Opinion: ‘Experience Inflation’ and how B2C expectations are reshaping equipment rental

Michael Larsen

04 March 2026

Michael Larsen, co-host of The Rental Journal Podcast and a member of the family that runs Larsen Air Conditioning Hire in Queensland, Australia, argues that the behaviours and expectations of the consumer world are entering B2B sectors such as equipment rental. How should the industry respond?

For decades, the equipment rental industry has competed on familiar battlegrounds: fleet size, availability, price, and logistics. But a quieter, more powerful force is now reshaping our competitive landscape, one that has nothing to do with machines at all.

What I’m coining as ‘experience inflation’ - the steady migration of…

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