usrentacar.co.uk ® Car Hire USA Blog

Hi all,

Christmas is just around the corner which means presents, food and fun… Yey!!!

It does also mean reduced operation hours from our supplers though… boo!!!

Here’s some more details;

Holiday Hours

Christmas Eve: 9am – 2pm

Christmas Day : CLOSED

Boxing Day : CLOSED

Sunday 27th December: CLOSED

Monday 28th December: CLOSED

Tuesday 29th December: Normal Business Hours

Wednesday 30th December: Normal Business Hours

New Year’s Eve: 9am – 3pm

New Year’s Day: CLOSED

Please note that on request vehicles (minivans, convertibles etc or vehicles collecting within 72 hours) should be booked on or  before Christmas Eve to avoid disappointment.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at U.S. Rent A Car.

regards,

James.

www.usrentacar.co.uk

Hi all,

Here at U.S. Rent A Car we’re always looking at ways of making your USA car hire not only run more smoothly but also at ways of offering you the best deals around. Today we’re happy to announce the launch of a new product, we’re calling it Silver Plus.

Silver Plus at the moment is only available with our supplier Sixt Rent A Car the German based car rental company who are making a real inroads in the U.S. market. The consolidation of the American market recently which sees the majority of the major brands owed by just 3 companies does leave a great opportunity for someone to put the cat among the pigeons, Sixt are ideally placed to be that cat.

You’ll find the Silver Plus option within our search results for an of the Sixt locations;

What’s included in the Silver Plus

Silver Plus Rates (inclusive)

• Unlimited Mileage.
• Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) which is a combination insurance of both Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft Waiver. As long as you adhere to the rental policy of the supplier you will not be held responsible for the cost of replacement or repair to your hire vehicle.
• Uninsured Motorist Protection (UMP) up to $1m Liability Cover. Offers an Uninsured/Underinsured/Hit-and-Run Motorist Protection (UMP) that provides the renter and family members travelling together in the rented vehicle with up to $1,000,000 of non-stacked coverage for bodily injury sustained while driving the rental car, and caused by another driver who has no insurance, minimal insurance, or is a hit-and-run driver.
• Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) up to $1m Liability Cover. All drivers included on the rental agreement will not be held liable for third party claims for bodily injury or property damage resulting from an accident.
• Basic Roadside Assistance
• All Taxes and Airport Fees.
• All Additional Drivers

We feel this is a great addition to our expanding offerings and hope some of you can take advantage of this great offer.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we’re always looking at ways to make the car rental experience better for you. In 2003 we were one of the very first car rental companies to offer customers the chance to secure their car rental with a deposit. Since then we’ve constantly continued to innovate in a  market that is slow to do so. We were the first to independently collect and show supplier reviews collected directly from the customer, we were the first to create a dedicated voucher app to allow customer to collect their vehicles on the move and we were the first to offer the customer a transparent results page giving the customer the power to pick the supplier they wanted.

Today I’m happy to introduce to you the U.S. Rent A Car Pay Your Way scheme, simply put this is the next generation of deposit scheme’s and is a first within the car rental industry. If your booking qualifies, i.e. is due for collection 8 weeks or more away you’ll be given the opportunity to leave a deposit of £50.00. Normally the rest of the balance would be due 8 weeks prior to departure. However after feedback from our customers we’ve now added the option to pay off portions of your rental in installments via our website. You can pay as little or as much as you like.

The balance is still due 8 weeks prior to departure but the new option will allow U.S. Rent A Car customers a new way to budget for their USA car hire.

How does it work?

To pay off some of your car rental balance simply visit www.usrentacar.co.uk/booking and enter your email address and the password you selected at the time of booking.

Any booking that qualifies for the Pay Your Way Scheme will have the following message available to them,

You can pay off the balance of your car rental in full or via instalments here

Once you click on the pay off button you’ll be taken to a separate page which will allow you to securely enter your credit/debit card details and select the amount you wish to pay off.

Pretty simple really, we hope you find this new additional helpful.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

It seemed only a matter of time that other suppliers would follow Alamo Rent A Car’s lead and introduce a one way rental fee for pick up’s from the San Francisco area. A one way rental is any rental where the vehicle is returned to a different location than the one its collected from.

What we understand here at U.S. Rent A Car is that all suppliers are having difficulties keeping up with the demand of hires taking place in the San Francisco area, and when vehicles are then dropped off at a different location those vehicles are removed from the San Francisco allocation.

We hope that this new surcharge will only affect peak season bookings going forward, however as you can see from the information below provided by Hertz Dollar Thrifty no end date is sighted. This new one way rental charge applies to all Dollar and Thrifty bookings regardless of where the booking is made and affects anyone who sells Dollar and Thrifty including booking directly.

Due to fleet restrictions and strong demand for one way rentals, we will introduce a new one way fee for rentals collecting from the San Francisco area and returning to Southern California and Las Vegas valid for rentals from 1^st August 2014.

This fee will be applicable on all rentals, all rate products and all vehicles from all source-markets. This fee will remain in place until further notice. Please see below the specific rental and return locations.

Dollar

Rentals collecting from SFO SFD SJC OAK and returning to LAX SAN LAS ONT SNA PSP BUR LGB will incur a one way fee of $450.00 payable locally and subject to taxes and fees.

Thrifty

Rentals collecting from SFOT SFDT SJCT OAKT and returning to LAXT SANT LAST ONTT SNAT PSPT BURT LGBT will incur a one way fee of $450.00 payable locally and subject to taxes and fees.

This new fee will not apply to bookings made before the 01/08/14 which is a relief. We hope that the charge will only apply over peak season but as you can see the information we have received doesn’t confirm when the charge will end.

We’ll keep you updated when we know more.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Our Cape Canaveral locations are extremely popular but they can be a little confusing for customers trying to work out which location is best for the port. Previously we put together this post, to help customers make the best decision but it looks like Florida may be about to make this all a little easier.

According to a report by Florida Today a $2 million consolidated car rental area has been agreed by port authorities. The report also states that staff have now been given permission to begin to contact Car Hire USA suppliers about the possibility of leasing space.

Mike Meekins, Port Canaveral’s senior director of cruise and port operations, confirmed that the port authorities had been contacted numerous times by car rental companies about opening a consolidated area. Mike confirmed that the port will have enough room for three car hire companies which would house a  total of 571 vehicles.

The proposed location is slated to be near Disney Cruise Line’s terminal 8, the new rental facility will include office space, a fueling station and a car wash,

Tom Weinberg, chairman of the Canaveral Port Authority, told Florida Today.

It makes Port Canaveral that much more desirable a location to sail, It will be a win-win for the port and the rental companies on-site and a significant advantage for our passengers.

The appeal of  a consolidated area is there for everyone to see and has been something we’ve expected for quite a while now, it will be interesting to see which suppliers are tempted to move fleet to this popular location.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

As we all know Disney (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios) is the most popular theme park in Florida it attracts millions of visitors every year from all around the world, so much so they had to build their own hotels!

One questions I get asked a lot is, what’s the best way of collecting a Florida car rental if I’m staying at the Disney resort and I don’t want to collect from the airport?

Well our supplier Alamo Rent A Car have you covered here, they operate an office based within the heart of Disney called Disney Car Care. Now none of our suppliers offer a delivery service, so you will have to head to the office but here’s the good bit, Alamo will collect you.

Alamo run a shuttle service  that will pick you up from any Disney hotel and take you to the car care centre where you can complete your rental agreement and grab your car hire. Not only that but when you’ve completed your rental the shuttle will take you back to your Disney accommodation.

We advise anyone wanting to use this service to call the Disney car care office at least 24 hours before your pickup day to arrange collection. Please be aware that in busy periods this service may not be available.

You can call Alamo’s Disney Car Care on 407-824-3470 or alternatively you could ask your hotel to give them a call

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

The most  frequently asked questions we’re asked here is also the one question we can never fully answer.

“Which make/model vehicle will I receive?”

Our suppliers do not guarantee make or model of any of their vehicles, its the reason that all our categories state “or similar” after them, it’s another reason we can never guarantee how many suitcases will fit in the boot or how many miles the vehicle will do to the gallon. It’s infuriating to everyone, but from the suppliers point of view its better to be slightly vague than disappoint.

The prime example would be the promise of a certain model of vehicle that the customer knows will fit all their luggage in only for the previous renter of the said vehicle to be involved in an accident and the vehicle written off. In this instance the supplier would be liable. This is just one imaginary scenario that stops our suppliers from guaranteeing a make or model.

When we’re asked about the make or model of a vehicle that a customer is likely to get we do two things

1) Supplier Recommendation

We have direct links with all our suppliers who feed their information in to our system. Our suppliers will generally feed the most likely vehicle type in to our search results.

2) Historical Data

For me this is the best and most useful data we have, here’s how it works. After every rental (and we do a lot) we ask our customers to review the service they’ve received from the supplier, part of this review asks our customer to confirm the make and model of the vehicle they’ve received.

This allows us to build up a database of real time makes and models  from verified customers.

Here’s how to check it yourself ;

1. Visit www.usrentacar.co.uk/reviews.aspx
2. Enter the location you’re looking to hire from.
3. You can select a specific supplier or view all reviews.
4. Select the vehicle category you’re interested in or view all vehicles.
5. You can select how far back you want the reviews from.
6. Scroll through the reviews, car makes/model can be found on the right hand side of each review.

The review system can be manipulated to specifically pick out vehicle category, location and supplier so there really is no better way to get an idea of what vehicle you’re likely to collect.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Straight off the bat, I’m no Wizarding World of Harry Potter expert (I’m a car hire USA expert)… however I do know one though over at Orlando Attraction Tickets and via their blog attraction tickets .info.

Yesterday I sat in (quietly) on a Universal Webcast all about the new expansion to the Wizarding World. Lots of great attractions were revealed for example the Hogwarts Express which will connect Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios which visitors will be able to ride and the new ride Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts which I think is an indoor roller coaster with a twist. You can read a much better article on the revelations here – What we learned from Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter Diagon Alley Webcast

What I can provide though is a look at some of the official renderings that Universal supplied to us.

Hi all,

Its heads down and full speed ahead into 2014 and what a year we’re expecting. The USD is as weak as I can remember and that can only be good news for holidaymakers.

In todays post we’re going to take a quick look at some of the things we’re looking forward to this year and how they could affect USA car hire. We’ll start with the car suppliers themselves.

Car Hire USA

This year promises to be a very interesting one, Hertz purchase of Dollar Thrifty has really set the cat among the pigeons, my sources tell me that Hertz hope to have completed fleet synergies by the end of quarter 1.

What does this mean you ask!?

Well it means Dollar Rent A Car, traditional competitors of Alamo, suddenly have more of a level playing field to play on, in theory they’ll go from access to 100k vehicles to access to 700k vehicles. This means competition for rentals just got interesting and we’ve already seen some price movement within the market.

How this could affect the market?

We now have 3 major companies controlling the whole of the U.S. Market. Pricing will be watched closely by the governing bodies, who fear that with just 3 companies consumers could be squeezed for additional funds. The rise of spartan brands like Sixt, Fox and perhaps a new Advantage should make sure the market stays competitive.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley

When Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter initially opened in 2007 the theme park industry lost their minds… It was a massive success, it increased footfall in to Islands of Adventure immediately. It was publically and privately a massive success.

Phase 2 is set to open this summer (our friends at Orlando attraction tickets are guessing 18th June) and will feature a Gringotts Bank Coaster and a real working Hogwarts Express, the buzz surrounding its opening is fever pitch. Universal expect it to be a massive hit!

How will this affect car rental?

Well in layman’s terms, its going to be mental! We expect car rental for summer 2014 to sell out, every car, every category. The buzz around Diagon Alley isn’t just strong in the UK, its strong everywhere…

The Brazilians Are Still Coming

Back in the day the UK were the number one visitors to Florida outside of North America, those days have gone through and Brazil is now leading the way. Million upon Millions of Brazilians are holidaying in Florida.

How will this affect car rental?

Its simply supply and demand, although the Brazilians don’t hire the rental vehicles for as long as brits who average about 12 days per hire, they still collect vehicles from key locations like Orlando and Miami. They also tend to holiday at the same times we do, more people collecting vehicles.

So 2014 looks set to be a bumper year and we expect car rental to sell out in the peak periods, Easter, Summer and Christmas. Remember you can book your Florida Car Hire with just a £50 deposit and the balance due 8 weeks prior to departure.

Kind regards,

James

Morning all and happy New Year,

With 2014 firmly into its stride we’re beginning to get information regarding the car hire USA Fleets for 2014. First to send me the information is Dollar Rent A Car.

Industry experts (and myself) believe 2014 will be a very interesting year for Dollar,  their parent company Hertz hopes to have them full integrated into their system within quarter 1 which will mean that a company which had total  access to roughly 170,000 vehicles in the U.S. will now have access to approximately 700,000 cars. What does this mean? Well it should mean we’ll see a lot more competitive and flexible Dollar Rent A Car.

We’ve already been witness to the “Hertz effect” here at U.S. Rent A Car, average user review scores have risen year on year and an amendment in their customer services department has seen a massive increase in response times, which we hope will continue over 2014.

Dollar Rent A Car Fleet Guide

Now as it states above this is only for guidance and is not a guarantee of make, model, luggage capacity, MPG etc but it does give a great indication to what vehicle types you can expect and in which category. The most important one for us as its the question we’ve asked the most, is the convertible category…. and it looks like Dollar Rent A Car will again have the most Ford Mustangs on fleet for 2014.

Kind regards,

James