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 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,

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,

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

Hi all,

A very quick and not at all scientific poll of people in my office has just confirmed that the Ford Mustang is the vehicle we’d most like to drive route 66 in.

Yesterday Ford announced the Sixth Generation version of the Ford Mustang 50 years since its original debut. The 2015 model has been redesigned with the  old 1969 Mustang model in mind.

It will have a v8 engine and with options to  upgrade the basic model  including valve train and cylinder heads that bring 420 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque.

Here’s Fords Mustang Video

What do you think of the new Ford Mustang 2015?

Regards,

James

Hi all,

Our good friends at Auto Rental News have just released their annual look at the Car Hire USA market. I always find these statistics interesting and this year even more so, as it gives us our first look at how Avis Budget have done with their acquisitions of Payless and Zipcar and of course  the new Hertz Dollar Thrifty brand.

2013 has definitely been a buoyant one for the car rental industry, total revenue for the year is estimated to hit $24.546 billion, a 3.9% increase year on year. The revenue increase could be put down to a gradual increase in fleet which has risen to  1.95 million, a 4.8% increase over the average fleet size in 2012.

Chris Brown, Executive Editor said;

The car rental industry in America is on solid footing. While revenues have reached an all-time high, RPU remains robust, even in the face of rising new car costs and softening used car values.

Here are the stat’s;

As you can see privately owned Enterprise who also operate the Alamo and National brands have almost 1 Million cars in operation which easily makes them the number 1 car rental company in America. These stat’s also show how important it was for Hertz to purchase Dollar Thrifty to cement their position as the number 2 company ahead of Avis Budget.

Another thing these stat’s highlight is the huge gulf between the top 3 car rental companies in the U.S. and everybody else… the number 4 spot is taken by Advantage Rent A Car, a company who has recently filed for bankruptcy!

For me the USA car hire market is in need of deeper competition and whoever gets Advantage Rent A Car could possibly mount a challenge given time.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Just a very quick post to list 2014 public holidays in the U.S. We posted a similar blog for 2013 and it proved to be very popular so hopefully some of you will find it interesting.

This year we’ve bulked out the list with holidays specific to states and included the day the holiday falls upon.

As of 2012, there are eleven federal holidays in the United States, ten annual holidays and one quadrennial holiday (Inauguration Day). Pursuant to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 (effective 1971), official holidays are observed on a Monday, except for New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Hi all,

It occurred to me while speaking to a customer today that I’ve never really posted about the procedures our customer care team go through to investigate your queries, so I thought today would be the perfect time to do this.

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we try to adhere to the guidlines set by ABTA which in a nut shell state a travel complaint should be dealt with in 28 days of receipt. Obviously we try to close all cases quicker than this but the nature of a complaint dictates if that is possible.

What do I do first?

So firstly we require all complaints in writing, email is our preferred method, within the email we require our customers to give as much detail as possible regarding their query, we never remove or amend information written in a customer’s email so this is your chance to tell your side of the story. We also require our booking ref number starting BK and if possible the rental agreement (document) or rental agreement  number printed on the contract you signed locally.

Just to confirm, our systems are not linked directly to the suppliers, if you have a query regarding something that happened locally with the supplier we wont have a direct link to it. In the same vain usrentacar.co.uk receives zero commision for anything purchased locally.

What next?

Once we receive your query, we open up a case here and forward your email on to the appropriate supplier. We will then send you an email confirming receipt of your query and confirming we have approached the supplier for comments and if you haven’t been able to provide a rental agreement we will request a copy.

Within 28 days

We urge all our suppliers to respond and close customer cases as soon as possible. We chase them weekly for updates on all cases and every Friday our customer care representatives meet with our senior team to look over any cases that have been open for more than 10 days.

In the past we’ve generally put our heads down and tried to get cases completed however recently and due to customer feedback, we have added a new step to keep customers in the loop, if we have to chase a supplier we will also drop you an email to notify you that we are doing this.

Result

We’ll always get an answer for you, sometimes we’ll send the reply from the supplier directly to you without amendment. Other times we’ll dismiss a suppliers reply and ask them to think again about their reply.

One thing I can guarantee you is that we will always be on your side and try our best to get you the result you require. Sometimes this isn’t always possible.

Follow up

Just because the supplier has replied that doesn’t mean our job is done, if you’re still unhappy and require us to go back to the supplier we’re happy to do this for you.

Summary

• Email us with your query (customercare@usrentacar.co.uk)
• You’ll receive confirmation email from us that we’ve started the process.
• Updates on your case where necessary.
• Result, we’ll forward the supplier explanation.
•  Follow up, the case isn’t closed until we have exhausted all avenues.

Remember to help our customer care department do not sign your rental agreement without fully reading and understanding it.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Hot on the trail of yesterdays 3 U.S. Rent A Car pages you may have missed comes today’s offering.

3 things you may not know about USA car hire.

Additional Driver for Free

Yep that’s right, in California (pick up only) all our suppliers offer an additional driver free of charge within the Silver rate. The additional driver does not have to be named at the time of booking as their details will be required locally. The additional driver must still adhere to our terms and conditions, for example they must be the holder of a full licence.

Free One Way Rentals

Within California or Florida picking up in one location and dropping off at another (within the same state) is free of charge. Generally suppliers like to charge an additional fee but we have negotiated some additional benefits.

We also have a few suppliers that offer free one way rentals between Nevada, Arizona and California (vice versa) ask our reservations department on 0845 226 8523 about which suppliers most suit your trip. Alternatively you can use our location finder to check one way rental prices.

Young Driver Policies

Paying the young drivers surcharge locally can work out to be very expensive, the local charge is generally $25 plus tax per day per driver, but can be more depending upon pick up location.

Through a couple of our suppliers we can offer the young drivers package which can drastically reduce the cost involved for young driver in the USA.

I hope some of our readers can take advantage of these unique special offers and hopefully in the future we can announce some more.

Regards,

James