by Donald Wood
Last updated at 8:40 AM ET on Wed April 26, 2020
National Car Rental is the leading brand in business travel, according to a new survey. But the industry has thrived with four out of five brands qualifying for the study improving since 2022.
BTN’s survey of 2023 car rental brands shows that National has been the leading brand for eight consecutive years. Enterprise, in second place, was the only brand to have a lower score overall this year.
Hertz and Avis fought for third place. Avis took the podium after BTN had to add another decimal to the final rankings. Budget, Avis’ sister-brand, dropped to fifth in the survey for 2023.
Greg Scott, spokesperson for the American Car Rental Association, told BTN that 2022 was a very difficult year. The car rental industry was unable to meet demand due to a shortage of vehicles. Around the middle of 2022, I began hearing ACRA members saying that their vehicle demand was met or very close to being met.
Staffing is still a major concern in the industry. Overall scores are lower than 2019 but optimism has grown. Nearly 38 per cent of respondents stated that overall car rental service had improved over the past year, and only 10 per cent said it decreased.
Neil Hammond, GoldSpring Consulting’s partner, told BTN that “there are still challenges in the industry. But if the scores are higher than last year, then they are trending in a positive direction.” “We still have a long way to go before we reach our previous service levels.” The companies have also lost money, and then recovered. “We know that there has been a wave of rate increases, as well as stealth increases, that have now filtered through contracts and that also factors into the equation.”
According to the survey, ride-hailing and chauffeured services saw a decline in their overall satisfaction and service scores among business travelers. However, they showed improvements in terms of availability and maintenance compared to last year.
