Enterprise Again Dominates Car Rental Satisfaction Rankings

Travelers for the fifth year in a row rated Enterprise Rent-A-Car the best among rental car suppliers as overall satisfaction with the rental car industry continued to decline, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Rental Car Satisfaction Study, released last month.

Enterprise received top marks from travelers in all six factors of the study: costs and fees, the pickup process, the rental car, the return process, the reservations process and shuttle bus/van services. Enterprise has been the top-rated vendor in the study for nine of the past 10 years, according to the company.

Hertz and Alamo Rent A Car, which significantly improved its scores compared with last year, were ranked second and third by travelers, each receiving above-average overall scores. National Car Rental, Avis Rent A Car and Budget Rent A Car all received about average scores in overall satisfaction, while the Dollar and Thrifty brands both received below-average scores.

On the survey's 1,000-point scale, overall satisfaction for all companies dropped to a score of 734, compared with 750 for the previous year. "The current economic climate is having negative effects on all aspects of the travel industry—from airlines to hotels to rental car companies—as staffing and operations cutbacks have resulted in diminishing levels of customer satisfaction," Jim Gaz, J.D. Power and Associates' senior director of global hospitality, travel and entertainment, said in a statement.

J.D. Power and Associates based this year's findings on more than 13,400 evaluations from both business and leisure travelers renting a vehicle from an airport location in the past 12 months. This is the 13th year the firm has conducted the car rental satisfaction survey.