The last time your customer booked a hotel, they didn't call anyone. They picked a room, paid and had a confirmation within a minute. At a major rental chain, they checked in on an app and walked straight to the car.
Now they're renting from you. They send an email asking whether that van is available next Thursday. Then they wait. Maybe an hour, maybe until tomorrow. Meanwhile, they keep looking.
If you want to grow, with more vehicles, more rentals or a second location, there is one question to ask yourself: can my customers rent from me as easily as they are used to booking everything else?
Your competitor isn't who you think
Most rental businesses compare themselves with other rental businesses in their region. Who has the sharpest daily rate, who has the newest vans, who is closest to the motorway?
But they are not the ones setting the bar for your customer experience. That bar is set by Booking.com, by Airbnb and by the major rental chains. That is where your customer learned that availability is visible instantly, that paying takes two taps and that a confirmation lands in their inbox straight away. They bring that expectation to every booking that follows, including yours.
The gap between what your customer is used to and what they experience with you does not show up in your numbers. You only see the customers who do email. The ones who dropped out because they never got an answer don't appear anywhere in your records.
What self-service actually means in car rental
Self-service is not a kiosk in the lobby, nor a chatbot that only knows your opening hours. It means a customer can rent from start to finish without anyone on your team having to do anything. Four building blocks make that possible.
Online booking
The customer sees on your own website which vehicles are available, picks a period and books straight away, or submits a reservation request if you prefer to work that way. No more "is that van free?" emails.
Digital signing
The rental agreement is signed digitally, just like a quote or a damage form. Nothing needs to be printed, scanned or sent on, and the signed document goes straight into the file.
Payment
Rent and deposit are paid online at the moment of booking. Nobody at the counter has to chase a payment, and your team doesn't have to check who has already paid.
Real-time status
Customers see their own booking, documents and invoices, and can update their details. Anyone who wants to know whether everything is sorted checks for themselves instead of calling.
The principle behind it is simple: every question a customer can answer themselves is a question your team no longer has to answer. And whatever the customer enters is correct in your system straight away.
Web and app: your customers want both
A question rental businesses often ask: does it have to be an app, or is a good website enough? The honest answer is that you need both, because you have two kinds of customers.
The first rental: in the browser
Not every customer wants to download an app right away. Someone renting a van once for a house move wants to book, pay and sign in the browser, on their phone or laptop, without first creating an account in an app store. Ask them to install an app before they can book, and some of those customers will drop out.
The regular renter: the app
Repeat renters, such as a contractor who needs vans every month or a business customer with regular trips, actually want a native app from the App Store or Google Play. Staying logged in, rebooking with one tap, extending or changing a reservation, and picking up and returning the vehicle themselves.
Choose only one and you let the other group down. A rental business that wants to grow serves both: the web version as a barrier-free way in for new customers, the app as the regular route for the customers who come back.
The loyalty maths
Customers who can serve themselves come back more easily. Not because they are loyal to your brand, but because coming back takes the least effort. Their details are already there, so is their last booking, and renting again is a matter of picking a period.
Those same customers call and email less. They don't need to ask whether their payment came through, where their contract is or what time they can collect the vehicle. Your team notices that in a calmer inbox and in a phone that rings less often at the busiest moments of the day.
The effect is twofold: more repeat bookings and less work per booking. Exactly what you need if you want to grow without your team having to grow at the same rate.
What the gap costs you each week
How much time does all that back-and-forth actually take? Work it out for your own rental business:
- bookings per week × share of bookings with back-and-forth × minutes per booking = minutes per week
A worked example, explicitly hypothetical: a rental business with 80 bookings a week, 30% of which still involve emails or calls about availability, payment or the contract. That is 24 bookings. If each one takes an average of 20 minutes of back-and-forth, your team spends 8 hours a week on it. A full working day, every week.
Fill in your own numbers. Then add something you cannot measure: the customers who didn't wait for your reply and booked somewhere else.
What that looks like with RentVisie
RentVisie builds these building blocks into the rental software itself, so they don't run separately from your rental administration.
- With the booking module, customers book on your own website, with real-time availability and a direct handover to your back office.
- In the customer portal, they complete their booking, pay rent and deposit, update their details and view their documents.
- With digital signing, they sign contracts, quotes and forms through the customer portal or the Control App.
- The self-service app is a white-label app that lets customers book, pay, pick up and return 24/7 on their own, with built-in security and KYC checks.
Everything the customer does is synchronised automatically with the back office. If a customer does need help, your team can look along from the back office. We wrote earlier about the future of rental without a counter and about introducing self-service without losing customer contact.
In five years this won't set you apart
Today, online booking and digital signing can still set you apart. In a few years they won't. Self-service will be the baseline, just as having a website once became the baseline.
Rental businesses without self-service won't lose customers on features. They'll lose them silently, one unanswered email at a time. Nobody calls to say they booked somewhere else.
The rental businesses that will win in the next five years aren't the ones with the biggest fleets. They're the ones whose customers never have to wait.
Frequently asked questions
What is a customer portal in car rental?
A customer portal is an online environment where renters complete their booking, pay rent and deposit, update their details and view their confirmations, contracts and invoices themselves. Whatever they do there is processed straight into the rental administration, so your team no longer has to copy it over by hand.
Can renters book online on their own, 24/7?
Yes. With a booking module on your own website, customers see current availability at any time and book straight away, or submit a reservation request. With a self-service app, they can also book, pay, pick up and return 24/7 on their own, without a member of staff getting involved.
Do I need an app, or is a web version enough?
You need both. New customers and one-off renters often want to book in the browser without downloading an app first. Repeat renters actually want an app, so they stay logged in and can rebook, extend or change a booking quickly. Offer only one of the two and you leave part of your customers behind.
Do I lose customer contact when customers serve themselves?
No. Self-service removes the routine work: questions about availability, payment and documents. That leaves your team more time for the customers who really need help, and lets them look along from the back office when a customer gets stuck.
How do I calculate what a lack of self-service costs my rental business?
Multiply the number of bookings per week by the share of bookings that still require emails or calls, and by the average number of minutes each of those bookings takes. That is the time your team spends on back-and-forth every week. Customers who drop out because they didn't get an answer fast enough come on top of that.
Book a call. We'll show you how online booking, the customer portal and the app together take the back-and-forth out of your customer contact.
Book a call