by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:40 AM ET, Wed April 26, 2023
A new survey found that National Car Rental was the top
brand for business travel buyers again, but the industry thrived, with four of
five qualifying brands improving from 2022.
According to BTN’s 2023 Car
Rental Survey, National took home the top spot for the eighth consecutive
year, followed by Enterprise in second place, which was also the only brand with
a lower overall score this year.
Avis and Hertz battled for third place, with the former taking
the podium spot after BTN was forced to extend the results another decimal
place to finalize the rankings. Avis’ sister brand, Budget, fell to fifth place
in the 2023 survey.
“2022 was an extremely difficult year,” American Car Rental
Association spokesperson Greg Scott told BTN. “The car rental industry could
not meet demand because of a lack of vehicles. About mid-year in 2022 I started
hearing more and more ACRA members say that their demand for vehicles was being
met or close to being met by suppliers.”
As staffing remains a concern across the industry, overall
scores are still lower than 2019, but optimism is growing. Nearly 38 percent of
respondents said overall car rental customer service has improved in the past
12 months, while only 10 percent said it declined.
“There are still some challenges in the industry, but if
[scores] are up from last year, they're trending in the right direction,” GoldSpring
Consulting partner Neil Hammond told BTN. “Still, we have some way to go to previous
service levels. Companies have lost money and went into recovery as well. We
know there have been a slew of rate increases and stealth increases that are
now filtering through contracts, and that factors into the equation, too.”
The survey also found that chauffeured transportation and
ride-hailing companies saw dips in overall service and satisfaction scores from
business travel buyers, but they improved in availability and maintenance
levels from last year.
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