Usually, getting a cab to move around the city is not an easy task. There are many local services who do that, but their pricing is not transparent. Most are not reliable unless you know them personally. They don’t turn up on time, they start showing bad attitude and ultimately they are not trustworthy
Ola is one of the leading radio taxi services in India who solved the same problem for single short trips. Now with their new services, they are solving all these problems for longer rides within the city too with Ola Rentals.
When they started operations, they were restricted to booking cabs only. But now they are slowly adding innovative ideas to their business model. Ola Rentals is one of the new services rolled out by Ola to selected cities. It intrigued me as it was the kind of service that I was looking for, a long time.
So when you need a cab in the city for a longer period of time, you can go about and book Ola cabs for every single destination. But what if you don’t get a cab in the middle of the schedule? I decided to try out the Ola Rental for this very reason. Last weekend, I had a complex agenda and the schedule wanted me to be in many places in the city over the day. I could have taken my car, but I live in Bangalore and the problem of traffic and parking looms over my head every time I take the car out. What if I can hire a cab for about 6 hours and the cab stays with me for the entire duration while I strike off my agenda. Ola Rental looked like a logical solution and I booked it.
Booking it was very easy. I just had to select Ola Rental option in the same Olacabs application. Once I chose the desired plan and the time, the cab came to my doorsteps at the appointed time.
Being a tech blogger, I have to carefully plan my weekend. I have to be with the family and also shoot my videos. So here was the agenda for the day. Head to Cubbon Park with family and while I am shooting a few videos, the kids can play in the park. Then head to lunch at a restaurant in Jayanagar. After lunch, I planned to take the family for shopping and then finally meet a friend at this home. Now if I had to do all this myself through Bangalore traffic, it would be a stressful agenda. The whole point of enjoying with the family would be lost. So I booked the Ola Rentals and opted for 6 hours package and here is how it went.
The app is a clean and minimalistic ally designed app. Finding the right choice of a cab is very easy and booking it is even more simple. You could use Ola Money, but I opted to pay by cash. After choosing the Ola Rental option, I just choose my package and booked the cab. As the cab is available for the entire duration of booking, I did not select the destination.
The driver was prompt to arrive at my location. He did not call me to ask for landmarks; instead, he was there by himself. He was on time as well. He was courteous to greet us and he made sure that we were all comfortable before starting off. He asked for the drop location and we started off. Casually chatting with the driver, I told him that I usually visit a temple on Saturday and today I had to miss it.
After wading through Bangalore traffic, we reached Cubbon park. The driver dropped us and waited for us at the parking. The kids had fun at the park and I finished my product shooting and crossed off my personal agenda and the rest of the day was devotion spending time with family. We got on to the cab and headed to the next location: Jayanagar. Jayanagar is a challenging place to find a parking place and I did not have to worry about it. We went on to have lunch, bumped into another fellow blogger Madhu, who was with her family. Then we met my friend with his family at the Jayanagar Shopping complex. After shopping for a few hours we were ready to leave. All this was completed in less than 5 hours. The driver suggested that we visit a famous temple on the way back. He suggested Ragiguda Temple, which was one of my favorite temples in Bangalore. After visiting the temple, we headed back home.
I was never satisfied with myself for pulling off such a complex agenda in less than 6 hours. At the end, I not at all stressed, but very much relaxed. All credits to Ola Rental plan. If it had not been for Ola Rental, I would have driven the car myself and would have wound up stressed. Else I would have hired a local cab and worried about billing and reliability all through the day. Last and worst option would have been to hire multiple cabs and you can imagine how much of a nightmare it would have been, especially with the kids.
The billing was transparent and the final expense was highly sensible. I felt relaxed, secured and satisfied at the end of this trip. I had used such a service called Savari Rentals in Mumbai. The estimate that was given before the travel and the final bill was a shocker to me. Also the Savari car we got was really in a bad state. We did have a bad experience with it. The Ola Cab that was assigned to me was clean and pleasant. It was a well-maintained car and the entire journey was comfortable. I got the best car to travel thanks to OLA Rentals.
Now that Ola Rentals is available in more than 91 cities, I know what to do the next time I need a cab in a new city.
