U.S. Rent A Car's Car Hire USA Blog

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Hi all,

I’m delighted to announce that all Alamo Rent A Car and Dollar Rent A Car bookings collecting from the 07/09/10 now include the $2.50 a day tax levied at Orlando International Airport.

We have been working on incorporating this tax for some time so we are delighted to have finally reached an agreement on this.

This tax was already being incorporated in our Budget Rent A Car rates. See out terms for more information.

Kind regards,

James

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Hi guys,

Voting for this years British Travel Awards is well under way now and as you may be aware we have been nominated in 2 categories this year.

Every person who votes for these awards is automatically entered in to a prize draw for some fabulous holiday prizes.

So why not vote for usrentacar.co.uk for Best Leisure Car Hire Company and Car Hire Company of the year by clicking here (http://www.britishtravelawards.com/vf_rl.php)

Thank you and kind regards,

James

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Hi all,

New Promotional Code For August

All new Florida bookings made in August 2010 for collection from today until the 31/03/2011 can take advantage of our new promo code

USR5 

the above promo code entitles the user to receive an additional £5 off your rental.

Please note the promo code is only available online and not via our call centre, it also cannot be added once a booking is made.

(please note: promo code added at the basket stage online)

Regards,

James,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

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Hi all,

One of the more frustrating parts of car rental is not being able to guarantee make or model of the vehicles we hire, due to the massive turn around of autos its impossible to incorporate.

So I thought I’d give you an idea of what our customers have recently been collecting.

Mr Neil Maitland booked a Full size vehicle with Budget Rent A Car for collection on the 18/07/10 and received this.

Chevrolet Impala

Chevrolet Malibu

Chevy Cobalt

Dodge Charger

Mrs Shirley Blackwood hired a compact from Budget Rent A Car at Orlando International Airport on the 26/06/10 upgraded and got this.

Dodge Nitro SUV

Ford Explorer

Ford Mustang

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Hi all,

As reported back in July, Miami International Airport has recently upgraded its car hire facility, spending a whooping $480 million on it.

First reports from our customer seem to suggest its money well spent.

Mr Neil Maitland commented “Nice new rental car building at Miami Airport made collection and drop off very straight forward”

Mr Philip Carson added “Miami airport is a pleasure to hire a car from now. You catch any shuttle bus and they take you to a new building that all the car suppliers are there I was in and out within 15 minutes”

Mr Andrew Johnson wrote “The new rental centre at Miami Airport was excellent. When the rail link to it is complete it will be even better.”

Have you used the new car rental facility, what are your thoughts?

regards,

James,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

Hi all,

It was nearly 5am when we set off to be Richard Branson for a couple of hours. I was really tired, a bit cold and wondering if this was the stupidest thing I’d ever done.

We drove away from International drive for about 30 mins in a large 8 seater minivan. The driver informed us that the launch site was an old hippy camp and the owner loved hot air balloons and let them launch from there for free.

We got stuck in straight away and started to help put up the balloon, part of the experience was getting your hands dirt and mucking in.

There were 2 other balloons due to fly that morning and I think due to my help we were the last to actually set up!!

The heat from the burner was incredible and I’m pretty sure I lost an eyebrow.

We set off a little after 8am, slightly later than usual.

Not a view for someone who is scared of heights. The feeling of being very high up in a balloon is something I would highly recommend.

The views were breath taking.

Our landing on the other hand was something to be desired, we “crash landed” in an orange tree field and had to wait to be rescued, while holding down a very heavy hot air balloon!

Regards,

Simon,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

Hi all,

It seems like an age since I last blogged. James has been doing a sterling job keeping the whole thing ticking along nicely and as per a similar pattern last year the number of readers has gone up since his efforts, which again is a blow to my fragile ego.

Farnborough Airshow

This week begins the 2 week noise disaster (for us anyway) called the Farnborough Airshow, The Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) is one of the world’s most iconic global aviation events and is enjoyed by more than 150,000 visitors, however for us its a nightmare. We are located directly opposite Farnborough Airport so for the next 2 weeks I’d like to apologise in advance if our reservations agents repeat this line quite a lot “I’m sorry I can’t quite hear you, the new Boeing  787 Dreamliner is flying over our building”!

Server Migration

This week will also see the migration of our sites to a larger more powerful server, traffic this year to usrentacar.co.uk has increased by over 50% added to that the increased interest in bargainvillas.co.uk and our poor little server couldn’t handle the traffic. So this week will see significant improvements in speed to our site, which can only be a good thing.

Awards

I’m delighted to see we have been nominated for Best Car Hire Website in the annual Travolution Awards and have picked up 2 nominations for Car Hire Company of the Year and Best Car Hire in the prestigious British Travel Awards , best car hire award is a public vote, so please feel free to vote for us.

Facebook and Twitter

This month we have been forced to relaunch our facebook fan page, an error made by ourselves mean that’s  from over a 1000 fans we are back to a lowly 33, please feel free to follow us on facebook for special promo’s, news and features.

Our twitter account keeps going from strength to strength @usrentacar now has 773 followers. Our sister site floridacarhire.net has also just launched its own twitter account @floridacarhire and is due a revamp very soon.

Car Hire 2010

With regards to the U.S. car hire scene, I can safely say availability wise this has been the worst year I can remember, 7 Seater minivans, 8 seater minivans and 12 / 15 seater minivans have sold out in certain locations quicker than ever. On a positive note hopefully this will encourage suppliers to either buy more vehicles or release more to the inbound market.

With competition so tight this year I would expect to see further consolidation within the market place.

To come…

This month we hope to announce a tie up with a major brand that would benefit usrentacar customers immensely.

We also hope to re-launch floridacarhire.net a sneak preview is available here floridacarhire sneak preview

We also hope to be able to book car hire for 2011/12 season in every location by the end of this month, at present we have negotiated prices for Florida and California.

Thanks you for reading,

Until next time,

Kind regards,

Gavin Boswell,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

Hi all,

With peak season in full swing we are over run with new reviews from our customers regarding the suppliers service, here are a few I thought you might be interested in.

Alamo

Mr D Cook – good choice of cars.

Mr M Ayres – Meet Sally. Our BRAND NEW Ford Mustang Convertible. We couldn”t have wished for a better car! We picked her up in Virginia and left her in Boston. If you ever drive her, treat her with respect and send her our love. Enjoy.

Mr P Womack – Excellent service,great car, would recommend and use again.

Mr D Herring – They tried to charge me an $2.66/day airport user fee on top of what I had prepaid. I showed them the contract where it states that the airport fees are includede and they removed the charge.

Budget

Mr J Gardiner – A very smooth & efficient car hire experience would definitely use this supplier again.

Mr I Bennett -This website was espescially good for me as it reduced the cost of the $25 Young Person’’s surcharge for 2 weeks use of a car in Florida.

Mrs B Smith – Vehicle spotlessly clean, easy pick up and drop off. Very easy to drive considering size. Overall, a problem free experience and will definitely use on our next trip.

Mr J Walker – Other than a grumpy unhelpful assistant when collecting car, we were very satisfied. We have booked through Florida car hire several times and have are will be happy to do so again.

Dollar

Mr A Smith – The car supplied was almost new with only 415 miles on the clock and in immaculate condition.The only negative comment i could make is the long wait at the desk when collecting the car but this was at 9 p.m. and there was only two people on duty.I did notice when we returned the car at 3 p.m. that there was more staff on duty and the queue was very short.This is only a minor point however as the overall experience was excellent and i would definitely recommend this supplier.

Mr G Williams – Quick and easy to use web site, prices very competetive, overall Service cannot be faulted. Collected car from Dollar desk in San Francisco, and returned to desk in Las Vegas. All documentation okay, all bookings perfect. Faultless and best service I have used for US Car Hire!

Mr K Leighton – We had a choice of vehicles from the line of SUV’’s. May have helped that we arrived early in the day (9am). Service was good from Dollar, but don”t like the way that they always try to add on extra insurances. Didn”t take the “extra” cover though wether this makes me wise or stupid I”m not sure.

We are still the only USA car hire company to include reviews from real customers and now have a data base of over 20k. Thank you to all our customer who provide this invaluable feedback.

Regards,

James,

Car Hire Reviews from usrentacar.co.uk

Hi,

We’ve been busy behind the scene’s giving everyones favourite Florida Car Hire specialist www.floridacarhire.net a bit of a makeover.

Now the site is in beta testing at present and isn’t in the public domain quite yet but I thought I’d give you a sneaky peak at what you can expect.

Old Style Florida Car Hire

New Style  Florida Car Hire

As you can see the new style site is a lot more modern, fresh and bright. We have also added the new Florida Car Hire mascot “Wheelie” our cool convertible. You can follow Wheelie on twitter @floridacarhire

Fingers crossed the design will go live next week, in the mean time I’d love to hear what you think of the new design.

Regards,

James

www.usrentacar.co.uk

Hi all,

With peak season in full swing I thought I’d take this chance to blog about some hints and tips that can help you with your Florida Car Hire.

1) Fully Read Your Rental Agreement – I know you’re tired after a long trip and I know you just want to get to your villa/hotel/apartment, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to fully read and understand your rental agreement. The rental agreement is the legally binding contract between yourself and the car hire supplier (not usrentacar), any locally paid for extras will appear on this, once signed you are agreeing to these terms.

2) Pre-Book Your Car Hire – Purchasing your car hire upon arrival can double or even triple the prices we would charge you. Always pre-book your car hire.

3) Hire A Sat Nav – For some, you are in a new country, your driving on the wrong side of the road and you’ve just come off a long flight. Hiring a Sat Nav either through us (posted to you in the UK) or for collection at the car hire pick up location, will not only give you piece of mind but could save your marriage

4) Choice Products – Something to bear in mind is that Alamo Rent A Car and Dollar Rent A Car both operate a choice product, where you can select the vehicle you want, from the category of car you have pre-booked. This is an excellent way of assuring all your luggage fits.

5) Details – Please make sure you have packed your full driving license, your Car Hire voucher (collected here) and your credit card (alamo will now accept a Visa Debit Card) without these your supplier has ever right to refuse your hire and you will not receive a refund.

I hope these tips help, have I left anything off?

If so we’d love you to leave a comment below.

regards,

James,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk