What we do

Skoot is a marketplace app that lets travellers book scooter rentals in Thailand from a network of verified local shops. We handle ID verification, rental contracts, payment, deposit escrow and damage claims so you never have to fight with a shop owner over a scratched fairing or a passport you should never have handed over in the first place.

Why we exist

Thailand has great scooters, great roads, and a well-documented problem: the rental market is built on deposits held in cash and passports held as collateral. Thousands of tourists a year get burned by damage scams, fake insurance claims, and shops that pocket deposits without recourse. The whole experience was ripe for disruption.

We started Skoot because one of our founders lost $600 to a "scratch" claim in Phuket in 2022 — a scratch that was clearly visible in the photos he had taken 15 minutes earlier. The shop had the passport. He had a flight in 90 minutes. He paid. That is the transaction we are abolishing.

What actually makes us different

A lot of rental aggregators say "verified shops" and stop there. The thing that changes the power dynamic is where the deposit sits:

Deposit in escrow with Skoot. Not with the shop. The shop can't touch your money unless they file a claim and we approve it.
No passport held hostage. ID verification happens digitally in the app, once, before you arrive.
Walkaround evidence from day one. Every rental starts with a timestamped photo walkaround. If a shop invents damage, the photos win.
Real shop audits. We physically visit shops before onboarding and remove ones that don't meet the bar.

Where we operate

Skoot currently covers seven cities in Thailand — Phuket, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Krabi, Pattaya and Bangkok. We also run dedicated city sites like phuketscooterrentals.com that go deeper on each local market.

The team

Skoot is a small team of riders, software engineers and ex-tourism operators based across Europe and Thailand. We ride the bikes we rent. We visit the shops we list. We answer the support emails.

Contact

Business, press, partnerships: contact us here.