Having rented a number of cars recently I can attest that this is an industry that is in major need of disruption. Renting a car today at any car rental company I know of is phenomenally inefficient:
1. Long rental lines at airports.
2. Asking for information that could be provided ahead of time via apps.
3. Having to make your way to the car rental facility.
What I would like and I would be willing to pay a premium for is order the car of my choice via an app. Have said car delivered to my location by a driver that then takes Lyft/Uber back to headquarters. Also it seems like the car rental companies could benefit from economies of scale by having a small number of large lots instead of numerous little lots peppered throughout a geographic area. If this existed, I would use it all the time as I only need occasional use of a car.
If you aren't pre-registered on the rental car company's website (give them a DL # and a credit card in advance), you're missing out. Most of my car rental experiences at larger locations have gone pretty painlessly like this:
1. Walk straight past large slow line up people at front desk
2. Show my driver's license to someone at the fast pickup counter
3. Get keys (may take an extra 30 seconds if I ask for an upgrade)
4. Leave
Some rental car places leave the keys in the car, so you can check your email to go straight to whichever car is yours or just grab any one that's available
Sign up for the frequent renter program and it fixes all of these problems. When I rent with Budget with their FasTracks program, I either just pick the car I want off the lot and they bill appropriately when I leave the lot, or if I've chosen my vehicle ahead of time, I check a screen that tells me what spot to go to to find it and drive away. No lines, no giving them information at a ticket counter, they have all of it already.
SilverCar is amazing. Traditional rental agencies look like garbage in comparison. SilverCar also has shuttles at most major airports so you don't have to go far.
1. Long rental lines at airports. 2. Asking for information that could be provided ahead of time via apps. 3. Having to make your way to the car rental facility.
What I would like and I would be willing to pay a premium for is order the car of my choice via an app. Have said car delivered to my location by a driver that then takes Lyft/Uber back to headquarters. Also it seems like the car rental companies could benefit from economies of scale by having a small number of large lots instead of numerous little lots peppered throughout a geographic area. If this existed, I would use it all the time as I only need occasional use of a car.