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Rental Customers 'Have No Clue'
Interview · January 25, 2004

Xanax-popping co-workers. Overbearing managers who fire employees for not being aggressive enough. Ignorant customers. That was life behind the car-rental counter for Ute Hodges, a customer service agent for Alamo and Budget at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fla. "I had a friend who worked for a rental car company and she made good money," says Hodges. "So I wanted to try it." What she learned about the business serves as a cautionary tale for anyone renting a vehicle today.

Q: What did you do while you worked in the rental business?

Hodges: It depended. If I worked at the main office, I did everything - returns, exchanges, complaints, rentals and so forth. If I worked at the airport counter, I only rented cars. All told, I spent five years working in the car-rental business.

Q: Describe the average workday.

Hodges: An average workday had 10 hours. The shifts needed to be covered from 5 a.m. until the last flight came in, so if you worked a closing shift you had to stay until the last flight arrived. If there was a delay, that would mean staying until 4 a.m.

Q: That's a lot of hours. Was it very stressful?

Hodges: Yes, it was very stressful. I would say 95 percent of the rental agents were on anti-anxiety medication like Xanax.

Q: Why was everyone so stressed out?

Hodges: Because your boss wants you to sell something to each customer - and the customer is not always happy about that. A customer also takes everything out on you if something went wrong on the trip. The flight, the luggage, the screaming kid, the line he has to wait in. And then you don't have the exact car he wants half of the time.

Q: So you're told to sell something to customers - upgrades, insurance or fuel purchase options - that customers really don't really want. Or need.

Hodges: Customers have no clue that as soon as they come to the counter, they're being sold something. Agents are trained to sell. They're trained how to respond when a customer says 'no.'

Q: And the more you sell, the more you make.

Hodges: You get a base pay, which averages about $7.50 an hour. The rest is commission. A good rental agent averages about $50,000 a year. A top agent can average about $120,000 a year.

Q: But what if you don't sell enough extras?

Hodges: Every employee has a sales yield. If you don't make your sales yield, you get fired.

A: So what, exactly, are the yields?

Hodges: My average sales yield was about a $9, which means my average sale per customer was $9 a day, per rental day. Your commission percentage goes up with your yield.

Q: What were the average yields at your location?

Hodges: It's hard to maintain a yield above $8. But some people were able to hold $15 to $18 yields.

Q: Do things work any differently when you book a car online and get a prepaid voucher, as you would on Priceline or Hotwire?

Hodges: It's no different from other rentals. People with prepaid vouchers can also buy upgrades or coverage or gas.

Q: Customers often accuse car-rental agents of pushing expensive and unnecessary insurance, which drives up the cost of a rental vehicle. Car-rental companies say they're just trying to protect their customers. Who's right?

Hodges: I would say both. I recommend checking with your insurance and finding out what it really covers. Every insurance policy is different. If you are not sure, take the protection plan, as they call it. Also, check with your credit card company, sometimes they cover a rental car. Just make sure you have some type of coverage.

Q: You mentioned overbooking earlier. Is that a big problem?

Hodges: All of the car-rental companies overbook by about 25 percent. That's because they figure about 20 percent of the customers won't show up. A lot of people book through the Internet and make three or four reservations at the same time, and then they try to bargain with you.

Q: How did the overbooking affect customers?

Hodges: You might get a nicer car for the same rate. But on specialty vehicles like convertibles you had a lot of mad customers, because there was no nicer replacement. Same goes for SUV's, minivans or luxury cars.

Q: Do you think customers understand the way the system works?

Hodges: No, they don't. And they don't listen to the person that rents them the car. And they don't read the contract they sign.

Q: Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Hodges: A shady rental agent would take advantage of that. You really have to take your time and read the contract before you sign. Ask if you have questions.

Q: If a rental agent's customer is charged a penalty - say, for returning the car without a full tank - does that extra money go to the agent's yield?

Hodges: No, the agent gets none of that.

Q: What if the renter asks for a credit and gets it? Would that come out of your yield?

Hodges: Yes, it would. If a customer complains, and they issue credits for any reason, then it gets taken away from the agent. That's why most honest agents make sure that the customer understands everything they sign for, and makes them initial every change on the rental - for upgrades, insurance, and so forth.

Q: Sounds as if the car rental companies don't like it when customers complain.

Hodges: They don't want to get an even worse reputation than they already have. They would never admit that the agent at the counter is supposed to sell you something. Even during our training, they always told us that everything is for the benefit of the customer. But let's face it, if my commissions for one year are $50,000, and I get 10 percent of my sales, that means I made the company $500,000 in sales, above the regular rental reservation. So it's also for the benefit of the company.

Q: What advice would you have for rental customers?

Hodges: Be prepared. Make your reservation in advance. But remember, having a reservation does not mean you have the lowest rate. Prices change by the hour and they change on demand. The more cars available, the less the rates are.

Q: So an agent can give you a lower rate just for the asking?

Hodges: The rental agents make the rate. They have that power. Their supervisor just gives them a minimum they have to charge. The more they charge the higher their yield - and the higher the yield, the higher the commission. The rule of thumb was always, if a customer is nice and decent with me, I'll be nice too. If he's nasty, the price will also be nasty. And trust me: you'll get the lemon on the lot.

Q: I'll have to remember to be extra polite next time I rent a car.

Hodges: Most rental agents I know are good people, and they don't cheat anybody. It is just the way management pushes them to make their sales. They have to go through the whole song and dance about insurance and upgrades, and that gives them a bad rep. Remember, it's not them - it's the bosses behind them. They train you to think that everything you do or sell is only good for the customer, you just have to make the customer understand why it is good for him. But if you don't believe in the product you are selling, you can't sell it.

Christopher Elliott is a travel journalist based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.

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