easyCar.com, putting customers in the driving seat
With 45,000 locations, finding a car at the right price is easy! Photo courtesy easyCar.com
easyCar.com is a global car rental comparison service that compares over 1,700 local, national and international brands across 170 countries worldwide with cars in over 45,000 locations. It has technology that not only looks at prices, but also pickup convenience and past customer ratings – all to help guide a well-informed car rental choice. We spoke to Simon O’Flynn, Chief Marketing Officer.
Monaco Tribune: What makes easyCar.com stand out compared to other services?
Simon: If you look at the price comparison space, there are a number of players in that space. What’s a bit different with easyCar is we’re a long-established car hire company. This past year was our 25th anniversary in operation. We were one of the earliest to join the easy family of brands after easyJet.
At that time, easyCar bought its own fleet of vehicles and challenged traditional car hire companies, with a low cost model, and in the 2010s there was a car-sharing business. But over time, the business model has evolved into what’s called a car brokerage or a price comparison service. So since about 2019, we’ve been purely a car price comparison service. Our range of suppliers goes from multinationals like Avis and Europcar down to small local suppliers, like Centaro in Spain.
What also makes us different to other price comparison services is in the detail. Things like insurance policies. One thing I personally hate is when you pick up a car and someone tries to upsell you stuff. What makes us a bit different is things like that, the “fine bits around the outside”. We let people buy an insurance policy up front, which is decent value and more importantly, underwritten specifically for easyCar customers, not a generic policy for anybody in Germany or France for example. Plus we make it good value compared to when you buy it locally.
You advertise that there are no extras, unlike others…
Absolutely. There is no reason why you should be paying anything more locally. Within reason – things like kids’ car seats, for example, are always, always sold locally.
We also have other touches like customer scores out of 10 for each supplier. Those are genuine customer scores that we actively ask our customers to rate for us, and we listen and act on what our customers feed back to us. I’m actually quite surprised how few complaints we get because car hire can often attract quite a few unhappy people. We deal with any individual complaints, but we also aggregate them to identify trends. So if we see any poor scores or a downward trend, we find out what’s going on. And if a supplier doesn’t score particularly well for our customers, they are managed out.
Other price comparison people may have a slightly different range and also offer different suppliers. We all share the big ones because why wouldn’t you have Hertz or Avis? But we manage it around our customers and what they want. And over time – and I think this is where our longevity is important – you build up that customer base and a clear view of what works for them. I was asked recently how many cars we’ve rented over time. And I said, I’ve got no idea, but I know it’s way over several million. That’s a lot of inherent learning built up over time!
Another thing that sets us apart, is that you can cancel for free 48 hours before, on virtually all our cars. Sometimes plans change or prices drop, and customers cancel and rebook with us at the cheaper price or for a later date and I’m fine with that. If a customer wants to do that then I think it’s right for the customer to have that offer.
Is that about retaining customer loyalty?
Sure but also about putting the customer in charge. And in fact, even if we advertise a hard discount offer in the press, customers tend to spend the same money. They say “look, I’ve got €500 for a car. Now for the same money I can get a full size rather than an intermediate.”
So value for money rather than a cheap deal?
Value often means different things to different people. Somebody who’s only got a few hundred euros will be looking to maximise their value and shop around to get the most out of it. Other people might want a luxury car, whose daily rate is probably more than the weekly rate for other cars. Both are different, but both want their version of value.
When people hear of an easy brand, they may think primarily of easyJet, and therefore low-cost travel. They perhaps don’t expect luxury car hire from you?
Well, we don’t have super cars like the ones you see parked outside Monte-Carlo Casino, just yet. It’d be nice. I’ll be the first one in the queue (laughs).
But we do what you might call mainstream luxury – a good size BMW 5 series, Tesla or Mercedes, etc., classic family touring cars. We have good size SUVs too. And eco cars…
Is there a lot of demand for those?
Electric vehicles are interesting. Some car hire companies bet big on them being adopted very, very quickly. And I think the take-up rate in the higher-end market is currently slightly slower. But they’re in the fleet, as are hybrids, and if people want them, we’ll offer them. Part of the reason the broker or price-comparison model is better for easyCar now compared to the fleet-owning model it started out with, is the range of options for customers. I mean, 45,000 locations? We’re virtually everywhere in virtually every country where you would want to rent a vehicle.
Is there a natural tie-in between easyCar and easyJet in that some of the bigger car hire firms perhaps don’t cover some of the smaller airports that easyJet flies to – Beauvais rather than Paris – Charles de Gaulle for example?
Your readers may find it surprising, but the the fly+drive package on easyJet isn’t with us. We don’t have a preferential rate for easyJet customers – both businesses are separate. Our focus is always on best value for everyone. So we look after everybody for the same, best possible price. We are democratic. Agnostic I think is the word.
Stelios is growing the easy family of brands, where the sum is very much greater than the parts. That definitely helps us where there is another easy brand, be it easyJet or easyHotel or another easyEntity. That definitely helps awareness. It probably helps in the reverse as well, because we’re in those 45,000 locations. That includes airports that the airline doesn’t fly to, and downtown locations. So, if easyJet is going to run a new route, we’re probably there already to help them.
How big is your team?
6 foot (laughs). Stelios runs easyCar with a lean internal team to keep it nimble, and I engage other people as needed. I have operating partners and if I need technology, I’ve got a technology team externally etc.
Speaking of technology, how is that evolving for you?
Right now I’m looking at how to take advantage of certain AI products and how they can be better inserted into easyCar’s services. Again it’s that classic easyCar thing – it’s about helping the customer find what they want, putting them front and centre. Not just when the customer arrives, but before on their booking journey when they first think about it, you’re becoming relevant.
Like the hospitality industry approach?
Exactly. It’s all about taking care of that customer all the way through the process, from the early “I think I’m going to go to the Caribbean”. And we’d say, “Well, look, if you’re going to Saint Barts, these are your car options.” I’m currently looking at explaining the features and questions on a hire car in terms of what you want the car for and why a certain model would suit you, rather than just saying, “hello, we’re a car hire company and here’s our fleet list. Take your pick.”
If I’m an easyCar customer, what does it look like when I get to my destination and I want to pick up a car? Am I looking for an easyCar banner?
Very good question. We don’t own the vehicles, we are the facilitator. So when you book, your easyCar documentation arrives with all the bespoke instructions for the supplier. If it was, say, Avis at Nice Airport, you would know to look for Avis and where they are situated, on or off airport as the case may be. And if there’s a shuttle bus, we would say, this is where you find it. There are clear instructions, we literally hand you over to the Avis person and they take over from there.
For more information and reservations: easyCar.com