usrentacar.co.uk ® Car Hire USA Blog

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

Morning all,

Been awhile since I’ve had anything to post about, but today I thought I’d update you on our partnership with TrustPilot, we started using the independent review gatherer in May 2012 as a way of discovering how our service was viewed by our customers.

We’ve been collecting reviews about our suppliers service for almost a decade and the knowledge we’ve gained from this has been invaluable not only for us but also for our suppliers. So by hiring TrustPilot we hoped to gain the same kind of insight and to a point we have.

TrustPilot email our customers after purchase and ask them to rate the booking experience, these scores are then used to provide an overall average out of 10. At present usrentacar.co.uk has a score of 9.1 out 10.

We are pretty proud of this score and hope to continue to improve, its probably unrealistic to say we could reach 10 out of 10 but 9.5 is possible and this is our next big target.

We are always keen to here from customers to help improve our service level so please feel free to either review us on TrustPilot or leave a comment below.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Back in 2006 usrentacar.co.uk started asking customers to leave a review about the service our suppliers were providing. We were the first car rental company to do this and only recently have we begun to see competitors replicate our service.

Today I’m delighted to announce that we have hit the impressive milestone of over 20k verified car hire USA reviews, making U.S. Rent A Car the largest user generated car rental review service in the world.

Our 20,000th review came from Mr F Andrews, regarding Dollar Rent A Car from San Francisco Airport who he scored an overall 77 out of 100 based on such things as, vehicle quality, pick service and value for money. He collected a Chevrolet Impala his full review stated

We had an accident where a car drove into the back of us. The Dollar desk at LAX were really helpful and sorted us a replacement straight away. The initial desk at San Francisco was quick also but certain things weren”t explained. Overall it was good though.

At present we have over 8k reviews regarding Dollar/Thrifty Rent A Car, 5k reviews regarding Alamo/National Rent A Car and 7k reviews regarding Budget Rent A Car.

The location with the most views is Orlando International Airport (MCO) with an impressive 5170, the vehicle type with the highest number of reviews is the 7 Seater Minivan which from MCO with Budget Rent A Car has over 500 unique reviews.

Our review section has proved so popular that we created a central engine where customers can view and filter reviews for a more personalised experience. It can be found here Car Hire USA reviews

Here’s to 20k more reviews and a great insight in to the collection process at different airports across the U.S.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Hugely self indulgent, but its 17:30 on a Thursday, half an hour before I go home and I’m stuck for something to write about… some would suggest writing nothing at all, and they could well be correct, but I feel an enormous sense of failure if I don’t get at least one post a day done.

So here it is…

Its my top 5 favourite reviews posted on trustpilot about usrentacar.co.uk. We recently partnered up with trustpilot to help us obtain unbiased reviews about the service we were offering our customers (not the suppliers locally).

Pete from Highworth posted on the 16/06/12

We have used US Rentacar for many years now. We have found it difficult to beat the price and coupled with our preference for Alamo/National as a supplier, we feel we have found an unbeatable pairing. You will not beat the price of US Rentacar by going directly to the car hire supplier, as they will not offer you anywhere near the same discounts as you will have passed on to you by US Rentacar. As a recommendation, order the type of car you want, with Gold/Platinum insurance, that way you won’t be tempted to pay for upgraded cars/insurance when you arrive at the car hire desk in the USA. Believe it or not, it usually works out cheaper to order the car you want from US Rentacar than paying to upgrade a so called “free” fly-drive car. Check it out, if there are two of you travelling, it takes a lot of money to upgrade from a compact car to a convertible, so if you fancy wind in the hair driving, order a soft-top from the start.

John Bowie posted on the 20/06/12

It was that easy. Location of pick up and drop off, type of car required and how long for. Choose, pay, done.
Watch out for the desk clerks when you arrive, they think nothing of trying to fleece you after a 14 hour journey. US rent a car? excellent.

AR Reid posted on the 19/06/12

I have used this site for a number of years to book car hire all over USA, I found that you can’t find a better price and most importantly comprehensive insurance packages that cover all things! Most car hire companies comment on the price and package I have got when I collect the cars. Good choice of companies and types of cars, I have even got free upgrades through this site! Wouldn’t use anyone else.

Gareth Pinckard posted on the 19/06/12

Would have given 10 stars if I could!!

I have rented from a number of ‘reputable’ suppliers before I found USRentacar. I have rented cars for my last 10 holidays and never been disappointed. Only ever had one problem and USRentacar sorted it out within minutes. I would recommend USRentacar to anyone that goes abroad.

Geoffrey Willis posted on the 18/06/12

I find that being able to rent on line and have all insurances etc covered there is no hassle at the US end (Raleigh Durham Airport).Also being able to chose between rental companies means we get the car we want, which is important as we go each year for a full holiday.

Currently we have 275 verified reviews about the service we offer our customers, this is an impressive amount considering we only started this service last month.

If you ‘d like to help us grow this side of our business please feel free to review us by visiting our trustpilot page here

Thanks,

James

Hi all,

Hmmm 270 and 500…. Hmm what do these cryptic numbers mean! Well I’ll tell you…

As I reported on back in May, we decided to enter in to an agreement with review specialist Trust Pilot. This agreement allowed Trust Pilot to contact our customers once via email to gauge the level of service we (usrentacar.co.uk) are offering.
As regular users and reader will know, usrentacar.co.uk has been gathering supplier reviews since 2005 however we were aware that we didn’t really have reviews of our own service, hence the tie up with trustpilot.

Today a little over a month I’m happy to say that our trustpilot review page now has 270 verified reviews with an average ranking of 9.2 out of 10… which we are delighted about.

If you’ve used our services please feel free to leave a review by visiting http://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.usrentacar.co.uk and click review company.

So that only leaves the 500….

The 500 I’m quite proud of, its not a massive number but as we’ve grown this organically and without “buying” likes like others,  I’m pretty chuffed that we now have 500 facebook likes on our dedicated page www.facebook.com/usrentacar.co.uk

We’ve been having a bit of fun with our page recently, our usrentacar.co.uk driving game for example  which pitted user against user in a race against time, obstacles and your own space bar was very popular…
We’ve been working hard at trying to engage people on facebook without being a copy cat or bombarding you with promotional stuff… I hope we’ve got the balance down?

 Get involved on facebook by liking us here.

As always I encourage your feedback, please free to comment below.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Hope you had a great bank holiday and aren’t suffering to much with the back to work blues.

Today we have launched in partnership with Trustpilot an automated system that allows our customer’s to review the service we offer. These reviews are different to the supplier reviews we collect after the hire as ended, as they are specifically about usrentacar.co.uk and not Alamo, Dollar etc.

How it works

7 days after you’ve made your purchase from usrentacar.co.uk you will receive an email from us asking to rank your experience on the trustpilot site via a link.

Simply click on the link provided enter your review and mark us out of 5 stars and that’s it…. all done…

Your personal details are still completely safe with usrentacar and your email will not be shared with mutliple companies.

Why?

We believe that its important to offer as transparent a service as possible which is why we’ve enlisted the help of trustpilot to be the independent gatherer of our performance. All orders will be be given the opportunity to review our service and no reviews will be edited or removed (unless abusive).

Previous customers

We don’t want you to miss out if you feel strongly about our service, you are free to visit our trustpilot page at any time and review us.

All our reviews are also available on our facebook page.

Regards,

James

Hi all,

Since 2006 usrentacar.co.uk have been asking our customers to provide post rental reviews regarding the suppliers they have just used. We ask our customers to rate car hire companies such as Alamo Rent A Car, Budget Rent A Car and Dollar Rent A Car on car quality, pick up service and value for money.

We displayed these findings on our results page to give customers an idea of the level of service they will receive from each supplier at that specific location. However after talking to customers we discovered that a fair few were unaware that we offered this.

So with the launch of the new website we took the opportunity to create our very own car hire review engine, users can now enter the pick up location they are collecting from plus the supplier they are interested in (or review all suppliers) and the vehicle they are looking to hire (or review all vehicles) and bring back specific reviews verified by usrentacar.co.uk.

Some of the key features displayed in my opinion are

1. Customer review - A great insight in to how our customers have found the service.
2. Make & Model – As you probably know if you’re a regular reader of our blog, none of our suppliers will guarantee make or model of the vehicle you hire, you are booking a category rather than the specific vehicle. However this field allows you to see what past customers have collected which will help you in planning your own luggage and seating requirements.
3. Wait Times – Provided via our iPhone and Android app’s gives you an idea of the average amount of time it takes to collect your vehicle from each supplier.

Feel free to have a search around, remember to give reviews a thumbs up if you’ve found them useful.

regards,

James

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we are in the process of modifying how we display the user generated reviews we collect. usrentacar.co.uk was the first car hire company to contact their customers requesting information on how their supplier had performed.

Today I was sent a spreadsheet listing over 10k car hire usa reviews dating as far back as April 2006. I thought it might be nice to list the first 10 reviews we ever received from customers.

Our first ever review was from

Mr Nicholas Henshaw  collected in Orlando on the 17-Apr-06 with     Budget Rent A Car

Long wait to pick-up car at Orlando:-(  Free upgrade to convertible   Great holiday, car fab   Delivered car back, asked by Budget to pay $170 extra, they messed up their records, refused to pay, walked off.   So far they haven’t taken the extra on the card I gave them, hope they realised their mistake:-}

After this review they came thick and fast.

Mr Samuel Barklie  collected from Orlando on the 19-Apr-06 with Budget Rent A Car

I have booked with you several times now and have always found your staff extremely helpful and courteous. I doubt if I would use anyone else in the future.   Thank you and Kind Regards  Sam Barklie

Mr Stanley Jackson collected from Orlando on the 20-Apr-06 from Dollar Rent A Car

  Absolutely no problem with USrentacar but Dollar staff just didn’t seem to give a damn. If you could cut their processing time you would be doing everyone a favour.

Mr john burt  collected from Tampa on the 20-Apr-06 with Budget Rent A Car

although the car I rented was new it had dents on the roof and numerious scratches on the wheel arches everything else was great

Mr P DAVIDGE collect from Sanford on the 20-Apr-06 with Budget Rent A Car

We hired though budget, and were told to collect though avis, but then had to go and find a budget, to add a second driver

Mrs S Drew collected from Orlando on the 21-Apr-06 with Alamo Rent A Car

We went toFloridawith family who hired a car with the flight. They paid double the amount & their car was not up to the standard that we got with Budget. They now have your web site & will use you in the future. Thanks

Dr Michael Gettings collected from Orlando on the 21-Apr-06 with Dollar Rent A Car

   We have used you numerous times and recommend you to friends. Your new www site layout is good BUT it is a pain to have to choose the venue specifically (Rodeway inn 192, holiday inn kissimmee etc etc) all we want is the chepaest supplier in the area.  We have to grind thro’ each venue choice one ata time in the area to compare prices.  Could there be a "any supplier in Kissimmee button?  We don’t care where – we go we are looking for the best deal! Thanks

Mr Marcus Topple collected from Sanford on the 22-Apr-06 with Budget Rent A Car

Bus driver had mega BO!

Rev Derek Gibson collected from Boston on the 27-Apr-06  with Alamo Rent A Car

Wonderful as usual

Mrs Fiona Shepherd collected from Orlando on the 28-Apr-06 with Budget Rent A Car.

From ordering car on-line to leaving vehicle at airport was absolutely brilliant.  Have already recommended US Rentacar to around 6 people so far who have now booked.  News travels fast.  Thanks again, will definately be using next year.

Great too look back at some of the very interesting reviews our customers send us, I particular like Mr Topples reviews

regards,

James

Hi all,

Here at usrentacar.co.uk we were the first car hire company to ask and provide real car hire USA reviews from our customers.

After the car rental has been returned we ask our customer a series of questions which the customer marks out 5, these questions cover the pick up service, the drop off service and value for money. These scores are added together to create a percentage score.

Below are a selection of 100% reviews supplied this year (2012).

Alamo Rent A Car

Mr D Baines 100% review.

Very helpful Alamo staff including shuttle driver who helped put cases in hire car and gave us directions.. We were upgraded for free! Smiles all round!!

Budget Rent A Car

Mr D Boyle 100% review.

usrentacar.co.uk has always provided me with excellent service and good value over the years that I have been visiting Florida. I can recommend them without reservation.

Mr D Stanley 100% review.

I specifically wanted a Mustang as every time I”ve rented in the past, we”ve ended up with a Sebring because of the ”Mustang or similar” statement. Through Budget via US Rent A Car, I had my Mustang this time and an excellent car it was too.

Dollar Rent A Car 

Mr R Potts 100% review.

The rental process was so easypeasy. The Dollar representative who took my details was excellent, efficient and full of enthusiasm for his job and the on airport facility had me heading down the interstate highway from Tampa very quickly. The hire vehicle was very clean and fresh inside and out and prepaired to a high standard and full of fuel and ready to go. Upon return the Dollar agents have you on your way to the airport terminal as easy as 1 2 3 with a “Thank you sir enjoy your trip, your on your way”. Another “Absolutly Fabulous” Car Hire from “usrentacar.co.uk”.

Mr S Harding 100% review.

IN THE PAST WE HAVE ALWAYS FLOWN INTO TO ORLANDO AIRPORT AND HAVE FOUND THE DOLLAR STAFF ON THE RENTAL DESK TO BE VERY RUDE. THIS TRIP WE LANDED IN TAMPA AIRPORT. THE STAFF ON THE DOLLAR DESK AND IN THE GARAGE GAVE US EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A VERY LONG WHILE OUR RENTAL CAR LASTED US THE ENTIRE FIVE WEEK RENTAL!!!!(IT DIDN”T NEED TO BE RETURNED FOR A SERVICE)

Mrs E Byers 100% review.

Small SUV unavailable so given an upgrade and really enjoyed the car – just a bit thirsty on the gas. Customer service from Sam was great. No problems and would definitely use this company again.

Some great positive comments to start 2012 and we hope this continues. Remember you can also leave a review via our iPhone and Android app’s available at the app store and android market, search “usrentacar”.

regards,

James

Hi all,

There is no better way to review a company than by asking the people who have used the service.

Facebook have recently started to ask their users to write a review of the companies they use, these reviews are then being displayed on the companies facebook page.

The usrentacar facebook page is monitored by a few of our social team, headed by myself.

At present we are offering every customer that “likes” our page and also posts their usrentacar booking reference (starts BK) on our wall a free Play4Less card, to date we  have 384 facebook “likes” on our page, you can join our growing community at  https://www.facebook.com/usrentacar.co.uk.

When you visit, you will notice on the right hand side of the screen anew function showing customers who have recommend our services, below are a few examples.

simply the best

Always use – great service.

Used a few times and have always obtained good value with free upgrade and no charge for additional driver

You can view all our recommendations and add your own by visiting www.facebook.com/usrentacar.co.uk.

regards,

James