I was thinking this morning that I rent a car a guaranteed minimum of 3 times a year, for a minimum of a week at a time. I have to go through an arduous process of checking for promos, special offers, price comparison sites, direct deals etc. etc. each time in order to ensure I'm getting a good deal. I have to scour the T's & C's of each prospective hire company to ensure that their sexy headline rate isn't concealing some horrendous exclusions, surcharges etc.
It then occured that there must probably be hundereds of other forum members here who do the same (and many more who just use the provider whom they're comfortable with and who they trust to give them a fair deal most of the time).
I went on to think that we are probably a fairly appealing demographic to a vehicle provider/insurer - mainly
mature; mainly home owners; presumably experienced in driving in the country of rental; familiar with the roads they'll be driving; using the car for more mundane, everyday purposes than an average holiday rental (where the renter will be hauling about all over the region they travel to, trying to pack in all the sites as they go and ending up scraping the sump across every white road that they get lost on).
I'm wondering whether hire car companies may be open to a well organised user group (like us) approaching them, and offering to put a sizeable annual commitment of days booked their way if we get in return some substantial discount and/or better terms (low/no excess; streamlined booking; free upgrades; cheaper rates for extended rentals etc.)
Finally, I wondered whether such an approach, if made under the auspices of Italy Magazine, may be better received by the big rental companies - and whether IM may be minded to assist with that in return for some kind of commintment from the beneficiaries (us) - i.e. benefits contingent upon remaining active members here (based on post count or something similar).
At this stage I just wanted to float the concept and see whether
a) anyone thinks there's some mileage in it (groan)
b) anyone knows of any similar existing schemes (I don't mean the obvious hertz #1 club etc., I mean unpublicised special interest groups that both parties keep quiet because it offers significant additional value)
c) anyone knows personally of any smaller but reputable hire companies for whom such a proposal may represent a compelling guarantee of volume/repeat business (I'm not sure that we represent enough man days of rental to make Hertz or Avis turn summersaults?)
If there is sufficient interest, we could maybe set up an invite only group later to discuss how we could organise this, what level of benefit would be required/likely and whether to attempt it with/without the Magazine's help - that way, any ideas could be shared in confidence and refined before being floated externally.
Thoughts?