Avis Offers Attendees E-Rentals

<B>Avis Offers Attendees E-Rentals</B>

Avis Rent A Car is the first car rental company to have developed functionality to allow meeting attendees to book rentals online at corporate negotiated rates through individual Web pages for each corporate event.

Like all Avis' programs for meetings and groups, at least five rental cars must be booked to qualify for a given event.

Avis quietly debuted the capability on its Web site in November after extensive internal beta testing, said vice president of marketing and new business development Kevin Danaher.

Unlike booking hotel rooms online at meeting rates (Meetings Today, Jan. 29), meeting attendees do not need a password or event code to receive discounted car rentals. Clicking on an Avis logo on a Web page set up for a specific meeting on the corporate intranet would refer the attendee to Avis' Web site, with a link directly into the car rental company's res system. Doing so also would automatically carry the meeting's worldwide distribution number into the reservation system, enabling the attendee to book at whatever rate has been negotiated.

"We want corporations to be able to come to us in whatever format they're most comfortable with," Danaher said. "Corporate meetings are a large segment for us and it's growing. Since not all meetings are handled by meeting planners, this lets attendees at meetings handled by nonprofessional planners or assistants receive the guaranteed corporate rate too."

The service normally would be available for attendees booking cars one week before until one week after the meeting. "Sometimes, meetings involve a leisure stay afterward," Danaher said.

No other car rental company currently offers this functionality, but representatives from Avis' competitors said they were developing the capability.

"We are exploring that and we plan to initiate a service soon," said Hertz Corp. spokeswoman Paula Stifter. "There's not a hard and fast timeline, but we are in the process of developing something.