Customer satisfaction with car rental suppliers increased
year over year as travelers gave the highest satisfaction ratings to Enterprise
Rent-A-Car in the J.D. Power 2016 North American Rental Car Satisfaction Study.
The study, based on responses from more than 11,300 business
and leisure travelers who rented a vehicle from an airport location between
August 2015 and August 2016 showed overall satisfaction hit 804 points on a
1,000-point scale, up six points from a year prior. Scores across all brands
improved on cost and fees, the highest-weighted factor. Other factors were
pickup process, return process, the cars themselves, shuttle service and the
reservation process.
Business travelers were more satisfied than their leisure
counterparts with car rental companies; business travelers gave an average
rating of 806 versus a rating of 798 by leisure travelers. The overall average
was 804. Travelers on a combined business-leisure trip had an even higher
average, 836.
Enterprise had the highest average score among the car
rental companies, followed by sister brands National and Alamo. This is Enterprise's
third consecutive year at the top of the survey, and it scored well across all
six criteria, according to J.D. Power. Enterprise also had a seven-year run at
the top of the survey from 2004 through 2010 and topped the list in 2012,
according to Enterprise.
Despite
the overall increase in score, the percentage of customers who experienced
problems with rentals increased from 14 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2015,
although those were skewed by incidents at smaller brands not included in the
rankings, according to J.D. Power. The most frequent problem occurred with such
equipment as GPS navigation devices, toll technology and satellite radio.