Avis Budget said it will expand self-service options that
allow customers to skip the rental desk and go straight to their vehicles.
The company will ramp up features that enable customers
to reserve their vehicles via mobile app, see pictures of the car, receive
information on where the vehicle is located and use their smartphone to enter
and start the vehicle.
“We are currently testing self-service car rentals with a
few thousand cars and are looking to expand it into more markets throughout the
year, Avis Budget CEO Larry De Shon said during the company's fourth-quarter
earnings call.
The company said that ride-hailing companies such as Uber
and Lyft have had a minimal impact on car rental demand. Single-day rentals,
the category most likely to compete against ride-hailing, rose last year, while
97% of Avis Budget’s rentals drive their vehicles more than 50 miles during the
rental period, Avis Budget CFO David Wyshner said.
“We looked at our
volumes in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, the
biggest cities for ride-hailing, and saw that our rental day volumes increased
2% there, consistent with our overall organic volume growth in the United
States,” Wyshner said.
Avis Budget took a $5 million fourth-quarter loss,
compared with net income of $23 million the year before, because of higher
operating costs. Revenue, factoring out currency effects, rose 5% to $1.9
billion. The company reported an 8% increase in rental days but a 7% drop in
prices.