Driverless cars, in-car coffee machines, solar-powered, and amphibious motors are all very tempting for car rental customers, but for them the lure of staying connected comes first.
In-car WiFi popular with car rental customers. (Credit image: RGBAlphai/Stock)
Despite attractive technological advances, safety and connectivity received the top billing from all nationalities surveyed, with WiFi receiving an average of 58% of preferences followed by crash proof cars (55%).
These findings were based on feedbacks from car rental customers participating in the annual CarTrawler Car Rental Customer Report. (download the full report)
A new section in the report, “The future of car rental”, reveals preference for solar powered cars does not rank high among customers despite their environmentally friendly reputation. Only 13% of German respondents showed any interest in these cars compared to a quarter of Americans and Australians.
Meanwhile almost half of Spanish customers (48%) want green cars in the future.
Driverless cars are popular among French and Spanish customers, perhaps reflective of busy parking conditions in their countries. These cars can locate a parking space and park in it (and then send you a message with the car’s location!).
The amphibious car proved most popular with Australians. while British customers were attracted by the idea of a large family vehicle equipped with a detachable mini-car for city use.
For pure novelty, 11% of French customers displayed an interest in the in-car coffee machine – the highest percentage for this option of the survey panel.
Highlights of the report include:
- Business customers are increasingly price sensitive with 50% of business users always shopping around – this is a five-fold increase in just two years.
- Great advances have been made in car rental, but there is still room for improvement. 82% of survey respondents hold the absence of hidden charges as the most important factor when renting a car, 62% want “flexibility to freely change the drop-off location at no extra cost”, and 40% like the idea of having no paperwork.
- Size matters in the mobile economy. Two-thirds of respondents registered concern in making a purchase on a smartphone, while 46% cited screen size as the main reason for this lack of confidence.
- Technology is great but a human voice is still #1 with customers. Telephone is the most preferred method of contacting customer care in all markets surveyed. 73% of respondents make it their number one preference followed by email (48%).
- The concept of car sharing is still new among car rental customers. 38% of those surveyed had not heard of it before and only 31% have tried it. A third of respondents did not think any of the proposed methods have the potential to make a change in this sector; including almost half of respondents from the UK.
The report also contains serious commercial facts including:
- Purchasing and shopping-around behaviour
- Device usage and online payments
- Offering the best customer service preferences
• The report is based on a survey analysis of 2,000 car rental customers across six countries (UK, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Spain), and is the third in a series of annual reports commissioned by CarTrawler and undertaken by ResearchNow. Download the free report here.
