Enterprise Rent-a-car Ranks 1st

By Author: Steve Robinson
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People who like to travel via cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages may be interested to learn that Enterprise was given top honors in the latest J.D. Power rental car survey.

The 17th annual J.D. Power and Associates 2012 North America Rental Car Satisfaction study found that customer satisfaction with rental car industry rose for the third consecutive year.

The survey included six parts of the car rental experience: price and fees, pick up process, return process, the actual car, shuttle bus/van, and reservation process. All parts showed improvement with the exception of the reservation process which posted a slight decline.

The following are the scores earned (on a 1,000 point scale) by the major car rental companies:

• Enterprise: 804
• National: 788
• Alamo: 773
• Hertz: 771
• Avis: 766
• Budget: 753
• Dollar: 738
• ACE: 736
• Thrifty: 733
• Advantage: 711
• Payless: 708
• Fox: 669

The same parent company, Enterprise Holdings Inc. owns the three highest ranked brands. Experts speculate ...
... that the fact that this company is privately held may play a role in it making decisions that benefit customers rather than be constrained by quarterly profit goals.

Avis turned in the most improved score, increasing 24 points. Overall leisure traveler satisfaction was up 12 points while business traveler satisfaction increased by 11 points. Business travelers tend to be more critical than their leisure counterparts as well as more loyal.

Rental car companies are expected to continue to spend money on technological improvements that simplify the rental process, reduce wait times, and work with renters’ smartphones and other portable electronic devices.
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