Rental Car Dissatisfaction Continues to Rise for Consumers

The days of renting a car, taking it for a week long drive, and returning it to the rental car company apparently isn't as satisfying of an experience as it once was, at least according to the findings of a global marketing information services company which recently surveyed customers.

The J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Rental Car Satisfaction Study of airport rental car users found that when it comes to costs and fees, pick-up process, rental car, return process, reservation process and shuttle bus/van services, that customers are noticing a decline in these services.

"The current economic climate is having negative effects on all aspects of the travel industry -- from airlines to hotels to rental car companies -- as staffing and operational cutbacks have resulted in diminishing levels of customer satisfaction," said Jim Gaz, senior director of global hospitality, travel and entertainment at J.D. Power and Associates. "Some leisure and business travelers are avoiding air travel altogether, which has ramifications for airport-based rental car companies in terms of a shrinking customer base and decreasing revenues. In times like these, it becomes particularly important to deliver superior customer service and retain current customers, since new ones may be scarce."

For the fifth consecutive year, Enterprise ranked highest in customer satisfaction among rental car companies, performing quite well in all six of the factors. Trailing Enterprise were Hertz and Alamo, with Alamo seeing the most improvement over the previous year.

"Ensuring that rental car customers have a problem-free experience is critical to providing high levels of satisfaction," said Gaz. "Other factors that have a particularly strong impact on satisfaction with the car rental process include: adequately preparing vehicles so that they are clean and in good operating condition upon pickup; ensuring that customers receive the vehicle models that they reserve, rather than substituting a different model; and minimizing wait times for vehicle pick up and drop off."

As expected, satisfied customers routinely will rent from that brand in the future while dissatisfied customers will switch to a competing brand. Enterprise received the organization's top rating while Hertz and Alamo are considered to be better than most. National, Avis and Budget performed average for the industry while Thrifty, Dollar, Payless, Advantage Rent A Car, and Fox Rent A Car finished below average.

(Source: J.D. Power and Associates)