Avis Car Rental along with its subsidiaries operate as one of the renowned car rental brands with approximately 5,500 locations in more than 165 countries. The company is known for innovation in the car rental industry and has a strong reputation for customer loyalty. Avis is owned by Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR), which operates and licenses the brand throughout the world.
Amazon.com, on the other hand, is a multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. In layman's terms, where Avis is among the leaders in the car rental companies, Amazon is the leader that can provide the bridge between someone who wants to borrow a car and someone who can provide the best ones.
These two companies came together to provide an excellent offer that not only makes the availability of cars much easier but also does so at a much lower cost - 30% lower cost. Avis are leveraging the popularity of Amazon and with different discounts for Amazon customers who book a car rental. These discounts are in the form of Amazon.com gift cards - effectively exclusive Amazon Customer Avis discounts.
Initially, Amazon customers who booked an Avis vehicle could save in the form of an Amazon.com Gift Card valued at 10% of their rental price. Eventually, those who book an Avis vehicle using the Avis skill for Amazon Alexa got to receive an Amazon.com Gift Card valued at 20%. Borrowing from the website itself, ‘The Amazon Customer Avis discounts integration is relatively deep with ‘Login with Amazon’ in on the Avis website. The offering builds upon a relationship between the two companies that dates back to 2017 when Avis launched a skill for Amazon Alexa. The skill enables Avis customers to make a car rental reservation, review current or past reservations and request an e-receipt of their last rental. Travelers have instant, voice-controlled access to the car rental booking process with such commands as “I need a car at La Guardia Airport at 9:00 a.m. this Friday”.’
A quote by the Senior Vice President, Sales, Avis Budget Group Beth Kinerk would shed more light on the matter, “Amazon customers are accustomed to convenient and on-demand services, and Avis Budget Group is pleased to be able to add transportation to the mix. As digital technology evolves we are able to offer increasingly seamless travel experiences for our customers, and hope these great incentives encourage more people to try our new offerings, including our Amazon Alexa booking tool. We are excited to work with Amazon to offer their customers a valuable benefit when they rent with Avis.”
Like any other service, renting a car also gets you loyalty points, and what better way would be to have those extra offers usable not only on cars but to shop anything you want. This is what you get by booking through Amazon. Among the benefits you get are 10% credit as a gift card, 20% back in credit at Amazon plus savings on base rates. The monetary benefits are not the only ones. Expedited services, accelerated awards and absolute control on how to use your rewards.
This is an excellent example of businesses recognising the loyalty of customers of an e-commerce platform along with offering benefits outside of those one would normally associate with a regular prime membership. Amazon and Avis coming together means that the majority of Alexa owners are also Amazon Prime members so the discount uplift to 20% for booking using the Alexa Skill will be tapping into Amazon’s most loyal customer base. For a customer this is just an added advantage of being a member of one of the premier ecommerce platforms. Currently, the discounts are applicable to Avis rentals in the United States, with the expectation to launch in other key markets in the future.
A website called The Points Guy calculated the monetary benefits of such an opportunity. A regular booking, of say a Chevrolet Malibu, will cost approximately $120. With a regular booking discount code it will come down by almost 16% to slightly north of $100. With Amazon booking you get a 5% discount and a further 10 to 20% in Amazon gifts. If you sign up with Avis Preferred you can avoid all the waiting lines and have instant access to your choice of ride.
The process is super easy as well. Whether the advantages of such offers are suitable for you or not remains your choice, but on balance it is always good to save something extra while making any purchases. Amazon and Avis put together also mean safety and security, as well as quality service. To make matters sweeter, once you sign up for Amazon services, who knows how many extra benefits and deals may come your way.