Do you research car hire suppliers prior to booking with them?

Another question we asked our customers in a recent survey was Do you research car hire suppliers prior to booking with them?

From those who completed the survey, a huge 79% of you said NO, you do not do any research on a supplier before making a booking. Now my first thought on this was that it shows how much trust our customers have with our team and feel comfortable that we will always do our best to select the right supplier and deal for you. I think there is a lot of truth to that and it is a fantastic feeling.

On the other hand, we estimate that around 15-20% of bookings made with us are done online via our booking engine, with little or no input from the team. While this is pretty normal in our industry, it is still a little concerning that potentially 80% of those 15-20% are booking without any prior knowledge on the supplier they are choosing.

We know that cost is the main driver for peoples decision, we covered this recently in our blog on ‘Why Cost Should Not be Your #1 Consideration When Hiring A Car‘ have a read.

what Is There To Worry About

The reason we find it a little concerning is that a large proportion of our customers require something a little different to the norm when booking a car; some do not have a credit card, some are under 25 and even over 75, others have points or convictions and some have only just passed their driving test.

Not all suppliers offer services for all circumstances, all of the above are covered in the suppliers terms and conditions when booking online to avoid problems but with so many people admitting not doing their homework it is a little worrying.

Thankfully our after-sales team are on the ball and no bookings go unnoticed, meaning we can help customers avoid potential problems before they happen. This isn’t always the case however, somethings can go wrong, very few and far between it has to be said but we do find the majority of those that do go wrong have been bookings made with no input from the team ahead of the reservation being made.

We also asked people how important it was to them that a supplier is based directly at the airport when collecting a car. 47% of you answered that the supplier must be based on site and that a shuttle service is not what you are looking for. Whilst this is a perfectly normal request, the only way to know the collection procedure before booking is to do your research or speak with our team.

You can call us at any time, email us, tweet us, send us a Facebook message or live chat with our team on the website. Any questions you may have can be answered quickly so you do not have to book a car without a little bit of prior knowledge.. We are here to help!

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.