Why building your own software with AI does not work
Can I build software for my rental business myself using AI?
Why the attempt to build rental software yourself using AI coding tools is either doomed to fail or ends up being more expensive than using a ready-made cloud-based Software as a Service solution like Rentware.
The idea is understandable. But no — don’t even try.
To describe it visually:
It would be comparable to trying to build your own house without any prior experience while acting as the architect, general contractor, construction supervisor, and building inspector all at the same time.
The house would probably never be finished, full of defects, and still extremely expensive. And you would have to invest endless amounts of time learning all the required knowledge and coordinating all the different trades.
In this comparison, the workers and craftsmen are what AI can replace in software development.
But planning, managing, and controlling everything is still your responsibility.
And how many software projects have you personally managed and implemented so far?
How many of them were specifically related to rental businesses?
AI may partially replace the developer’s job, but it does not replace the job of a product owner.
You cannot simply tell a chatbot:
“Hey, build me software for a car rental business.”
First, you would need to describe exactly what the software should do.
And that in the smallest possible detail regarding requirements and technical behavior.
Yes, you can provide screenshots from other software solutions as input, but that will not even come close to being enough.
You must describe the processes precisely, including how interfaces should function.
You must make decisions about thousands of details.
Sometimes about topics you cannot even fully understand without extensive research.
Many of these questions are critical for the success of the project, but AI may never even ask them unless you actively guide it there.
You will spend weeks describing, deciding, researching, testing, rewriting, and starting over.
We as software developers — who also use AI tools ourselves — know how much work is involved and that software development never truly ends.
Once one feature is built, 3 new features appear and 3 old ones need reworking.
It never stops because there are always new requirements (new payment methods, new data protection regulations, accessibility requirements, e-invoicing, etc.).
Even if after months you finally have a solution that is “ready” to go live…
what happens if you made a mistake and suddenly create 500 overbookings or bookings with incomplete payments or missing data?
What kind of costs would that create?
Sure, you could hire someone to do the work for you and hold them accountable for mistakes.
But how much would you have to pay them?
Will they do the job reliably?
Will they always be available when problems occur?
You will probably not find many people who have ever built rental software before.
So they first need to understand the business logic as well.
Without experience in this industry, that means an endless amount of detailed work.
You will still have to explain exactly what you expect from rental software.
And you must explain it as clearly and unambiguously as possible.
And yes — you also need server infrastructure.
Additionally, you need a development environment and a testing environment.
Because you cannot simply deploy new features live without testing.
If something goes wrong, your real data could be created incorrectly, changed incorrectly, or even deleted.
And even if a feature is tested well, you can still overlook something and lose live data.
Then you also need backup solutions to restore data.
All of this costs far more money and especially far more time than most people expect.
It is not as easy and cheap as creating a website or an online store.
Rental businesses are highly specialized because availability calculations must consider bookings, inventory, opening hours, rental rules, and much more.
And by the way, the AI coding tool itself already costs at least €100 per month.
Google Maps API calls and other tools also cost money.
AI will almost certainly recommend integrating additional services and libraries that also come with costs.
Very quickly, your supposedly “cheaper” custom solution can cost €1,000 per month just for infrastructure and services — while still requiring huge amounts of your own time and external consulting.
A medium-sized rental company pays around €200 net per month for Rentware.
Included in that price:
- Fully developed software whose development cost several million euros and has already been proven in around 1,000 companies across more than 30 countries
- Managed, highly available, and high-performance server infrastructure
- Customer support from an experienced team
There are also lower-cost entry plans.
Depending on the model, minimum contract terms are only 1 month or 6 months.
The risk of making a bad investment — if the software does not fit your expectations or the business simply does not develop as planned — is therefore minimal.
Additionally, the software can be fully tested and evaluated before signing a contract.
