What should buyers look for when choosing a car rental provider? Felicity Cousins reports from an Editor's lunch with Avis
AT THE END OF APRIL a dozen business travellers joined Buying Business Travel and car rental company Avis for lunch at the Savoy Grill, to discuss how car rental companies could better meet travellers' needs. It was a lively debate covering a broad range of issues. For bookers and buyers of business travel it provided a unique insight into the world of their road warriors, and whether their chosen car rental provider was doing all it could to meet travellers' needs.
The debate started off with a broad question: what do travellers look for when renting a car? The immediate answer was price, but soon the discussion opened up to reveal that travellers' main gripe with car rental firms was customer service and consistency.
One business traveller said: "Service is very different from branch to branch across all the firms. They should have consistency, no matter if you hire in LA, Sydney or London."
Another commented: "Consistency is important, but it's exceptionally difficult for car rental companies as so many of them are franchise-based and not directly controlled. This then creates a problem for the brand."
Another car rental user added: "What car rental companies don't do is give you a decent map rather than selling you an extortionately expensive satnav system with the car."
Fuel took up a large proportion of the debate. The main complaints were over systems of buying fuel: how car rental companies charge for it, how much they charged and the angst drivers experience when trying to work out how much fuel they should put in to minimise waste.
Participants reported being charged a premium both by the car hire companies and by filling stations located close to the airports. Suggestions made were for the rental firms to fill your tank for you at normal pump prices, making a small charge for the service, or to offer the option of purchasing half a tank of fuel rather than a full one.
Anthony Ainsworth, director of Avis UK, recognised the challenges. "We cover every segment of the market - there are business travellers on tight budgets and there are those who aren't, and there are people who are cash rich, time poor and vice versa, and we try to cover every possible area with our products. It is one of those areas that, as an industry, we could do better, but it is also an area that is a tremendous cost and risk to us, and I'm not sure what the simple solution is."
Making the online booking process easier was another topic discussed. Some travellers said there were too many fields to fill in when booking a car, and locations of the rental stations was also a big issue.
One business traveller said: "None of the car hire websites look at it from the customer's perspective. All I want is a car in that city, so I want to tell the rental company where I am going, what I am doing and what vehicle I want, and for the rental company to inform me as to what the best option is in that city. It shouldn't assume local knowledge."
Ainsworth conceded the online booking systems could be better: "We are, as an industry, geared towards what works for us and not what works for customers, so changing the ergonomics of the website, and how it interacts with you is probably no bad thing."
Avis was keen to know if anyone around the table was made to hire greener cars through their travel policy. One attendee, working in the area of green consultancy, said: "It's almost mandatory.
We are made to think green and we try to do our bit, showing which is electric or hybrid, and giving customers a clear picture of how much C02 they are producing is important."
Another buyer, however, disagreed: "I work for a big company, which makes a lot of money, but we couldn't give a damn about going green to be honest. I was put in charge of travel to keep costs down, not to allow them to fly off and hire a more expensive product. If [green car hire] cost the same then, yes, I would encourage people to do that - even at 5 per cent more I could get my conscience around that."
Ainsworth commented: "I would absolutely love to be able to move us and the industry towards hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles but there isn't the infrastructure to support it yet, and there isn't the customer demand or the right price point. It'll get there, but we're not there yet."
So how does Avis work with buyers and bookers of business travel? Ainsworth says: "We help them to save money by instigating a clear car policy and helping their renters and drivers adhere to that policy, whether it's the distance of the journey or the number of people in the car, or the length of the trip. We can help them determine the size of car that's appropriate."
He added: "The challenge for car rental companies is getting the balance between price and customer service."