Vacation.com has entered into a preferred
relationship with Hertz and canceled preferred-supplier deals with
all other car companies, effective immediately.
Vacation.com had
preferred deals with Alamo, Auto Europe and National.
The Hertz deal is
Vacation.com's first exclusive contract with any industry supplier.
For Hertz, which has had a similar arrangement with AAA for more
than a decade, it is its second such deal on a national basis, said
Pamela Wright, division vice president for travel industry and
partnership sales.
Vacation.com said the
Hertz deal would spur members to shift more market share to
Hertz.
The consortium said
the agreement features agency incentives, discounts, special
coupons and exclusive quarterly promotions for clients.
"By focusing our
members' sales efforts on one quality car rental company, we are
opening the door to a new level of benefits," said Steve Tracas,
Vacation.com's president and CEO,
John Lovell,
Vacation.com's vice president of industry relations, said the group
was not trying to secure exclusive deals in other industry
segments.
Trying to do so would
be "harder," he said, because the other categories encompass so
many different product types.
Lovell said the Hertz
deal was a case of an agency group "trying to produce results for
members and Hertz making a significant investment in our membership
with products and services for them."
Wright said Hertz
would sign exclusive contracts with other agency groups "where it
makes sense. We must get support from 100% of the trade group --
members and management."
In the case of
Vacation.com, "this is a recognition of where this group wants to
go, and we want to go there, too," said Wright.
To
contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine
Godwin at [email protected].