Kayak upgrades car rental offering

October 01, 2008 | Online Travel

Kayak is the first travel giant to offer independent car rental agency listings, instead of just the majors like Hertz and Co. offered by most online travel agents.

Kayak has forged a reputation as an innovator in the internet travel industry and was recently rated by Forbes Magazine as “Best of The Web”. Until recently, however, Kayak remained something of a “me too” provider, in one area of the business: car rental. Like most online travel giants, their car rental inventory has been limited to the majors: Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Budget, and all the other usual suspects. True to form, Kayak has now taken the step of breaking out of this mold, and is the first travel giant to offer independent car rental agency listings.

How is this possible? Kayak has teamed up with Car Rental Express.com, the world’s premier web site featuring independent car rental agencies and mid-tier franchises. Also known as CRX, Car Rental Express has been a leader in online travel, with a decade of web presence. CRX has gathered together literally hundreds of Independent car rental agencies across North America and other parts of the globe. What do the smaller companies have to offer, that you can’t find with the majors? Many things, including attention to detail, the flexibility to meet the customer’s needs, and best of all, the potential for 15% to 30% savings over national brands.

It is CRX technology that has given Kayak access to the independent agency vehicle inventory. Created by parent company Express ITech, the Revolution reservation system captures all industry standard information about car classes for rent, corresponding rate options for weekdays, weekends and holiday rates, as well as company information on locations and policies. Following the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) standards, the Revolution system makes hundreds of agency vehicle inventories available to Kayak. Express ITech technology has bridged the gap between independent car rental agencies and the majors. This is a great breakthrough for both Kayak and the consumer or renter of vehicles.

Express ITech is pleased to announce that select CRX agencies have joined the Kayak program and have gone live on Kayak as of September 1, 2008. In less than a week’s time, one of those agencies has booked many thousands of dollars in rental revenue at a relatively low cost, in terms of click thrus from Kayak.com. The program start up is off to a resounding success.

We invite all independent vehicle rental agencies to visit Express ITech.com and to visit Car Rental Express.com. Come and see how you can be part of this breakthrough in the travel reservation industry, partnering with us and the millions of visitors to Kayak.com.