. car hire ireland
17. caravan hire
18. hertz car hire
19. car hire portugal
20. motorhome hire
21. hire purchase
22. skip hire
23. car hire chauffeur driven
24. cyprus car hire
25. contract hire uk
26. van contract hire
27. car hire new zealand
28. car hire italy
29. camper england hire van
30. hire limousine
31. car hire lanzarote
32. contract car hire
33. chocolate fountain hire
34. avis car hire
35. plant hire
36. algarve car hire
37. budget car hire
38. hire centres
39. tool hire
40. personal contract hire
41. car hire australia
42. car hire switzerland
43. car hire malaga
44. hire
45. fleet hire
46. car hire in spain
47. car cyprus hire
48. ball gowns hire
49. truck hire
50. camper van hire
51. catering equipment hire
52. minibus hire
53. hire cars
54. enterprise car hire
55. casino hire
56. car hire london
57. car hire tenerife
58. sunbed hire
59. car hire south africa
60. car contract hire uk
61. car hire sport
62. cheap car hire in spain
63. car cheap hire scotland
64. car hire europe
65. national car hire
66. new york car hire
67. prestige car hire
68. uk car hire
69. airport car hire
70. caravan hire motorhomes
71. spanish car hire
72. audi contract hire
73. wedding car hire
74. car hire florida
75. luxury car hire
76. alamo car hire
77. car hire scotland
78. america car hire
79. holiday car hire
80. car hire doncaster
81. car hire canada
82. car hire alicante
83. car hire greece
84. air conditioning hire
85. car edinburgh hire
86. faro car hire
87. cheap car hire in france
88. car hire edinburgh
89. marquee hire surrey
90. av hire
91. car hire company
92. car hire manchester
93. car hire germany
94. hire car
95. generator hire
96. car hire glasgow
97. contract hire cars
98. business contract hire
99. container hire
100. projector hire

Due to the nature of the data, there’s sure to be some noise in there, so surprising-looking entries should be taken with a large pinch of salt. That said, the list does give an idea of the kinds of things that are the most popular. Where does your favourite hire product appear? Is it as popular as you thought? Is it even in the top 100?

photo credit: m3nch13

Okay, so you’ve invested in a bouncy castle and now you want to hire it out to people? Great! Here are some ideas for how you can get the word out and start bringing in some customers.

1. Advertise on Gumtree.com
2. Take out a classified ad in the local paper
3. Offer your castle free to a local fete
4. Put an ad on local noticeboards
5. Give your customers discount vouchers for their friends (e.g. “Get 20% off with this voucher”)
6. Advertise in the parish magazine or local newsletters
7. Give your customers business cards that they can give to their friends (perhaps offer a discount this way, too)
8. Set up a simple website
9. Offer discounts to members of local clubs

Know any more good ways to advertise a bouncy castle for hire? Let us know by writing a comment.

photo credit: chris_db

Your inner desires revealed…

Find out here.

photo credit: D.L.

Has your laptop died? Are you looking for a temporary replacement laptop? Or simply wondering whether hiring a laptop would work out cheaper than buying? Here’s a run-down of a few UK laptop hire companies and the prices they charge…

(the prices listed exclude VAT)

RentIT
Offer a range of PC and Apple laptops for hire.

Macbook Pro 15 inch hire:
£101.40 for 3 days
£137.90 per week for one week
£62.44 per week for one month
£17.29 per week for one year

Blaze Computer Rentals
Toshiba laptop computers for hire.

Tecra 8000 hire for £8 per day.
Satellite Pro 4600: £11 per day
Tecra 8200: £12 per day
Satellite Pro A10: £14 per day
Satellite Pro M30: £16 per day
Tecra M2: £18 per day
(daily rate based on a one week hire)

Astral Computers
Offer ’standard’ or ‘high power’ laptops for hire.

Standard:

1 day: £35
1-3 day: £45
1 week: £55
1 month: £85

High Power:

1 day: £45
1-3 day: £55
1 week: £75
1 month: £105

Conclusions

The obvious thing to note is that laptop hire rates depend heavily on how long you’re looking to hire the laptop. A short-term hire will cost anything from £35 for the first day, but Astral Computers, for example, will provide an unspecified ’standard’ laptop for £85 for a whole month.

How does the situation look when we compare hiring versus buying a laptop? Taking RentIT’s 15-inch Macbook Pro hire rates as an example, a 15-inch Macbook Pro will currently cost around £1299 new in the shops. A three-year Applecare support contract would set you back another £279, giving a total of about £1578. RentIT offers a year’s Macbook Pro hire for £17.29 per week, which works out to £899 per year. Going on that, in the long-run you’re going to be paying more, but if you can’t spare the extra cash up-front, long-term laptop hire could well be an option worth considering.

photo credit: fugzu

Do you want the benefits of a pet, but without the commitment? An innovative service in America is offering just that. Flexpetz is a shared pet ownership scheme where members can spend anything from a few hours to several days with a dog before handing it back. The scheme is currently available in New York and Los Angeles but plans to open in new locations soon. Through their website they are currently accepting pre-registration for pet hire in London.

photo credit: GarryWiseman

Are you looking for something a little bit different for the party you are organising? Then consider hiring inflatable sumo costumes! With these outrageous suits you can stage your own sumo tournament and see which of your friends is the sumo supremo. Prices start from around £70 for a pair of child sumo suits or £100 for adult suits.

photo credit: zehhhra

Planning to hire a car, but concerned about the environmental impact of motoring? Then this service could be for you. GreenMotion, based in Milton Keynes, bills itself as “the world’s first fully environmentally friendly car and van rental company”. They offer eco-friendly hire cars with the latest in CO2 and low carbon emission technology. Their green vehicles are available to rent from locations around the UK and Ireland.