usrentacar.co.uk ® Car Hire USA Blog

Hi all,

I reported last week about the Budget Avis Group making a counter offer for Dollar Thrifty, the offer they made was more than the orginal offer made by Hertz. However last night the offer was rejected by Dollar Thrifty in favour of the lesser Hertz offer.

The reason behind this from the Hertz point of view is that they believe their offer will have less objections from regulators due to the fact that their presence on airport is less than Avis Budget.

However from what I understand Dollar Thrifty are concerned that Avis Budget are not willing to enter in to a “reverse termination fee” where if Avis Budget were unable to or pulled out of the deal, Dollar Thrifty would be compensated. Hertz have agreed to this clause.

From what I have read, if Avis Budget agree to this addition the deal could be on.

I wait for the next instalment of the latest car hire soap opera.

Regards,

James,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

Hi all,

I thought for todays topic I would quickly cover One Way Rentals (OWR). A OWR is when you collect from one location but drop off in a different location. For example collect at Los Angeles Airport, California but return to Las Vegas Airport, Nevada.

Most OWR do incur an additional charge, based on mileage and sometimes car group. A typical scale of cost would be

Approximate Charges*

Distance Cost*
0 – 200 miles $50.00
201 – 500 miles $100.00
501 – 1000 miles $300.00
Over 1000 miles $500.00

Some of our suppliers also offer addtionalfree of charge special offer one way rentals, please see below for details.

Alamo Rent-A-Car

Free one way rentals within Florida.

Free one way rentals within California.

Free one way rentals between California and Nevada.

Budget Rent A Car

Free one way rentals within Florida.

Free one way rentals within California.

Free one way rentals within Texas.

Free one way rentals within Ohio.

Free one way rentals within North Carolina.

Free one way rentals within Virginia.

Dollar Car Rental

Free one way rentals within Florida.

Free one way rentals within California.

Free one way rentals between California and Nevada.

Free one way rentals between California and Arizona.

One way rentals are always on a request basis, which means our supplier has to agree to the one way. With some suppliers this can take up to 72 hours as both rental offices have to seperately agree.

Some popular one way rentals include.

Orlando to Miami

Los Angeles to Las Vegas

San Fransico to Las Vegas

New York to Orlando

New York to San Diego

Have you ever completed a one way rental?

What was your experience?

What vehicle did you hire and would you recommend it?

Regards,

James,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

Last night the Avis Budget Group entered in to the bidding for Dollar Thrifty, with a whooping bid of$ 1.33 Billion, this trumps the earlier Hertz bid of $1.17 Billion.

A letter sent to Dollar Thrifty’s top bosses from Avis Budget’s group chairman and CEO Ronald Nelson stated: “We are prepared to put forward an offer today for Dollar Thrifty that clearly constitutes a superior proposal under that [Hertz] merger agreement.”

He continued: “We are prepared to enter into a merger agreement that contains substantially the same terms as the Hertz merger agreement, but which includes removing the matching rights, eliminating the break-up fees, and increasing the commitment to secure antitrust approvals.

“In short, we believe that the higher purchase price we are offering, combined with the terms of our proposed merger agreement, makes our offer a superior one from the perspective of Dollar Thrifty and its shareholders.”

Whomever manages to purchase Dollar Thrifty will decrease the huge advantage Enterprise owned Alamo Rent A Car have on the U.S. market at present.

For those clever bosses at Dollar Thrifty who took shares in the company rather than performance related bonuses must be very happy at the moment.

Who would you rather see take over at Dollar Thrifty?

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 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

Hi all,

I just have heard today that Dollar Rent A Car have officially opened their12th Customer Choice l0cation in San Jose, California.

Just like the Alamo choice product, customer’s will be able to take their pick from which every vehicle they like the look of within their booked category, so for example if you’ve pre booked a Convertible and there are Mustangs and Sebrings available you can walk up and take your pick.

Here at U.S. Rent A Car we’ve been surprised that other car rental firms haven’t copied Alamo’s choice product sooner, perhaps this might lead to Budget Rent A Car following suit…

Kind regards,

James,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

Hi All,

Todays blog is about pages you may have missed or not seen on  www.usrentacar.co.uk which maybe of interest, hidden gems if you will.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/usa_petrol_prices.aspx

This page allows you to see the latest petrol prices in the USA, it may give you an idea of what potential saving you could make by purchasing our gold rate.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/pre_registration.aspx

No one likes queuing, this page helps usrentacar customers to pre-register their car rental details directly with the supplier, which should help speed up your collection time.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/affiliate/signup.aspx

If you own a website, why not make some money out of it and join our usrentacar affiliate scheme? Our low cost prices could mean big earnings for you. More info available here http://blog.usrentacar.co.uk/index.php/2010/06/24/u-s-rent-a-car-launches-affiliate-scheme/

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/young_driver_under_25.aspx

U.S. Rent A Car was one of the first car rental companies to actively seek out better deals for young drivers, we can save you hundreds of pounds by selecting our YDP option.

https://www.usrentacar.co.uk/booking/login.aspx

This page is here to allow you to check your booking details quickly and of course to download your voucher.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/whatsincluded.aspx

Car hire can appear to be a bit on a minefield, so on this page we clearly state what all our rentals include.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/Compare_car_hire.aspx

Also to help, we offer this page where we compare all our suppliers in one easy page.

Have I missed any pages that might be of use?

Is there something else we should be showing or something you’d like to see?

regards,

James,

U.S. Rent A Car.co.uk

About 96 percent of all the rental cars available at Orlando International Airport should now be ready for visitors in the airport’s parking garages, now that a $60 million renovation of rental car service areas is completed.

Orlando International expanded its rental car service areas adjacent to the terminal parking garages. That means more room for rental car companies to prep returned cars for their next use within the airport. The companies may then pull them into rental car spaces reserved in the parking garage to be ready for customers.

As a result, all the major agencies now can have cars ready for use parked in the parking garages, so visitors can walk over from the terminal to claim them. In the past, much of the rental car business operated from remote lots outside the Orlando International property, and many rental car customers had to board shuttle buses to go get their cars. In the past few months, Thrifty, Enterprise, Hertz and Advantage are moving rental cars into the parking garages, joining Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, National and two small rental-car companies, E-Z and L&M.

There’s still a handful of independent and niche rental car agencies that prep and offer their cars at remote locations and run shuttle buses from the terminal.

The $60 million project was paid for with a special $2.50 tax levied in 2008 on airport rental cars.

Story source

Hi All,

U.S. Rent A Car is happy to announce a limited time guaranteed upgrade deal for new bookings with both Alamo Rent A Car and Dollar Rent A Car in Florida.

 Alamo Rent A Car Deal

 For all new Alamo Rent A Car, Compact and Intermediate vehicles picking up from 07^th APRIL 2010 – 30^TH JUNE 2010. U.S. Rent A Car customers will receive the following.

Book a Compact 2dr receive an Intermediate 2dr

Book a Compact 4dr receive an Intermediate 4dr

Book a Intermediate 2dr receive an Full Size 2dr

Book a Intermediate 4dr receive an Full Size 4dr

Dollar Rent A Car Deal

For all new Alamo Rent A Car, Compact and Intermediate vehicles picking up from 10^th APRIL 2010 – 30^TH JUNE 2010. U.S. Rent A Car customers will receive the following.

Book a Compact 2dr receive an Intermediate 2dr

Book a Compact 4dr receive an Intermediate 4dr

Book a Intermediate 2dr receive an Full Size 2dr

Book a Intermediate 4dr receive an Full Size 4dr

We hope some of you can take of advantage of this great offer.

Regards,

James,

www.usrentacar.co.uk

Hi All,

We are a few weeks in to 2010 now and the USA car hire picture for this year is beginning to take shape. I thought this might be an ideal time to blog about my thoughts on 2009 and the possible goings on in 2010.

Car Availability

The same as last year I’m afraid, demand exceeds supply. The problem isn’t as bad as it is in Europe but companies with the biggest fleets will use their yield intelligently to maximise profits which may see the introduction of peak season surcharging. In December 2009, over Christmas I know that certain suppliers were charging over $400.00 per week for an Economy vehicle!

Alamo

At first glance the Alamo/National/Enterprise Company seem the best equipped for 2010, they have the largest and youngest fleet. They remain firmly in the driving seat (excuse the pun) of the rental market, this was very apparent when they were the first to come out with rates for 2010, setting the bench mark for others to follow.

2009 was a very strong year for Alamo; they seem to have a very good balance between pricing and customer care, possibly the Enterprise influence beginning to take effect.

Customer services wise we saw big improvement from Alamo, their turn around rate in most circumstances was much quicker than the industry standard of 28 days. Disappointingly we did see a rise in complaints regarding Alamo agents trying to sell additional extras, the best tip I can offer is refuse everything locally and always read your rental agreement before you sign it. 

Dollar

Dollar Rent A Car has also invested in some new vehicles, so their Fleet will be a mixture of new and old. We have received the expected price increase from Dollar and at present I can’t see them breaking in to our top two suppliers list. 

Last year was very tricky for the Dollar/Thrifty group, they had to save money and one way they did this was by extending the length of time they kept hold of their fleet. Although they posted healthy q3 results the expense I believe was at the cost of customer care. I cannot remember another example of where their customer services have been so slow to react. I can easily say they have been the poorest by far in 2009. We have received reassurances that these errors have been rectified and with Dollars good track record I see no reason to doubt we will see an improvement in 2010.

Budget

Budget had a very slow start to 2009. They seem to always take a bit of a back seat and see how the market pans out. Q3 and 4 were a lot stronger for Budget and they have continued this trend in too 2010. Although I predict a price increase some time in late Feb. maybe march 2010.

Customer services wise they have improved year on yea and are slowly ironing out the little errors that frustrate us all.

Overall

2009 was an extremely hard year for all industries, I believe the talk of recovery is slightly premature and the car hire industry will take probably one more year to full recover.

I am very optimistic for 2010 and on a positive note we are already up on last years figures. In February we hope to roll out version 2 of our booking engine with additional features including a first in our sector. We have had several strategy meetings that have ended with some very interesting and encouraging results, so fingers crossed our 8^th year of trading will be even more successful than the last.

regards,

Gavin