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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,

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

Hi all,

Back in 2012 Dollar Rent  A Car were one of the only suppliers that required customers on our Silver rate to pre-purchase their fuel upon arrival. Customer’s rightly didn’t like this as airport petrol prices can be more expensive than from a station.

Therefore after a lot of badgering from ourselves, they amended their fuel policy and introduced a new ruling in August. This fuel policy required the customer to purchase the prepaid fuel from the supplier as usual however the customer could receive a full refund if they produced proof of a receipt from a petrol station within 10 miles of the airport showing the car to be refuelled fully.

Customers reacted warmly to this new policy and its been running successfully for just under half a year but both ourselves and Dollar weren’t totally satisfied. With 2014 approaching and Hertz very firmly in the driving seat (excuse pun) Dollar Rent A Car took another look at their petrol policy and have decided to revise it once again. This time I think they’ve got it spot on!

So as of the 01/01/2014, any customer collecting a Dollar Rent A Car vehicle booked with us, on our silver rate will not be required to pre-purchase their first tank of fuel on pick up. The vehicle will be collected with a full tank of petrol (or close to full) and the vehicle must then be returned at the same level. Failure to return the vehicle at the same level will result in a charge to your card for the fuel and a small service surcharge.

The prepaid fuel option locally will still be made available to customers and Dollar point out that the prepaid option does have its benefits;

• Saves time upon return
• All charges on one receipt
• No having to stop to purchase gas on return

Here at U.S. Rent A Car we’re just happy that Dollar have introduced a much easier and customer friendly way to petrol. We definitely believe this has been influenced by Hertz and hope this continues.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

I know this sounds like an April fools gag but Hertz have developed technology that they will look to roll out to 220 of its car hire USA locations that will greatly reduce its use of water in the maintenance of its fleet.

Hertz have hooked up with Green Team Partners LLC a company devoted to tackling problems with water conservation to  develop a non-toxic, biodegradable and hyper-concentrated waterless car wash formula and dispenser.

Hertz Chairman and CEO Mark Frissora said;

Managing one of the largest car rental fleets in the world requires a significant amount of car washing. Moving to a waterless car wash system is another innovative way Hertz is addressing both its sustainability and business needs.

Max Krumer, president of Green Team Partners added;

We were very excited to bring our processes and products to Hertz and even more thrilled when Hertz adopted our waterless detailer program for its fleet. To see a large organization put such great emphasis on going green and investing in sustainability efforts is amazing, and we’re glad to be part of Hertz’s efforts.

How does it work?

Car’s can be washed with 6 to 8 ounces of the new environmentally friendly, fully biodegradable solution. Once the solution is sprayed onto the car, the specially formulated molecules lift dirt particles from the car’s paint. It takes approximately 8 minutes to complete the process and will save 130 million gallons of car-wash water annually.

Impressive stuff from Hertz, granted not the most exciting post I’ve ever written but I thought it was important to feature car rental companies trying to counterbalance their global footprint.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

We get it, you’ve just spent 9 hours on a flight, you’re tired, you don’t want to queue for your hire car and then drive the 30 mins or so to your accommodation! But what you do understand is that to really get the most out of your Florida holiday you need the flexibility a car gives you.

Don’t fear you don’t have to return to the airport, our suppliers offer numerous downtown or city locations where you can collect your vehicle, granted they don’t hold the same amount of fleet as an airport location but if you pre-book your Florida car hire then vehicle will be there waiting for you.

Today’s post will detail the nearest pick up locations to the main Orlando Theme Parks.

Magic Kingdom (1180 Seven Seas Dr, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830)

The closest office to Disney’s Magic Kingdom is with Alamo Rent A Car and is their Disney Car Care location which is approximately 7 mins away.

Universal’s Islands of Adventure (6000 Universal Blvd, Orlando, FL 32819)

The first location you can see pinned in blue and yellow is the Alamo locations Four Points By Sheraton – 5905 International Drive, Orlando, florida it is approximately 7 mins away by taxi. The second location is a Dollar Rent A Car office, International Palms Resort, 6515 International Drive, Orlando depicted by the red and blue pin this location is 6 minutes away by taxi.

SeaWorld Orlando (7007 SeaWorld Dr, Orlando, FL 32821, United States)

The closest office to SeaWorld Orlando is actually the Dollar Rent A Car location that was also nearest to Universal Studios, International Palms Resort, 6515 International Drive, Orlando which is 10 minutes aways by taxi.

The estimated distances are taken from google maps and if we add more suppliers these nearest locations could alter if so I will post again.

Kind regards.

James

Hi all,

It’s a busy time of year here at U.S. Rent A Car, we’re in full negotiations mode with all our suppliers and a few new one’s. The feeling here is that 2014 is going to be a busy one and most of the suppliers are speaking about next year in very positive terms, which makes a nice change after the 7 or so years.

We’re working on a few new things ourselves, we’ve just signed off a new design for our specialist Florida Car Hire site which when completed will look pretty impressive, we’re talking about a redesign for usrentacar.co.uk which we may start work on in quarter 2 of 2014 and we may well open a few dedicated website for other global markets.

With car rental fully on our minds I thought I’d display a few positive reviews about the service being offered by our current suppliers. The reviews below are the last 5 100% reviews received by ourselves, they are all based on pick up’s in November 2013.

Mr A Hardie collected from Sixt Rent A Car out of  Orlando International Airport.

Quality vehicles at an economical price

Mr S Lydall collected with Alamo Rent A Car from their Disney Car Care location.

Picked up from Disney car care centre. Never any pressure selling from there, and they send a van to collect you. Dropped off at the Dolphin which took minutes and was handy for where we were going next. Car was a good size for two of us and was very clean.

Mr W Statham collected from Dollar Rent A Car our of Las Vegas International Airport.

Having shopped around this was the first time we used this website,it wasn’t until we collected our vehicles that we could see the quality of the cars we had booked,we had an excellent experience at the check in desk the staff were very helpful and friendly, Good value for money much cheaper than using travel agents for vehicle hire. Would use again and would certainly recommend to friends

Mr C Van Kleef collected with Dollar Rent A Car from their Kissimmee downtown location.

exellent!

Mr D Ward picked up with Thrifty Car Rental from Orlando International Airport.

Excellent staff at the arrivals desk. Paperwork completed very quickly, pre paid for the fuel which was as cheap if not cheaper than outside the airport. New model car with all the usual refinements on. On returning the car it was again quick completion of the paperwork by the friendly staff.Would certainly use usrentacar on our next visit to Florida.

I love reading 100% reviews, it makes me smile its exactly how we think every car rental should go.

Kind regards,

James

Hi all,

Apologies if you’ve heard me mention this several hundred times but here at  usrentacar.co.uk we contact every customer after rental via email to ask them to review the service our suppliers have given them.

Part of this review asks them to name the make and model of vehicle they’ve collected within the category they booked. Today I thought I’d go through the most recent reviews (last 3 months) and post the most common vehicles collected in each category.

As different vehicles may be available at different locations I’ll be basing these reviews on Orlando International Airport and including Alamo, Dollar and Sixt only.

*Please note the makes and models  listed are not guaranteed, the information above does not take in to consideration upgrades.

An interesting mix of vehicles, I’ll be keeping an ear to the ground regarding fleet for 2014 and will of course update you asap.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Last week representatives of U.S. Rent A Car attended the World Travel Market (WTM). WTM is a 4 day long exhibition held at Excel in London where suppliers and buyers meetup to discuss the previous years work and how they can increase business in 2014.

Each industry has a different approach to WTM and what they can get out of it, for USA car hire companies its a good chance to meet new suppliers and nail down some deals. Here’s what we got up too.

Sixt Rent A Car

Our first meeting was with Sixt Rent A Car who were obviously delighted with the numbers we had produced for them. As a first year supplier on usrentacar.co.uk I think they were a bit shocked at how many rentals we can send. This actually coincided with one of our concerns; can Sixt provide enough vehicles for the amount of business we can send?

Sixt are probably the fastest growing independent car rental company in the U.S. at the moment their strategy of growing via franchises seems to be working well and they continue to grow and add to their Fleet. They were confident they would have the Fleet to maintain our growth.

Alamo Rent A Car

Next up was a meeting with Alamo Rent A Car, always good to meet up with these guys, not only as we have a great working relationship but they are also fans of this blog

As always Alamo are keen to receive even more rentals from us and from early talks we could be looking at some additional product in the shape of prestige vehicles and opening up in to alternative markets.

Budget Rent A Car

Its been a strange year with Budget Rent A Car lots of behind the scene’s politics that have kept them from being sold on usrentacar.co.uk. Talks at WTM went very well and we hope to have them back on sale in the first quarter of 2014. We’re still talking about what type of product we’ll be offering.

Dollar Rent A Car

2014 looks to be the first year that Hertz will play a more hands on role in the running of Dollar Rent A Car, we are expecting a merging of systems and fleet which should see a much smoother process.

We’ve been talking about adding additional product from them including perhaps adding their high end brands but we’ll need to see if this is something our customers want.

Misc

We met with a few other suppliers about the possibility of adding them to our site, but on first impression we weren’t convinced that they could offer the basic level of service we would expect. You get what you pay for…

We’ll have post WTM meetings with all these suppliers to see where we go from here, we will of course keep you post via the blog.

regards,

Gavin

Hi all,

There are  lots of customer satisfaction surveys covering the car rental industry but none are held in such esteem as the  J.D. Power Car Rental satisfaction survey. This will be the 5th year we’ve displayed the results of the survey on the U.S. Rent A Car blog but its been reviewing car rental satisfaction for over 18 years.

The survey is a great indication of how consumers view USA car hire and a great matrix for showing price v’s service.  This year more than any other the old adage “you get what you pay for” has never rung so true, with car rental customers who based their choice on price were the least satisfied with the service they received.

Key Points

Overall Rankings

A few things need to be remembered when looking at these stat’s. Firstly they are purely based on domestic customers the way a domestic customer is serviced is totally different to inbound customers, secondly all the suppliers that appeared under the top 3 all secured higher marks than the previous year and thirdly with Hertz purchasing Dollar Thrifty and four of last years entries not even making the survey due to low samples the industry average is misleadingly high.

However even with that taken into consideration its still a great result for Enterprise, congratulation to their team who I know work extremely hard.

Kind regards,

James