Budget Offers Midmarket, Small Cos. Car Rental Rebates, Discount Rates

Budget Rent A Car is offering small and midmarket companies discounted rates and monthly $2-per-rental-day rebates on car rental purchases, following a month-long pilot with customers.

Chuck Fallon, executive vice president of revenue generation for Cendant Car Rental Group, Budget's parent, said the Budget Business program is available to companies that rent at least five vehicles per year. Fallon added that many of the adopters would have unmanaged travel programs and spend less than $50,000 annually on car rentals-a threshold that when crossed could yield more favorable negotiated rates. "That doesn't mean they couldn't use the program," Fallon said, "but those larger companies typically have a different program structure."

Although the rate discounts would vary by program, Fallon said they would undercut Budget's lowest qualifying rates on all car classes, regardless of booking tool. "We're distribution-friendly in this program," Fallon said. "We certainly would want people to come to Budget.com."

Small and midmarket companies spent moderately higher prices per rental last year than in 2003, according to figures from BTN's midmarket report, released this week (BTN, June 20). Of the 320 respondents from small and midsize businesses, 30 percent said rental car firms were more receptive to negotiating within the past six months, 54 percent said they were as receptive and 16 percent said they were less receptive. "This is a sweet spot for Budget," Fallon said. "We're looking for lots of growth and lots of opportunity in this segment of the marketplace."