National Car Rental retained its place as the top-rated car rental supplier for an 11th year in a row in BTN's 2026 Car Rental Survey, with Enterprise Rent-A-Car coming in second for the fifth year in a row.
National improved its rating from last year's survey by 0.05 points to 4.29 on an ascending five-point scale, while Enterprise increased by a tenth of a point to 4.21. Hertz received the largest increase at 0.21 points, bringing its score to 4.11 and placing the company in third, up from fifth last year. Fourth-place Avis' rating remained about steady at 3.96, up from 3.95 a year prior. Budget, dropping to fifth after placing third last year, was the only car rental supplier whose overall score declined, by 0.08 points to 3.93. Last year, it had been the only supplier whose score increased.
"We put a lot into what our customers say," Enterprise Mobility VP of business rental sales and global operations Mike Guadagnoli told BTN. "We think we consistently communicate that throughout our organization, that your efforts on a day-to-day basis—whether it's the conversations with our sales teams and how they interact with their customers or our operators and how they interact with the end travelers—get recognized in some way, shape or form, and it has a big impact across the industry.
"It's very encouraging that we're moving in the right direction, not just in customer service scores, but in every area of our business," he continued. "We're always trying to get a little better than we were yesterday."
Travel buyers this year on average rated the car rental industry on the whole higher than they did last year, at 4.10 from 4.04 in 2025. Scores increased in 10 of the 12 categories. The other two were the relationship with account managers and sales reps, which dropped 0.02 points to 4.10, and upgrades and service for VIP travelers, which declined 0.04 points to 4.14.
The categories that increased the most were pricing transparency, up 0.23 points to 4.19, followed by quality data and reporting, up 0.14 points to 4.03, and clean, well-serviced cars, increasing 0.13 points to 4.23.
National had the top scores in nine categories, including one tie with Enterprise, which came out on top in three categories. and another with Avis, in mobile app functionality.Hertz took the top spot for negotiating pricing and amenities.
Travel buyers rated the industry's overall customer service as well, with 24 percent saying it improved in the past year, up from 18 percent in 2025, while those who said it had worsened declined to 7 percent of respondents from 12 percent the year prior. The portion who said it has stayed the same remained steady at 68 percent versus 69 percent in 2025.
Industry consultants said they were not surprised by the overall ratings and rankings. What was noticed was Hertz's ascent into third place overall.
"Hertz has been trending in a very positive direction," KesselRun Corporate Travel Solutions VP of program management Krissy Herman said.
"The most significant event we see from the companies is the improvement from Hertz," GoldSpring Consulting partner Neil Hammond concurred. "It's kind of begun to reclaim its place."
Hertz declined to be interviewed for this report.
Category Review
Hammond noted that Hertz taking the top spot for negotiations also made sense.
"It looks like with National and Enterprise, it's a little tougher to negotiate against the others," Hammond said, adding that being the market leader generally from a service perspective puts them in that position, while Hertz, "the one that needed to make a big move, was perhaps the easiest to negotiate with."
Negotiating pricing and amenities was the lowest-rated category for each National and Enterprise, even though the overall score for Enterprise increased 0.05 points from last year, while for National it dipped 0.02 points.
"It's an evolution," Enterprise's Guadagnoli said. "One thing that we focus on is trying to educate our customers on all the different variables that go into pricing, so that we can get well ahead of those conversations, that they're transparently explained. We go in, meet with somebody, talk to them about their account being up for renewal in one year, and we're starting to talk about some of the economics then, so that we're just well ahead of it."
Guadagnoli also noted that "the total value of a trip is different from the cost," he said. "When we talk about us communicating our transparency of pricing and communicating with our customers, we explain that the cost should not maybe always be the only factor people consider."
He added that his team shares their costs, then the pricing. "It's transparent," he said. "We've got dedicated account managers that are there with you. The things we are able to offer provide that value, which is different from cost. And we're working to try to find ways to better communicate that."
Still, National dominated the categories of clean, well-serviced cars and availability and ease of booking at 4.45 and 4.44, respectively. Enterprise, in addition to tying National on pricing transparency, led on communication with buyers about changes and quality data and reporting.
"One of our biggest messages to our sales team is consistency," Guadagnoli said. "We were really focused on controlling what we can control, and what we can control is the development of the employee."
Avis was encouraged to be recognized for its mobile app functionality, which was its most improved category, gaining 0.19 points from last year to 4.18.
"Our focus has been on creating a mobile-first experience that reduces friction through improved UX, expanded self-service, and enhancements driven by traveler feedback,"Avis Budget Group SVP of sales Beth Kinerk said in an email.
When asked about the Avis brand's 0.22-point decline year over year for its relationship with account managers and sales reps, putting it just above communication with buyers about changes as the lowest two categories for the brand, Kinerk acknowledged the company has an opportunity to strengthen each.
"We are reinforcing account team structures, increasing engagement with operations leaders, enhancing proactive communications, and leveraging data to provide more actionable insights to our customers," she said. "We understand there can be a gap between improvements made and how they are perceived, and we are focused on ensuring these enhancements are clearly experienced and communicated."
Regarding Budget's overall rating decline, Kinerk noted that the brand "plays a critical role in delivering dependable, cost-effective solutions for travelers," she said. "While we saw some softening in survey results, the feedback reinforces our focus areas. We are strengthening account engagement, improving responsiveness, and providing better visibility into program performance. We are also ensuring that value is delivered with clarity for our customers."
KesselRun's Herman noted Avis Budget's leadership changes. Brian Choi took over as CEO on July 1, replacing Joe Ferraro.
"My instinct is that they're trying to rebrand and reposition themselves in the industry," Herman said. "There's been some great partnership from some of the account managers that we work with in efforts to reimplement and refresh traveler-facing communications."
Sustainability
The portion of respondents who said sustainability was a part of their car rental program increased to 38 percent from 33 percent in 2025. Those who said their primary supplier could fully meet their sustainability needs also increased, to 40 percent from 24 percent for the same period, with most needs being met also gaining, to 45 percent from 41 percent.
Yet, consultants and suppliers see sustainability demands holding steady.
"We're seeing with Hertz's financials the effects of that big bet on EVs years ago," Herman said. Hertz in the early part of the dedicated agreed to order tens of thousands of electric vehicles, but by 2024 had started to divest them from its fleet.
"There is a subset of travelers who certainly are committed to that," Herman said. "But it's really hard when infrastructure just doesn't support electric vehicles fully. The lack of familiarity with, 'What do I do? Where do I go? What's the appropriate protocol when I'm at a hotel that only has one charger?' Those are all the things that need improvement to see that 38 percent increase."
"We've seen the car rental companies abandon or temper their strategy on electric vehicles," Hammond said. "Corporate travelers have obviously decided that their corporate business trip is not the time to step into the electric vehicle market in an unknown market, in an unknown environment."
Enterprise and National "still are very committed to having a fuel-efficient fleet," Guadagnoli said. "We've got 160,000 hybrid and electric vehicles globally. It's a tale of two markets. You've got a much stronger push across Europe, so the percentage of our fleet is different over there when it comes to EVs and hybrids. Then the U.S. is in a little bit of a different place when it comes to demand and the infrastructure."
News and Trends
Avis Budget's Kinerk noted that the Avis brand's Avis First concierge service, introduced last July and currently available at more than 20 global airport locations and 10 U.S. cities, is being readied for the corporate market.
"Today, Avis First is available to corporate clients through Avis.com, and we are in the final stages of enabling availability through [the global distribution systems], an important step in integrating the product seamlessly into managed travel programs," she said.
In addition, the company plans to introduce split-bill functionality this year, allowing travelers to use multiple payment methods for a single reservation, "which will make it even easier for corporate travelers to upgrade into Avis First while maintaining policy compliance," she said.
As for trends, cost still is the most important factor that Enterprise Mobility is hearing from corporate clients, and that was supported by several respondents who noted their desire for better pricing and more transparency in the survey's open-ended comments. Other respondents, asked what they wanted to see in the coming year, included the need for improved car availability and elimination of wait times, more upgrades and recognition and improved reporting.
On the flip side, multiple respondents also noted that improvements in the past year included better pricing, better reporting and more meetings and communications.
"The overall cost of the program—travel managers and companies are under a lot of pressure to deliver cost savings—so that's very important," Guadagnoli said. "Duty of careand safety is the next most relevant topic that we get. Then the understanding of where the technology is headed and the future of AI. And that's more on the booking tool and expense integration side, but those seem to be the really important things, led by cost."
GoldSpring's Hammond noted that that the trend of smaller firms using group purchasing organizations has continued. "More and more, we are seeing [clients] go through GPOs to access the best rates. Car rental lends itself to consortia buying, certainly more than hotel and air."
Otherwise, companies need pretty large programs to negotiate individually, Hammond said. "I think the GPOs have been largely North America-based, so you need to either be strongly multinational or a very large program to beat what the GPO can offer."
KesselRun's Herman has several clients coming to renewal points in their corporate car rental contracts, and her company has requested from suppliers "flat extensions to be able to see how the market plays out, and they've given them without pushback really across the board. When these clients are ready to truly renew, my instinct tells me that rental car agency costs have not decreased by any stretch of the imagination over the last couple of years, so there will be some interesting conversations across all suppliers."
As for whether current elevated gas prices are affecting programs, "I don't see that having a big impact, because it's not affecting the price of the rental," Hammond said, adding that the higher refueling cost is "going to be something that the companies live with and have expensed on the back end."
Herman said her clients have a cap on refueling charges if refilled by the rental agency, "and that will potentially become a negotiating point in future agreements depending on how this situation plays out," she said.
One item Herman has been hearing about is reduced fleet sizes, with Avis Budget and Hertz each announcing recent cuts. Those suppliers each began fleet sell-off and rotation strategies in late 2024 and early 2025, which recently were completed.
"That leaves questions to what's going to happen for the rest of 2026 as we head into Easter holidays, summer leisure travel and that peak demand period," she said. "Both Avis and Hertz have shared that corporate customers are always going to be prioritized over leisure, which is great to hear. But I still think there's the potential for the summer of 2026 to have long lines in some airports and limited availability."