To maneuver through the travel industry’s recovery and enter an exciting new phase, it’s critical that you keep track of the car rental industry trends that could impact your business.
With a CAGR of 6.1 percent from 2020 to 2025, the worldwide vehicle rental business is predicted to reach $120 billion by 2025.
The challenges brought by COVID-19 notwithstanding, the future of car rental industry trends looks promising.
To help you make the most of your opportunities, we have curated a list of 5 key trends and challenges that you should be prepared for in 2022.
1. Chip Shortage Chaos
There is no respite from the chip shortage that’s been affecting so many industries.
It will remain difficult to expand fleet numbers due to supply chain limitations that have hampered vehicle manufacturing, intensifying the supply-demand mismatch.
With no defined end in sight, manufacturers predict that the disruption is likely to continue through 2022. Investigate how you can safely extend the service life of existing vehicles to ride this one out.
2. Travel Havoc
There is no escaping the damage COVID-19 has had on the car rental industry. 2022 will continue to feel the aftershocks of lockdowns and travel restrictions. But there is a silver lining.
Scientists say that we could be at the beginning of the end, which means we can start preparing for customers to return… but also prepare for changes in their behavior.
There will be higher expectations for cleanliness levels, more demand for contactless renting experiences and an increase in bleisure rentals (where consumers extend work trips to include leisure time) in our post pandemic world.
3. Stay Connected
Providing great service is not enough. With some of your customer base not using your services right now, you need to work extra hard to keep in the forefront of their minds.
Engage in social media with your community and make sure you connect with your customers on a personal level – so they think of you first when they are ready to start traveling again.
Look at your customer relationship management systems and take advantage of RENTALL Add-ons which include client satisfaction surveys and SMS messaging.
4. Diversification
Diversifying your customer base is an effective way for businesses to increase revenue and growth. Targeting new sectors might help you break into a lucrative market with plenty of new clients and exciting sales potential.
While the tourism sector recovers, consider focusing on leasing services or branching out to the corporate business sector.
Even if you are set up as car rental operator, RENTALL rental software has different modules to support growing your business into new areas.
No matter what your company size, location or business goals, RentALL delivers improved operations, smart reports, increased bookings and satisfied customers, all through an easy-to-use interface.
5. Contactless and Keyless
The movement towards digital and contactless services has gained considerable traction.
Consumers are now accustomed to using facial and fingerprint identification to unlock their smartphones and computers and will soon expect the same convenience elsewhere.
Investigate ways you can change your services to embrace new technology. If you’re not ready to move to a keyless fleet, can you find other ways to vary your customers’ rental choices? For example, contactless key pick-up kiosks or moving to a car-share model?
Renting a car today is unquestionably a different experience for both rental firms and the customer. Technology is changing our landscape rapidly – make sure the software your company uses is also ready to adapt and change alongside you.