2009 Rental Car Satisfaction Study by JDPower

Following two consecutive years of considerable declines in customer satisfaction, the domestic rental car industry appears to be making a comeback, at least in the court of public opinion, if not on the companies’ balance sheets. According to a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey of nearly 13,000 customers who rented a car at a domestic airport, renters are seeing reduced fees compared to recent years, contributing significantly to the increase in overall satisfaction.

The 2009 U.S. Rental Car Satisfaction Study reveals that the industry’s recent focus on containing operating costs by “right-sizing” fleets to meet changing consumer demand and extending the service life of their vehicles is allowing rental car companies to delay orders for replacements, thus enabling many companies to decrease their rental fees. However, in a number of locations, reductions in rental fees have been offset by increased excise taxes imposed by local and state governments.

“The rental car industry has tried to dissuade attempts to increase taxation on rental car customers and has made efforts to increase consumer awareness and understanding of these fees and their origin, particularly since these fees may be confusing to customers when they receive their final bill,” said Paula Sonkin, vice president of the travel practice at J.D. Power and Associates. “Customers can avoid some of this confusion by educating themselves about the excise fees and taxes that are imposed upon rental car companies in the areas where they are traveling. It’s also particularly important for customers to understand that these fees and taxes apply to all of the rental car companies associated with a particular airport.”

According to the study, overall satisfaction for the domestic rental car industry averages 733 on a 1,000-point scale in 2009, almost equal to its performance in 2008, when it achieved an index score of 734. In comparison, overall satisfaction declined by 16 points in 2007 and 17 points in 2008.

Now in its 14th year, the Rental Car Satisfaction Study measures overall customer satisfaction with renting cars at airports by examining six factors (listed in order of importance):

• costs and fees
• pick-up process
• rental car
• return process
• reservation process
• shuttle bus/van

Highlights from the study include:

• Enterprise ranks highest in customer satisfaction among rental car companies for a sixth consecutive year and performs particularly well in all six factors. Enterprise is followed in the rankings by National and Hertz, respectively.
• In particular, National has improved considerably from 2008, by 15 index points and two rank positions in 2009. Hertz performs particularly well in shuttling customers to and from the airport.
• The incidence of even a single problem can have a notable negative effect on overall satisfaction. On average, satisfaction among customers who experience a problem is nearly 140 points lower than satisfaction among customers who don’t have a problem during their rental car experience.
• Providing a highly satisfying rental car experience has a strong positive effect on customer loyalty levels. Among customers with satisfaction scores averaging 900 or higher, approximately two-thirds indicate that they “definitely will” recommend the rental car company to others and “definitely will” rent from the same company again. These rates are more than twice those of customers with satisfaction scores averaging between 750 and 899 and four times those of customers with satisfaction averaging between 600 and 749.

About the Study
The 2009 Rental Car Satisfaction Study is based on more than 12,900 evaluations from business and leisure travelers who rented a vehicle at an airport location between September 2008 and October 2009. The study was fielded between October 2008 and October 2009. This study is in no way specifically for Car Rental in Hawaii. If you are interested, visit this Hawaii Car Rental Guide from AlohaRents.

Launch of Big Island Car Rental Service

This recently launched service offers car rentals in Hilo and Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Big Island, is divided in half by five volcanoes. There are two distinct sides to The Big Island: Hilo and Kailua-Kona. Some airlines fly directly from the Western United States to these two Hawaiian cities. For your convenience, they provide discount rental cars at both Hilo (ITO) and Kailua-Kona (KOA) airports.

Excellent rates on Jeeps, economy, compact and vehicles of all sizes. Each of their cars comes with AC, standard safety features, and an automatic transmission.

By booking with them, you’ll save money for your trip. Additionally, there is no obligation, if your plans change, you will never be charged a cancellation fee.

With partners such as Dollar, Thrifty and Enterprise, they bring the Lowest-Priced Rates on the Internet. They recommend you reserve early to secure the car you want. Fill-out their no obligation request form and see how much money you can save with Cheap Kona Car Rental.

Home Search in Juneau Alaska

Our friends in the Northwest recommended a seasoned Realtor in Juneau, Alaska. We met with John Williams, who founded Juneau Real Estate in 2001. His company represents the real estate needs of residential and commercial clients in Juneau and beyond. Their offices are located in the Jordan Creek Center and directions can be found on their website.

Unlike so many “big box” real estate offices, John’s aim is to be friendly, as well as professional during his transactions. Getting to know his clients is an important and necessary part of the process. John and his small staff have resided in the Juneau area for a vary long time.

We found his website very helpful from the beginning of our search until we closed on our house. John and his staff were always available to help via email and over the phone. Much Thanks.

Headed to Eugene Oregon

In the next couple of weeks we’ll be visiting Eugene Oregon again.  Although we only got to really know the owners of Eugene’s Alternative Realtor when we sold our home there, we are going to be spending time with them while we are there.  10 months later, and we are still appreciative of the way this Eugene Real Estate office came together to sell our home— in less than a week.

The speed with which they got us organized to get our clutter removed, had our home inspected and repaired and then brought in the community of Eugene agents had us spinning. Yet, their hard work paid off. Yes– in an unbelievable four days, we’d accepted the offer presented to us and were happily packing for our move south.

Owners, Pam and Dave, are backed by a great staff.  Whenever we had a question about anything, we could email or call and receive an immediate response from one of the four folks who handle their workload.

This Willamette Valley city of over 150,000 residents, has a lot of real estate agents to choose from, so to have one stand out (so remarkably) from the rest of the pack was a pleasant surprise. As with many experiences in our lives, we find that a referral from a friend always works out in our favor.  Our acquaintance with Eugene’s Alternative Realtor is no exception. Only we didn’t just hear from one source that we should choose Eugene’s Alternative to sell our home, we got a thumbs up from several friends on this one.

Our Santa Cruz Storage Unit

As professional photographers who travel a lot, Santa Cruz, California is our chosen home and headquarters.  It’s a beautiful area and convenient to the city and airports.

One of the reasons we chose to make Santa Cruz our headquarters is because we needed to rent a secure, long term, self-serve storage unit, and after looking around, we found Store More America had everything we needed.  Although we own a lot of photo gear, we always travel light.  We require climate-controlled storage for the expensive, fragile equipment we’re not hauling with us.  In addition, we like to take advantage of the area here as well as the places we visit on our photo shoots. Our “toys” include surf/boogie boards, skis/snow boards and bikes. (these just don’t all fit in the condo)

Store More Americas’ Santa Cruz Storage Facility is perfect for us.  It meets our #1 requirement: security is excellent. We can access our gear easily.  Hours are super convenient. We’ve found the staff to be completely professional.  Oh, they are helpful and friendly too.

Finally, Store More America has four locations.  Three of them are really close to our place. We had to get out the map to decide on the one that was most convenient for our needs.  We opted for the Soquel storage location. We are writing this blog because we keep running into folks here who need good storage in the central-coast area.

Car Rental Deals in the Hawaiian Islands

Recently, our friends were invited to a family wedding on Maui.  They, as we all are these days, are unsettled by the expense of the trip, so they called us to ask for any advice we might be able to offer in the way of cheap rental cars on Maui.  They are flying into Kahului, so we suggested they reserve their car there. They’ll be able to attend the celebrations in style, while saving enough money to do some sightseeing during their free time.

This conversation with our friends got us to thinking that this advice fits all Hawaii car rentals, on all the islands.  We’ve learned we can save money by staying away from the traditional rental agencies such as Dollar, Thrifty, Budget, Avis or Hertz. The online discount car rental agencies are much more affordable.  Yet, we get the same car as if we’d rented from one of the big companies.

When we are looking for a discount vehicle rental in Kona or Hilo on the Big Island, money-saving transportation on Molokai, or a Kauai car rental, we look into the discount agencies when we hire a rental car.  The same goes for finding cheap Honolulu rental cars for a crazy vacation on Waikiki Beach. We always decide we want to make a trip to the north shore, and we find the best deals for our money are found online for a rental car on Oahu.

As well, the cheap airline websites offer great deals. We have found great deals for flights and lodging together on one site. So, as we suggested to our Lahaina-bound friends, we like to save all the money we can on getting there, so we can take full advantage of the “aloha” the Hawaiian Islands have to offer.

Discount Rental Cars in Kauai

I was recently called to Kauai on business regarding a condo I own in the Poipu area. Of course, one always needs a vehicle in Kauai unless you are staying in Lihue near the airport. I typically just rent a car from Enterprise. Not this time, a friend told me about a new service which offers discounted rental cars in Kauai. I visited their website and submitted a rental request. Wow! I was surprised to learn that their price was much less than renting direct. I saved over 25% and was thrilled. I chose a mid-size car because I had decided to bring my new folding bike along. It was a perfect fit for the trunk of the Sebring I received.

Discount Hawaii Car Rental in Honolulu

Our pick, you guessed it, AlohaRents.com is the hands-down winner. We requested rate quotes from the 3 big cheap car rental companies in Hawaii. We chose Honolulu to be specific. Only because the largest fleets on the islands are housed there. The three companies we selected were: Car Rental Hawaii, Discount Hawaii Car Rental and the winner, Aloha Rents. The car we selected was an economy model. AlohaRents.com also offered bonus benefits, such as extra drivers at no charge and young drivers for free.

Waikiki Jeep Rental

We just returned from a photo shoot at Waikiki on the Island of Oahu. The vehicle rental personnel were very helpful and kind.  They sent us to a cool place on Oahu’s North Shore for our day off. The majority of work we completed was shot at Diamond Head near Waikiki. We spent a total of three days and actually brought back over 800 photos.

Some of the Jeeps we rented were used in the images this time. So, our thanks go out to Hawaii Jeeps. If you need a ATV, stop by one of their 3 locales in Waikiki Beach.

Friday Harbor Property for Sale

I would love to move to the San Juan Islands in Western Washington State. The Northwest is beautiful and this island actually receives about half of the rain as Seattle, Washington. This particular piece of property is only about two miles from town. The owners claim that the house is a fixer-upper. I will continue my dream of owning over 25 acres of land near Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Maybe someday we will move to FH.