FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Alamo Rent A Car debuted the prototype of
a new car rental plaza here designed to be user-friendly to
families and other leisure travelers, with luggage lockers,
changing rooms, a play area for small children, a retail store,
poster-size road maps and touch-screen information kiosks.
The plaza here is part of a $10 million project to redesign 31
Alamo plazas by the end of the year, the firm said.
The project, under development for 18 months, will "offer
leisure travelers a wide range of amenities never before seen in
the car rental industry," Alamo said.
Alamo's first plaza to be redesigned with the features serves
Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale Airport, which handles 2,000 Alamo car
rental transactions daily.
Alamo said five other major plazas will be redesigned with the
full complement of new features by this fall. They are in Orlando
and Tampa, Fla.; Denver; Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.
In addition, 25 other Alamo locations in the U.S. will undergo
some form of redesign by the end of the year.
The project, first announced a year ago, included numerous field
studies of leisure customers and families who visit car rental
offices.
"This redesign is about more than just renting a car," Alamo
president Michael Going said. "It's about making a commitment to
address the unique and specific needs of leisure travelers."
He noted that leisure travelers are typically less familiar with
the car rental process, travel with additional luggage and have to
keep track of family members.
About 75% of Alamo customers are leisure travelers. The car
rental experience for travelers using the prototype plaza here
begins when they board the redesigned Alamo airport buses with
bright new signage.
The travelers are handed a multilingual Alamo Go Guide, which
serves as the envelope for the rental contract and contains
information for renting a car, the facilities of the plaza, two
Alamo toll-free numbers and a map and directions for returning the
car.
The plaza itself incorporates many changes, said David McKee,
Alamo's director of customer innovation, including brighter colors;
clearer signs with bold graphics and icons to streamline process
flow, and user-friendly rental agreements.
Immediately upon arrival at the plaza, customers find free,
lockable storage bins for luggage.
"They eliminate the stress of having to carry luggage around the
plaza," McKee said.
A wall-size poster map of the state of Florida stands out, with
the mileage between key points listed.
In an adjacent Travel Center, multilingual, touch-screen kiosks
print out directions to area hotels, restaurants, local attractions
and entertainment events.
By typing in an address, a customer can obtain a printed copy of
driving directions from the plaza to anyplace in the U.S. Each
kiosk also contains a direct-connect phone to a live concierge
service.
The plaza's retail store sells snack items and sundries such as
suntan lotion, personal hygiene items, over-the-counter
medications, film, batteries and kids' games.
A small-children's play area, with a tube slide, has just one
entrance-and-exit point. At the car-return plaza, four private
changing rooms are available.
The new facilities will not replace Alamo's Quicksilver check-in
counters for frequent and corporate renters, Alamo said.
At the Fort Lauderdale plaza, the Quicksilver counter is visible
immediately after walking through the door.