Business traveler satisfaction with car rental companies is up slightly even as overall customer satisfaction with the industry has plateaued, according to the J.D. Power 2014 North America Rental Car Satisfaction Study.
Business travelers in the study, which measures car rental supplier performance based on more than 12,300 responses from both business and leisure customers, gave car rental companies an overall satisfaction score of 772 on a 1,000-point scale, up a point compared with last year's study. Younger business travelers tended to be more satisfied than older business travelers, the study indicated.
Overall satisfaction scores, meanwhile, declined a point year over year to 774, the first time satisfaction has dropped since 2009, according to J.D. Power. Total wait times—which include pickup, drop-off and shuttle service—have increased since the 2013 study, and the average rental price also has increased $5 per day. Business traveler wait times, however, were lower on average than leisure traveler wait times, according to the study.
Among the car rental brands, Enterprise scored highest in overall satisfaction with a score of 805, up slightly from 2013. National, rated highest in 2013, dropped 12 points in score to 797 and rated second overall.
Both Alamo and Hertz scored 776, above the industry average of 774. Avis (771) and Budget (762) scored slightly below the industry average, and Thrifty (734) and Dollar (725) had the lowest overall scores.