38 focus on
Car hire – A shift of gear – L
eading car rental companies are putting in place a range of tools and incentives to help agents increase sales, says Kathryn Liston
Avis International Leisure Sales Manager Connie Georgiou urges hesitant agents to embrace selling car rental as a standard part of the holiday booking. She says: “It’s in everyone’s interests to pre-book. The customer will almost certainly get a better deal. At peak holiday times there is often a shortage of cars, especially for special groups such as MPVs.” Georgiou advises that it is important to
book the correct size car. “Up-selling isn’t just about earning more commission. It’s also good customer service making sure the customer has the right sized car with the facilities they need. If they’re nervous about driving overseas suggest an automatic with sat nav.”
TRAINING SUPPORT Avis offers booking incentives through its online training academy, avistraining.
co.uk. Meanwhile, Affordable Care Hire and Holiday Extras have revamped their training and systems to make it easier for
agents to sell car hire. Affordable Car Hire has also refocused its training support and webinars after research with more than 100 travel agents found that many of them were unsure about which product to offer. “When we went out and asked agents what
they understood about car hire, we found many were unsure about which product to offer and what the differences were between the numerous options available,” said Angela Day, Chief Executive Offi cer. A new Affordable Recommends feature on its
website provides product recommendations based on a number of criteria such as usage, location, fuel policies and price. “It is early days, but we are fi nding that 90%
of agents are using the Affordable Recommends solution when confi rming the booking,” says Day. Holiday Extras has teamed up with the UK’s biggest trade-only car hire broker, Flexible Autos, to enable TUI travel agents to book car hire through the Holiday Extras booking portal. The system, which went live in April, features
17,000 holiday car hire locations in 88 countries and offers a “simpler, improved booking portal”.
AGENT OFFERS Clients booking Alamo car hire through US-specialist, Funway Holidays, before June 30 can save 50% off GPS rental prices when booking fully-inclusive or Gold packages. New Alamo vehicles for 2015 include 12-seater Ford Transit minivans. Travel agents, too, can save up to 30% off their own Alamo USA car hire when
booking through Selling Travel (
alamo.co.uk/ sellingtravel). Prices include collision damage waiver and unlimited mileage.
TRADE ONLY Flexible Autos, which was founded in 2007, has grown to become the UK’s leading 100% trade only car rental company. It has three experienced Sales Managers supporting travel agents across the UK and sends out regular e-shots and updates to agents promoting new products from the company. Group Managing Director Sue Dixon says aents too often miss the chance to sell car rental because they do not ask the right questions during the booking process. “I am often asked which company a
travel agent should choose when selling car rental. Firstly, I would ask the agent if the company that they are considering truly supports them or do they compete
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