At Avis we have teamed up with KLM to give you the chance to WIN a dream holiday to South Africa. We are giving away a pair of flights, one weeks car hire and other exciting goodies!

The prize includes everything you need to make that trip to South Africa extra special:

• 1 pair of KLM tickets to Cape Town from any UK KLM departure airport.
• Free car rental, 7 days in Cape Town or Johannesburg – Group F (Audi A4 or similar)
• GPS Satellite Navigation
• Digital camera
• 2000 South African Rand spending money

Find out more.

So make sure you enter before midnight on 31st August 2010 to be in with a chance of winning.

Following our successful roll out of the Avis Home Delivery Service to West London, I am pleased to announce that we have extended the service across North and South London, enabling us to offer Home Delivery throughout the area of London.

We can now deliver hire cars to areas including; Chelsea, Kensington, Chiswick, Ealing, Finchley, Golders Green, Acton, Chingford, Barnet, Marylebone, Islington, Abbeywood, Bethnal Green, Greenwich, Woolwich, Crystal Palace, Stretham, Wimbledon and Penge, to name a few.

Reservations can now be taken for Delivery across London and these can be made via our website www.avis.co.uk/homedelivery, through our central reservations team on 0844 581 8181 or direct at our local Avis branch.

It would be good to hear your views on our Home Delivery Service and the roll-out of the service across London.

At Avis we like to keep car hire easy and simple. So we are excited to introduce our NEW iPhone application which will enable you to book your Avis car rental on the move.

We have based the Avis iPhone application development around speed, simplicity and ease.

Your booking can be made in just 2 minutes and all you need to do is:

• Select your location, dates and vehicle group.
• Enter personal details.
• Accept terms and conditions.
• Then confirm.

This fast and simple booking process has a few time saving functions:

• 3 way location search
• Easy to use date selector
• Google maps function for accurate directions
• Full selection of Avis fleet quick and easy to select
• Pre-saved details (personal details only needed for the first booking)
• Reservation details saved on your phone for easy access
• Dedicated Avis contact detail if you require any support
• Location details including opening times

The application has been made to help improve user experience by making the booking process simpler and faster. So download it today and try it for yourself.

Download the Avis iPhone application
View a step by step booking process

Once you have downloaded the Avis iPhone application we would love to get your feedback.

For most of us, August Bank Holiday weekend marks the end of the summer as the last Bank Holiday before Christmas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. So to help you make the most of it, we’ve put together five of the best Bank Holiday events up and down the country for you to explore with Avis Rent a Car.

Renting a car from Avis makes sense for so many reasons. For a start, you’ll keep the miles down on your own car, preserving its value. Plus you get the chance to treat yourself by hiring a luxury car from our prestige range, so you and your family can travel in style. Alternatively, why not hire a people carrier and bring everyone along to make it a real family day. With a rental car from Avis, you’ll enjoy the convenience of driving door to door, and stopping wherever you want along the way to see the sights. Whichever car you choose, we’re sure you’ll have a great weekend.

Here are our five top spots for a Bank Holiday Weekend to remember:

1. England’s Medieval Festival, Herstmonceaux Castle, East Sussex, 29-31 August
England’s Medieval Festival is Britain’s largest three day celebration of the Middle ages and includes a morning siege and afternoon battle for Herstmonceux Castle involving 1,000 knights, bowmen and men-at-arms, plus a Grand Parade of knights, lords, ladies, jousting competitions, fire-eating, falconry displays and medieval puppeteers with 12-foot stick puppets. A historic day to remember. Find Herstmonceux Castle off the A271 north east of Eastbourne in the heart of Sussex.

2. Notting Hill Carnival, Central London Monday 30th August
This spectacular event is well worth the drive from almost anywhere in the UK. Park and ride as you reach the London Underground network and you’ll be whisked into the heart of the colourful carnival atmosphere of Europe’s biggest street festival. The Notting Hill Carnival attracts over a million people every year along the 20-mile parade route packed with party music and classic Caribbean food stalls.

3. Knebworth Classic Motor Show, Hertfordshire, 30-31 August
If you think Avis have an extensive range of cars, that’s nothing compared to the Knebworth Classic Motor Show. On Bank Holiday weekend, over 2,000 gleaming classic and vintage cars come together to celebrate the best in motoring. And don’t worry there’s something for all the family with a large adventure playground, Dinosaur Trail and miniature railway for the kids and delightful formal gardens. Find Knebworth just off the A1(M) J7

4. Matthew Street Music Festival 29-30 August
Liverpool offers two days of free fun over the bank holiday weekend, with the Matthew Street Music Festival to rival Notting Hill in the capital. Offering over 80 hours of live outdoor music from over 95 cover bands, original bands and the hottest new bands, it’s a feast of free music on six huge stages across the city centre, with something for every musical taste in the home of the Beatles.

5. Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe
Most events claim to have something for everyone, but few can back that up as much as the world famous Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. From classical music to contemporary theatre, outrageous comedy to stunning circus style acts, it is a cultural event like no other and has to be experienced at least once. Wherever you’re travelling from it’s a trip worth making!

Avis think of everything
It’s not just our cars that make hiring from Avis so easy; it’s all the extra attention to detail too. We’ve thought of everything to make your trip go smoothly, from SatNav to a second driver, baby and child seats to home delivery, leaving you free to concentrate on enjoying a brilliant Bank Holiday trip.

We are very excited to introduce the new Avis Rent a Car website. If you have visited the Avis website before, the first thing you’ll notice when you land on the car rental homepage, is the new, fresher look with a cleaner top menu to help you navigate your way around the sections of the website. But this is just the start!

The main improvement is without a doubt, the leaner and faster booking process. We’ve reduced the number of steps needed to rent a car to four and refreshed each of the four pages to give you more information, easier navigation and ultimately make your selection easier.

Now all you’ll have to do is:
1) Select your dates/rental station
2) Choose your car group
3) Select your preferred payment option and add any extras you may need (GPS, child seat etc)
4) Enter your details

And in less than 5 minutes your booking is done!

And you’ll now find your personal account sign-in and account summary on every page so you can sign in anytime you like without going back to the homepage .

We would love to hear what you think of the new website, and of course if you have any suggestion on how we can still improve it please let us know.

I am pleased to announce that Avis UK has launched its “Home Delivery” service across the UK. Designed to make the car rental experience more convenient, Avis customers can now request for their rental car to be delivered directly to their home and for it to be collected again at the end of the car hire period.

Avis Home Delivery is ideal for customers that don’t really have the time to pick a hire car up, particularly when they don’t live near a station. It offers them a convenient service and at just £10 each way, it’s great value for money.   This time-saving product is available to UK households across the country* between 08:00 and 18:00, six days a week. 
For more details or to make a reservation visit www.avis.co.uk/homedelivery or call 0844 581 8181.

* Available across the country, with the exception of London

Following the disruption caused by the closure of European airspace a number of customers have wanted to rent a car one-way to another country. There has been some press commentary on the levels of charges for such rentals and some unfounded accusations of profiteering. I wanted to set the record straight on this issue by explaining why Avis (and other car rental firms) have these charges in place.

As a consumer, rather than an employee of Avis, I can understand that a fee of €1,000+ for a one or two day rental might initially seem excessive, if not outrageous. However, when you begin to look at the costs involved for a car rental company in fulfilling such a one-way rental the picture changes somewhat and you can quite quickly appreciate our position.

Firstly, many such rentals will typically incur significant mileage. Whereas we would usually expect a car to run up around 100 miles a day, these one-way journeys can easily add up to 1,000 miles – plus 1,000 miles back. Therefore a “one day” rental has used nearly a month’s worth of allocated mileage! Depending on the car type, this can be £2-300 of cost to us as we will need to return the car to the manufacturer one month early.

Secondly, we are not set up to cope with a large volume of such rentals and typically need to hire a driver to take the car back. Assuming it takes 3 days on average this means a further £300 of cost. On top of this we need to account for fuel, motorway tolls, hotel and food allowances for our driver and a flight home which in total can exceed £400.

Finally, we need to account for the opportunity cost of the likely missed rentals we miss while the car has unexpectedly been taken out of its home country, which again could mount up to hundreds of pounds of lost revenue.

Once they understand the very real and significant costs incurred by us, customers I have spoken to about this over the past couple of days have recognised that Avis is acting reasonably to apply these fees, however counterintuitive it may seem at first glance. Indeed in many cases we will end up losing money on these rentals. Volcanoes notwithstanding, there are usually better ways for customers to make such a journey, for example by plane!

We would like to ensure that customers still returning from the Continent inform us before bringing any continental car into the UK. This will ensure they are fully aware of costs, and also avert the potential for them to be driving uninsured in the UK (which may be the case if we are not informed at point of pickup).

Avis UK has taken a number of steps to help our customers over the past few days. Firstly, we have waived one way fees for left hand drive cars being taken back to their home location on the continent. Secondly we will of course refund or amend prepaid rentals which were meant to pick up during the flight ban and will not be applying our standard non-cancellation fee. Thirdly, we are making sure we cater for the needs of customers finally arriving back into the UK by moving fleet to key ports and airports, extending opening hours and until Sunday offering a one-way rate within the UK for only £76 for up to two days to help people get back home (this offer is valid until midnight on Sunday 25th April 2010).

I hope this post helps to clarify the situation, and would be happy to answer any further questions.

During the period of air travel disruption across Europe caused by the volcanic cloud, Avis Europe is committed to trying harder to fulfil the travel needs for all customers who have been affected.

On bookings during this period,we will not be charging the non-cancellation fee (normally applicable when customers don’t fulfil their reservations and don’t cancel their booking at least 24 hours prior to pick up) so customers do not need to call us to cancel a reservation.

However if customers wish to cancel or amend their bookings, they can do so online by visiting the modify your booking section of the website.

Also, any pre-paid bookings made for pickup during this period, that cannot be taken as a result of these travel disruptions, will be fully reimbursed. Customers can claim their refunds by emailing the customer service department at customer.service@avis.co.uk

We are also offering one-way car rental for the hire cost plus the normal standard fee in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria – please book directly on this website www.avis.co.uk or call Avis UK on 08445 81 81 81.

Please note our call centres are experiencing a high volume of calls – if you call us we will make sure we answer as soon as we can.

Amidst the confusion that has been caused in the travel and tourism markets by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, many consumers are in the dark about how to obtain refunds on car hire bookings they will be unable to fulfil.

Here at Avis Car Hire we are happy to announce that we are taking steps to ensure our customers are not out of pocket due to the unforeseeable events of the last 36 hours. Avis will be waiving the Non Cancellation Fee that customers face if they fail to turn up to collect their vehicle – a cost of £40 per vehicle – as well as offering full refunds to pre-paying customers who contact their local customer service centre.

We are keen to help our customers get to their destination wherever possible and this move is designed to minimise the impact of these extraordinary events.

If you need to cancel or modify your booking please visit the air traffic disruption page on our website.

We are aware that a lot of our customers start their journey with a flight and some of them may be affected by the upcoming BA cabin crew strike. If, due to this strike you need to modify your travel arrangements, here is some information on how to make changes to your car rental booking with Avis.

Note from Avis BA Partnerships Team:

The forthcoming British Airways cabin crew strike, starting tomorrow and taking place on 20, 21, 22 March and 27, 28 , 29, 30 March, may be affecting your car rental requirements. We’d like to take this opportunity to outline your options if you have a car reserved with us over this period.

If you have a pay-later reservation and need to cancel or amend it, please call the BA Partnership Dedicated line at our Call Centre on 0844 581 0124 and one of our agents will make the necessary arrangements for you. The sooner you can cancel or amend your booking the easier will be to find a suitable alternative to your original reservation.

If you have pre-paid for your rental and need to amend or cancel, again please contact our dedicated line at the Call Centre on 0844 581 0124. If you need to request a refund, please send the request along with your Avis reservation number to:

Avis Rent a Car Ltd
Customer Services
Avis House
Park Road
Bracknell
Berkshire
RG12 2EW
United Kingdom

If you booked your Avis car directly with British Airways either at ba.com or with a BA Call Centre, please contact their Customer Services Duty Office to make any amendments or cancellations:

Telephone: +44 208 707 4461
Email address: duty.office@holidays.britishairways.com

Please contact us as soon as possible with your revised requirements. Thank you for your patience and understanding during these exceptional circumstances.