If you have tried to make a booking on our avis.co.uk website over the past couple of days then you may have struggled to complete that booking as we have had problems with the availability of the site. I apologise for any frustration this has caused. The issue has been resolved but we still need to perform some essential maintenance. For this reason the website will be unavailable to take bookings for the following dates and times:

- Monday 2nd June between 4am-6am (UK time)
- Wednesday 4th June between 4am-6am (UK time)
- Monday 9th June between 4am-6am (UK time)

Hopefully the unsociallable hours this maintenance is taking place will minimise the impact on you but if you have an early start or if you cannot sleep and decide to get up early and book an Avis car on any of these dates and times then you might hit a few problems! If there are any changes to the timings of the planned maintenance work then I will post an update here.

Bookmark It

We’ve had some great weather over the past week and I am (perhaps naively) hopeful we are approaching a fine summer. Summer is our busiest period with many customers renting for the first time in the year as they look for more freedom in their holiday. And if this blog has proven anything, it is just how many different kinds of questions people can have about car hire, particularly if they do not hire on a regular basis. I’ve learned that renting a car is not always as simple and straightforward as you might think!

We’ve written quite a few blog posts now with various tips and bits of information so, as we head into the holiday season, I thought it might be worthwhile re-listing those which you might find particularly helpful when booking and renting your holiday car hire:

- Tips for booking you car hire
- Tips for getting the best price
- Tips for renting a car on holiday - Part 1
- Tips for renting a car on holiday - Part 2
- Information on accepted credit cards
- What we ‘hold’ against your credit card
- Our damage policy

Bookmark It

I’ve just received an e-mail from Trip Advisor with their 2008 Travellers Choice Destination Awards attached. This lists the top 100 places to visit in 2008 as voted for by the people who have visited the Trip Advisor site. Counting through the results, I’m slightly disappointed to find out that I’ve only been to 17 out of the top 100!! This just makes me think that I should travel a bit more. However, I’m still one ahead of Rob who has only visited 16 destinations on the list.

How many places on this list have you visited? Are there places that are not on there but should be? Personally, I think Carcassonne, located in the South West of France should be included. One of the most friendly and beautiful places I’ve ever been.

Let us know your comments.

Bookmark It

Just a quick note to let you know that we are currently trialling the Smart Fortwo at our location in Mayfair, London. The Smart Fortwo is a flexible and economical city car running at around 60 mpg (combined use of city and motorway driving) with a CO2 output of 112 g/km.

We are trialling the Smart car for the month of May only so get in quick if you want to give it a try. And, as always, any feedback on the Smart car and whether we should be making this a longer term fixture on our London fleet would be greatly appreciated!

Bookmark It

Firstly, I just want to say thank you for all the great feedback that was provided about the Select Series on the blog. We have spent the last few months deliberating based on your feedback, last year’s performance and what the manufacturers have available to us to help decide how the Select Series will look for the rest of the year. I am now pleased to say that we are in position to announce this.

This year the choice of Select Series will be simplified. Also, as before, availability of Select Series cars will be limited to 8 locations although the cars we have available at each of these locations will also differ. This is to ensure we allocate our cars to the locations where they are most popular. Below I have listed the cars available and where they will be available at:

Peugeot 207CC (manual)
Available at all Select Series locations including the airports Gatwick, Heathrow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Stansted as well as our Mayfair location in central London.

Volkswagen Golf (manual)
Available at all Select Series locations including the airports Gatwick, Heathrow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Stansted as well as our Mayfair location in central London.

Audi A4 saloon (manual)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow, Edinburgh and Manchester airports.

Audi A4 saloon (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports plus our Mayfair location in central London.

Audi A4 estate (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Edinburgh airports.

Mercedes C Class estate (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Edinburgh airports.

Audi A6 Saloon (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports plus our Mayfair location in central London.

If past history is anything to go by there will undoubtedly be lots of questions and feedback to this modified Select Series so please fire away. I know one of these questions will be about when our customers can expect to see the new Audi A4 on Select Series. The first of these will be available with the automatic transmission and this will start to be phased into our fleet from July. I should also note that the new Audi A4 will no longer automatically include GPS although it will continued to be included in the price with the A6.

Most of the changes to Select Series will come into effect from this Friday (May 2nd) and is bookable on the www.avis.co.uk website as normal.

Bookmark It

Acknowledging achievement is quickly becoming a theme on the blog as today I would like to recognise my Marketing colleague and past flat mate Chris Wickson (pictured far right in the photo), who, along with three of his friends from university (pictured with Chris), was a finalist at the inaugural HSBC Unipreneur of the Year. The award has been set-up to recognise those students and graduates who represent the UK’s newest and brightest breed of budding entrepreneurs rewarding the overall winner with a £20,000 prize to invest into their business.

Chris and co’s progress in the competition was just reward for the success of their service RateMyPlacement, a website (www.ratemyplacement.co.uk) that allows students to post reviews about their experiences on work placement. Work placements play a critical role for university students, providing them the opportunity to spend a year out from their studies to gain practical experience in their chosen industry as part of their degree. The experiences shared on RateMyPlacement allows prospective work placement students to make a more informed decision about where to work so they can focus their energy on applying for roles at companies where they can expect to progress their personal development rather than wasting time surfing the internet and making coffee (a situation that unfortunately seems to occur far too often). Unfortunately, RateMyPlacement did not win the award but they did pretty incredible to make it to the final 5 having competed against over 400 other entries. And Chris got his moment in the limelight, presenting in the final to a panel of judges that included Dragon’s Den own Peter Jones. Of course he also did Tycoon so hey what does he know anyway?!

Well done Chris. Having witnessed first-hand your passion and dedication to your company (while still putting in a high standard of work at Avis) I could say that you fully deserve all the recognition you are getting!

Bookmark It

I met with our PR agency the other day and in our meeting they handed me a photocopy of a newspaper article from the Newcastle based Sunday Sun, which they suggested I should feature on the blog. Intrigued I quickly cast my eye over it. The first paragraph introduced an Anthony Smith, a fleet manager from Whickham, Gateshead who had been shortlisted for the Tomy “Daddy Idol” award, based “on his looks” and “what makes him a good dad”. After doing double take on the picture I quickly realised this Daddy Idol finalist was our very own Tony Smith!

Unfortunately, the modest Tony (or Anthony as the article refers to him) did not tell anyone at work about his entry so we were unable to help him get enough votes to help him win the award. But we are delighted to recognise his achievement on the blog and I encourage anyone to join me in congratulating Tony on his Daddy Idol nomination!

Bookmark It

We’ve had a number of questions posted on the blog recently, asking about what we will ‘hold’ against your credit card when you pick up your hire car with Avis. It can sometimes differ by country but here is a general rule: if it is a ‘pay later’ booking then we will ‘hold’ for the cost of the basic rental price you would have been quoted for at the time of booking (usually includes time and mileage of the rental, Vehicle Damage Cover, Vehicle Theft Cover and any applicable taxes). In addition, we will also put a hold for the price of any additional extras you opt to add to your rental at the rental counter (e.g. excess waivers, additional driver, etc), plus the estimated cost of a tank of fuel. If you’re booking is pre-paid then we will only put a hold against the additional extras and the fuel given that everything else has been paid for in advance!

If you have any questions about payment with Avis then please feel free to post them. For more information about accepted credit cards, please visit our blog post on this topic.

Bookmark It

I have just read that the number of reviews on Tripadvisor has grown from 10 million to 15 million in the past 9 months alone. With the site attracting more than 25 million unique visitors last year, it would suggest that Tripadvisor is becoming increasingly more influential in how we all research our travel plans.

Personally, I’ve always been excited about the impact all of these review sites, social networks and blogs are having. No longer do we have to base our flight, hotel or car hire booking on all the fluffly promises that each competing brand is feeding us. Instead we can read about real experiences, from real people and make more informative decisions about who we book our travel with. But just how influential are these reviews on the likes of Tripadvisor and other review websites and forums? I’d love to gauge your opinion in the poll below. Of course, as always, any comments on this are welcome!

Bookmark It

Our counterparts in the US recently launched a new TV advertising campaign. The ads tell the sad story of how cheated your private car feels when you rent a car with Avis. There are four ads in total, all of them quite amusing, and I have posted my favourite below. Let me know what you think…

Bookmark It