Rental car agencies

Car rental business is a highly competitive one. Armed with this information, a person may infer that he can go to any car rental agency when he needs a rental car, and he will be provided with the best of products & services before in such a competitive environment, every agency will value each & every customer & will make efforts to please every customer.

However, the ground situation is a little different out there, and therefore when faced with the necessity of renting a car in an unfamiliar city, better be sure that you are approaching a car rental agency that really values its transaction & business with you. And here, the comparison between an independent car rental agency & a branch of a big retail giant becomes imperative.

But hey, we are jumping the gun. Any such discussion must begin from answering the very first question. What do we understand by the term ?car rental agency?? Well, in simplest terms, it is nothing more than an elaborate car rental shop. You go to such an agency when you need a car, or for that matter any other automobile, on rent for a short period of time. This time period may range from a few hours to say, a few weeks. The rental agency will give you the car, or any other vehicle you want (provided they have it), on rent and pretty obviously, they will charge you a fee for this service. Most of the times, these agencies can be found near airports or in busy city areas. Thus, this service is very useful for travelers as well as those with damaged, out of order vehicles. So while their vehicle awaits repairs or insurance compensation, they can easily move around town in a rented vehicle. For travelers, especially business travelers, this service is almost a necessity, so as to freely move around in a new city .

You will need to satisfy a few conditions before any agency will give you a car on rent. These conditions vary from agency to agency & from brand to brand. But some conditions are pretty straightforward. You are expected to return the vehicle by the set time limit, in good condition and you must take care not to exceed the maximum limit allowed for driven distance. Fail to comply with these conditions, and you will end up paying a lot of extra fees. The agency may prescribe a minimum age for the driver, which in many cases may be higher than the minimum age required to get a driving license in that country. These days, many big agencies utilize GPS technology to keep track of their vehicles and to make sure that it is not exceeding maximum prescribed speeds.

So how does an independent car rental agency likely to score over the branch of a big retail giant?

Yes, it?s about time we return our focus to the main thrust of this article. Well, there is not one, but many reasons why choosing a local, independent rental agency over one of the biggies of the vehicle rental business, is usually a smarter choice.

Flexible policies: The rules, regulations & policies of a local, independent rental agency have been set in the very same office in which you will go to get the car on rent. And in all probability, the owner of the agency will be sitting in the next room or on the next floor. Thus, you can discuss and negotiate with the people who have made the rules, and depending upon your specific requirements, a few rules can be easily modified, provided you are not asking them to indulge in unlawful activities!! Thus, it is very easy to get the ?best deal? in such agencies, and this is usually not possible when you will approach the local branch of a big name in rental business, with nation-wide network of branches. In this case, the person whom you will meet is either the front desk manager or the branch manager, and all these people will be inclined to do is to follow the policies and rules set by the headquarters in letter & spirit. This results in a pretty inflexible scenario.

Payment issues: All big rental companies will accept nothing but your credit card as the mode of payment. This is not because ?biggies? don?t like cash, but because they are not very eager to trust you and card payment makes it easier for them to track you should you decide to steal their car!! But what if you don?t want to use your card for all such payments. Well, they are not interested in your reasons, for rules are rules. On the other hand, an independent agency will accept, in all likelihood, both cash & card. Even if the front manager of an independent agency asks for your card, you can tell him/her that you will prefer cash payment, and most probably, it will be accepted. Most importantly, the big boss, the owner is sitting right there & you can directly discuss with him/her.

Most important difference between an independent agency and a ?branch of a big name? is that independent agency?s owner will treat you as a very important person, which is pretty obvious, because his/her business depends on customers like you. He will listen patiently to all your needs, will provide you flexibility in services provided as well as payment options and such agencies invariably offer a better selection of vehicles for their customers to choose from compared to big names. Remember, for a local small agency, each customer is very important, and it is even more important for them that you are happy with your entire rental experience with them, so that you will come back to them time & again whenever you will need a rented car.

Such small agencies survive on repeat business and, most importantly, word of mouth publicity, if you are happy with them, you will talk about that agency with your family and friends, who may also give the agency a try encouraged by your feedback. Thus, the agency will do all it reasonably can to make you happy. You can be sure that should you need any assistance when on the road or should you need to register any complaint, it will be quickly addressed by a local independent agency. However, if you have rented from a big chain, rest assured your complaint will get lost in a huge pile of complaints & will probably never reach the concerned person. For these big chains, you are just one more of their nameless, faceless customer in a crowd of thousands of others. Anyway, such big retail chains rely more on corporate & business customers for their business and not on individual customers like you.

Thus, we find that since each & every customer and his/her potential as a repeat customer as well as a word-of-mouth publicist is so very important for an independent car rental agency, you are assured of better choice of vehicles, flexible deals and easy payment options, plus personalized services to make sure that you return very happy. Then, is it not a smarter choice to choose such an agency? It certainly is.

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