We tested Kyte – a car rental service that delivers straight to your door

It’s a story as old as time. You’re planning a road trip outside of the city and need a rental car. You’ve planned your departure time down to the minute and all is well until you select your vehicle on the car rental site and then realize the agency is there closed when you need it most. Between late pickup times, early drop-off times, and the risk of additional (and often surprise) fees, renting a regular car can be an unnecessary hassle. Well, leave Hertz behind – there’s a new entrant that makes the whole process a lot easier: Kyte.

Kyte represents the new frontier of car rental services, meaning there are no more queues, no more missing your pick-up time and no more worrying about traffic making you late for drop-off resulting in this that you will incur even more surprise fees.

It’s an app/website, which means you can do everything from arranging your vehicle drop-off and pick-up to paperwork on your phone or laptop. How practical! First, enter the location where you would like the car to be dropped off before your trip and picked up after the trip – this could be your home, a friend’s place, or even an airport if you happen to be flying somewhere. There is an additional $17 fee for pickup and drop-off, but honestly…it’s worth it. Alternatively, you can pick up and leave your car at a designated parking space in Kyte.

Once you’ve done this and confirmed what size vehicle you want, you can add additional cover to your trip depending on who you are risk-averse – or how good a driver you are – enter your payment details and confirm your booking . Simply. As. Cake. Your trip can be canceled and refunded up to 48 hours before departure, giving you some breathing room in case something unusual happens at the last minute.

We tried this service ourselves and here’s how easy the process actually was. Spoiler alert, it was fantastic. First of all, the booking process was actually a breeze. The people who pick up and drop off the vehicles are called Kyte Surfers and, similar to Uber, you can see their estimated time of arrival in the app. We arrived on time with almost no delay and delivered the vehicle with a full tank.

We went north and came back a few days later in the evening, which didn’t matter with Kyte. The car was picked up by a Kyte Surfer around 9pm and everything was said and done. To ensure 100% transparency, similar to a regular car rental, if you return the car without a full tank, you will be charged a fee so that Kyte can refill it. But otherwise, this website is unique and stands out among the oligarchs of vintage car rental authorities. In short, the experience was smooth and effortless, with no stress. No frustrations like you would normally expect from traditional car rental companies – everything just works.

If you are planning a trip soon or just want to take a long drive in the car, Kyte is for you. That’s why we’ve linked the service below so you can try it out. There was almost no confusion about what awaited us and we ended up driving away in an SUV.