Last updated on February 11th, 2016 at 05:29 am
I don’t normally talk about car rentals, because my choice of car rental agencies is almost always driven by price.
In general, I am not a car person, so I don’t really care what I receive from a car rental agency. Sure, I appreciate the aesthetics of a Tesla from the outside, but I am more interested on what it has inside. Plus, a Tesla rental would be way too rich for my blood.
Really, the only thing that I care about in a rental car is that there is a USB port where I can hook up my iPhone to play music and podcasts while driving. It is that simple. I would take a Yugo over a Cadillac if it had a USB port. And yes, I realize that a Yugo reference, in 2015, is both untimely and mildly offensive toward the Balkans. I’m sorry in advance.
In our current visit to Hawaii, we have rented cars on 3 separate occasions. Two of our cars were literally the cheapest car available at Kihei Car Rental (2005 Nissan Sentra), because I didn’t want to pay twice as much for any other car. Plus, the free airport shuttle is clutch.
The third rental car we got was through National, and that is the reason for this post. I forgot how much I love National!
One rental agency always delivers for me
We chose National for our rental car on the big island of Hawaii based on price. They were the cheapest car for a one way rental between Kona Airport and Hilo Airport. Things still weren’t exactly cheap, but they were the least expensive by about $400.
While I still usually only choose National when it is the cheapest car, I am starting to think it might be worthwhile to pay a little more for their service.
Here are some of the nice touches that they provide customers, starting with the email correspondence before.
Open communication with customers
First, let’s start with the pre-mailer. The day before our rental, they reminded us of our reservation and gave us a cancellation link in the email, if we didn’t need it anymore.
This email is so simple to create, yet this is the only company that has sent me this type of email for a car rental that I can remember.
Choice of cars for Emerald Club Members
Next, the choice of cars. With National, you can choose any car in the emerald club aisle with your reservation. With Executive Club Status, which I currently have (although I can’t remember how I obtained it/what promotion gave it to me off the top of my head or through an email search), you can select even nicer cars on the same reservation.
We chose a Buick LaCrosse, and it was wonderful. This was my first time driving a Buick since those years I spent with Miss Daisy back in 1989.
The car had storage space for our bags, lots of legroom and most importantly a hookup for our iPhones.
It was the perfect car for two travelers with way too much luggage to use for a week. We navigated the volcanoes, lava fields and the parking lot of our Yurt with ease.
Last, the continued helpful email reminders
I work in marketing, and have spent quite a bit of time with email marketing during my day. I can tell you that most companies SUCK at email marketing, because they focus purely on themselves. Instead of helping the customer or showing empathy, they focus purely on trying to get the customer to buy buy buy. I unsubscribe from most of these emails.
But National sends great emails. For example, here is an information packed email with all of the vital details of my car return. No need to look up reservation details from months back. No need to look up the return address or phone numbers. It’s all there in a simple email.
This does not seem like much, but to me it is a big differentiator.
Why I might pay more for a car rental with National
In the world of car rentals, it almost always comes down to price. Agencies are all using the same cars, so the vehicle itself is rarely a differentiating point. These emails, which take almost no time to program, are a way to get customers to purchase based on loyalty vs. price alone. And that is powerful.
We will probably need to rent cars 20 more times during our journey, and I may just start at National before heading over to Kayak to price shop.
Ok, I probably will price shop and then look for the National logo. After all, their website listed prices are usually way too expensive for me.
I’m not the only one who is pro National. Here is a great article from Matthew Klint that talks about National Car as an airline experience. If only half of it came true!
Do you have a car rental company you prefer? Why?
2 things:
1) If you rent via Priceline (OTA’s in general?), you still get the advantages of Emerald Club membership?
2) Would you hazard to put a price on the emails that you like so much? An extra $5, $10, $15 per day of a rental?
Personally I can’t see how those emails are worth more than $1-2 extra per day (if it’s a 1-2 day rental maybe slightly more). All it really did was prevent you from searching your email/using google maps for maybe 5-10 minutes.
I search via Kayak for the most part, since they aggregate well. Then it depends on price, but I’ll book directly with the agency if it’s only a little more, because of potential to earn rewards.
And as far as value on the email, you do bring up a good point. What is an email worth? Definitely less than $5 a day. I agree with your $1-2 range, which actually can be a differentiator when rentals are all similarly priced. The ability to choose your own car, which often means getting the accessories/size/legroom/storage you want is probably worth $5 a day as well, but traditionally that does not factor into my decision making process. But now I am considering this, as room for baggage becomes more important in our travels.
I too love national. I rent cars frequently – had a fender bender with a national car and the claims process was handled quickly, smoothly, reasonably and non-judgementally. I am executive and take my chances on the type of car I need being available when I arrive to pick it up – but on a recent arrival there were only very small cars available and I was going to be driving 4 LARGE people – so the manager on duty rustled up an suv from the adjacent Enterprise lot. Excellent service! If only I could figure out rental car rewards as easily as airline awards!
That’s awesome and good customer service for sure! It’s amazing how one agency would do that, yet others will do the opposite. For example, Avis tried to tell me I damaged a car I had rented and threatened a large fine, even though I didn’t get into an accident of any sort. They kept on trying to get me to admit that I did something, when I know that nothing happened. Funny how some companies employ tactics used by government forces to interrogate, while others treat you like they would treat a good friend.
National is by far the best rental car company in the US. I just don’t understand why they don’t apply the same customer service and best practices to their budget brand Alamo. That is a huge scam and they try to find ways to get every penny from customers after they return their cars and get a receipt from the agent. You will be surprised to see charges on your credit card for gas even if you returned the tank full and damages in the car that were already there when you rented.
It does seem that even within their own company, National is the exception to the rule of car rentals. Doesn’t seem like anyone else comes close to the level of service and even forgiveness that National allows. I haven’t studied enough to see how this affects profits, though.
I can see why a budget renter needs to get ancillary fees to make more profit. Unfortunate for the consumer, but seems similar to discount airlines.
I disagree. Discount airlines at least you know what to expect. They have a “a la carte” list of charges and you pick and chose what you will pay. On Alamo it is plain rip off. You return the car with a tank full of gas. You get the car inspected and a receipt printed with the amount they are charging you. Later you see on your credit card statement that they are charging way more. Well, good luck to get that money back. You will need unlimited hours of your time to be on calls and have to talk to lots of people and be able to provide proof of God knows what. It should be very simple: the agent receiving the car you returned should be the one with authority to charge you for a not full tank of gas or damages in the car. If that agent clears you the rental car company should not be able to claim anything else from you.
You are right with your distinction. Charging incorrectly after the fact is an unacceptable business practice. Especially when they give customers little recourse to clear things up. What I have found is that the only way to get through to someone at large companies is often to use Twitter. For whatever reason, the twitter teams often provide exceptional service.
My beef with National – the customers.
You should see the way people behave on the bus and shortly after as they jostle to be the very first at the Emerald Selection row.
Ha! You and I probably have the same feeling about a lot of the elements of travel then. “This would be perfect if it wasn’t for all of these other people!”
We find ourselves saying that fairly often these days.
I love using Costco Travel to search for car rentals. They can be (but aren’t always) cheaper than renting direct, they tend to come with added benefits, and at least in my experience, you can still attach your loyalty number to the reservation after the fact, though with Alamo this is a little more complicated.
http://discounthawaiicarrental.com is my go-to in the islands, which almost always includes perks like 2nd driver free, etc. and can be worlds cheaper than going direct. They aren’t always cheaper than renting direct, though.
Both Costco & Discount Hawaii provide free cancellations and do not require advanced payment.