Following on from blog post last week, today I’ll cover the “Demand vs Supply” component of my explanation on pricing. Like airlines, the number of people who want to rent a car (or get on a flight) versus the availability of cars (or seats on a flight) drives the price of that car (or the price of that flight!). So, when there becomes less supply (normally closer to the date of pick-up), the price will increase for the remaining demand. This means booking close to pick up is likely to be more expensive than booking further in advance.
Booking in advance allows for Avis – like airlines – manage their business more efficiently (e.g. having the cars in the right places and people there to support) thus makes the costs of the car less for the business and for the customer.
As we know that price is a key driver for all our customers, we aim to provide various options to ensure our customers get the best prices. I have highlighted some below:
> Email subscribed customers – we send out special offers or exclusive deals to our most loyal customers. This helps customers plan in advance or find out about hot deals.
> Latest Offers page (available at http://www.avis.co.uk/LatestOffers) – we offer a full list of our latest deals worldwide. It’s a good place to check first!
> £42 weekend rate – As we know UK customers are more likely to travel domestically in 2009, we wanted to provide a good rate for weekend getaways. There is some exclusions and I recommend that you book in advance to avoid disappointment, but it’s a great rate (up to 40% off previous levels).
> Sales – in periods of low customer demand, we often run sales for worldwide destinations. Again, it helps to book in advance and some exclusions apply. But it does give customers the option to reduce their costs if they plan in advance.
We do know that in these trying economic times price is a key driver for customers and we need to do our best to provide a good product at a competitive rate. On a daily bases we review our prices to ensure that they are motivating whilst enabling us to sustain our business.
I hope this provides a bit more background and information to our custmers. As always, any thoughts or questions are welcome!
Thank you,
Josi
(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)
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Pick up LHR 30 day hire drop of LHR. All your major competitors will give a quote over the net you wont. I try to book confirmed model off your web site it states NO vehicles available for this period 13/06-13/07/09 at LHR .Two months ago you asked if I would join your priority program.. why?
Hi Ian,
The website is unable to provide a quote for a rental longer than 28 days of length. What kind of car are you looking for? If you let me know I’ll send you a quote for that rental period. Alternatively please call our reservations team on 08445 81 81 81 who will be able to provide this information for you.
Chris
Hello,
I am looking to hire a car from Heathrow on the 3rd-7th of August. As price is a deciding factor I am shopping around. Your lowest price for this period is £110 but on [a competitor] site there are four cars available for less than this. I understand that this is a peak time but it is 5 weeks away. Does this mean that the demand is high so your cheaper prices are unavailable or are you just more expensive?
Hi Laura, if there is plenty of supply available then our prices are benchmarked against our key competitors to ensure we are competitive (as you say, pricing is a deciding factor and we simply would not have any customers if we were not competitive). If our prices appear significantly more expensive to competitors then, as you say, it is likely that demand is starting to build strongly for that period at that location (and the time you mention is the most popular time of the year at our busiest location!).
Rob
I have just made a booking with Avis having linked via [a broker], this site was recommended by http://www.moneysavingexpert.com which is a well known UK consumer website. I have a confirmed booking from Avis which I have checked directly by telephoning with Avis UK and can view online via the Avis website also. The charge for the car hire is in US dollars and it appears that [the broker] books via the US, I would like to confirm if the price and booking will be honoured and whether I will be charged in US dollars or Euros and that there will be no issue when collecting/paying for the car as a UK resident (payment on collection). I need to ensure this as I will be travelling with 3 young children. All help advice greatly appreciated.
Hi Gary,
If you have been given a price in USD then you will be billed in USD. The price will be guaranteed providing it is an all inclusive rate that includes the insurances etc. If you would like to pass me your reservation number then I can ensure everything is OK.
Chris
Returned car 40 minutes late (thanks to traffic on road from Scotland) to Avis Newcastle on Tuesday. Surly sales girl charged me an extra 50% on top of the agreed fee as a penalty. I asked if she had any discretion over this, but ‘Computer says no’. shant be using you again.
How can you justify an almost 100% increase in rental rates at Belfast City Airport due to the shortage of rental cars in the province?
£100 per day for a standard sized car over an 11 day hire period!!!! This smacks of pure mercenary practices which do not deserve any loyalty from regular customers.
Hi Richard, thank you for your feedback. I appreciate that delays can happen and we do try to maintain a certain amount of flexibility by including a grace period of 30 minutes for late returns. However, we need to be strict with this to ensure the cars we get the cars back in time so that they are washed and prepped for the next customer. This is fairly standard across the industry.
Any further thoughts on this are welcome, particularly your thoughts on the fairness of the policy.
Rob
Hi Anthony, apologies for the late reply. You are correct, there is a limited supply of cars in the market overall in Northern Ireland and this has led to an increase in prices in this region. This is standard pricing practice in the travel industry where, like with airlines, our prices increase the more demand fulfills supply. While I can understand your frustration with this, we are priced in line with the competition. My strongest advise would be to book in as far advance as possible to get the best price and avoid disappointment.
Any further thoughts or comments are welcome.
Rob
Re the Belfast City Airport dilemma.
Solution is to rent from a competitor in the city centre who will guarantee a standard sized car for £650 less than Avis and who offers pick-up and drop off from the airport terminal.
I think that the latest hike in prices is less to do with supply and demand and more to do with the current financial situation of the Avis Group and opportunism!!!!
A ‘good product’ at a competitive price’? This has not been my recent experience. I complained about 2 out of 4 recent rentals. First was resolved, second not. A colleague has had similar problems. Maybe Rob would like to look at [case number] and [agreement number]. Ok its been a bad year for your business, but unless we get a better service in future, you have lost two loyal customers.
Hi Gil,
Sorry to read about your frustrations.
I will follow this up with customer services and we will get back to you.
If you have any other feedback or questions please let me know.
Vicki
This is becoming more than frustrating. Another few weeks go by – and nothing happens (except that my colleague has received a refund of her incorrect fuel charge – but via her orginal complaint). My next rental with you (the ‘one last chance’ one) starts on 9 October. It would be good to have this sorted beforehand.
G
Hi Gil, I am very sorry you haven’t heard back on this yet (and I’m sure you’tr tired of hearing that). I’ll chase this up for you straight away.
Rob
OK – I give it another few weeks … and still nothing happens. Why bother with ‘customer service’ if you can’t manage the basics of following up a customer complaint?
On a more cheerful note, my latest rental was OK, if still uncomfortably pricey. Better car, and the paperwork was complete (in that most of the scrapes etc were recorded). Not quite a full tank of gas (as soon as the car was pointed downhill, the needle dropped, but this sees to be a regular event (blame the previous renter).
So now can wesort out the complaint, please?
G
Hi Gil,
I have spoken to our customer service team and the refuelling costs have been refunded. A letter was also sent out explaining this.
Also our customer service team were not able to contact you about this as it was not your name on the rental. But they have assured me that this should all now be sorted.
If you have any other questions or feedback please let me know.
Vicki
Here we go again. I replied to this by return email, but nothing further has happened. I explained that thread 12 (above) dealt with two complaints. My colleague’s has indeed been resolved – but mine hasn’t. Mine is case number [Rental Agreement Number].
Go on – have another go!
G
Hi Gil,
I have just spoken to customer services and they said they have sent you a letter about your complaint. If this is not the case please drop me an email to let me know.
Vicki
If you are referring to the letter of 2 September, this was a standard ’sorry’ letter enclosing an upgrade voucher by way of compensation. I emailed back and told you that this wasn’t acceptable. It didn’t address the detail of my complaint, and the voucher wasn’t fair compensation (particularly since, like every other Avis customer, I’d already received one on an email shot).
The gist of my original complaint was that I’d paid top money for a tacky car with numerous faults. I had asked for a 30% of final bill refund. So far, I have had no response.Regards
Gill
Its all gone very quiet again, but the original response wasn’t acceptable – just a standard letter and upgrade voucher supplied. No attempt to deal with the substance of my complaint or my request for proper compensation. It was especially annoying that a general email shot offer to all clients arrived at the same time.
Please refer to my original complaint.
G
Hi Gil,
I am sorry to hear about your frustrations, but I am afraid I am unable to do any more.
This is something that you need to take up with customer services directly.
Vicki
Hi-I have noticed that Avis UK has become increasingly uncompetitive these last month or two relative to [a competitor] in particular. Any reason for this? Also just noticed they have included a 100 mile/day limit and not so long after introducing unattractive pre-pay system, common everywhere now. What’s going on? As a Preffered and account holder I want you to be at least competitive and not upto 50% more expensive as has been the case recently.
Hi Brendan,
Thanks for your comment and I apologise for the delayed response.
Availability has been limited recently, which will result in higher prices. But if you are able to send me the location, dates and car category you are trying to book to comments@avis.co.uk, then I can double check this for you. For more details on our pricing please see your ‘Pricing Explained’ blog posts.
With regards to pre-pay rates, these should be more attractive than our pay later ones. If this is not happening then I can double check this for you using the info above.
A mileage limit should only apply to rentals of 28 days or more to prevent the cars going over their mileage limit. Is this what you are looking at? If this is not the case then again the information above will help me investigate!
I hope this helps, but if you have any other questions please let me know.
Thanks
Rob