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Smart Design Not in the Budget

28 Feb 2003 by

So, I’m looking for a rental car for an upcoming trip and checked out a variety of sources. I checked out the comparison sites like Expedia and Orbitz and also the individual rental car company sites like Dollar, Avis, Hertz, Budget and others.

First off, most are really bad (especially Hertz). Confusing, quirky, slow, etc. But, what really stood out was Budget’s method for displaying prices. Instead of showing a per day cost, Budget shows a trip duration cost. So, if I’m going somewhere for 5 days, they’ll display $134.71 instead of $26.95/day (see screenshot below). While it’s nice to see the total cost, displaying only the total cost makes it very difficult to compare Budget’s prices with their competitors who display their prices using the industry standard price-per-day pricing model. It should say something like “$134.71 for your trip ($26.95/day).”

budget prices

Hey Budget, when I’m looking for a rental I compare prices. Your pricing display method requires me to pull out a caluculator to see how your prices relate to Avis’ or Hertz’s. This is bad design. You make me feel like you don’t understand the rental car experience. Even if you think consumers would benefit by knowing the total cost, you need to “speak the same language” as your competitors if you want me to listen.

20 comments so far (Post a Comment)

28 Feb 2003 | hurley#1 said...

On the other hand, maybe the other rental companies should follow Budget's model. (The best solution, of course, would be for all rental companies to show both the per-day rate and what you'll pay for your rental period).

When I rent a car, I want to know what I'm going to pay for my entire trip, including all taxes and fees, so Budget's info would be more valuable to me than a simple per-day rate. If other rental car sites also offered to do the math for you so you'd see how much your entire trip would cost (which is only good customer service), there's be no problem.

28 Feb 2003 | Joshua Kaufman said...

More design, less politics! Yay!

28 Feb 2003 | JF said...

Yeah, I agree Hurley which is why I said: It should say something like ?$134.71 for your trip ($26.95/day).?

Even if Budget is right, they have to "play by the rules." They don't exist in a vacuum.

28 Feb 2003 | hurley#1 said...

duh. It's been a long week and my eyes are worn out, sorry I missed your point.

28 Feb 2003 | Joshua Kaufman said...

Woops, sorry about that last comment. I don't know what overcame me.

What I meant to say was, yes, I agree. Excellent example and comments, Jason.

28 Feb 2003 | JF said...

I also wonder why the pick-up truck is cheaper than an economy or compact.

28 Feb 2003 | Willie Abrams said...

I agree. Hertz is horrible.

The whole car rental industry is about deception. Concession recovery fees, loss damage waivers, frequent flyer redemption fees, additional drivers fees, special rate codes, etc. They never quote these in their pricing and they almost make it impossible to clearly and quickly compare rate classes.

I should note that southwest.com (after you book a flight) has an ugly, but very quick, functional and easy to use site that crosses across rental companies and vehicle classes. It is the best I have used of a bad bunch.

01 Mar 2003 | Don Schenck said...

Saw a "Save The Earth" bumper sticker on a Ford Explorer yesterday. Somebody has a great sense of humor.

Rent a smaller car, and when you show up to get it, ask them -- real nice-like -- if they'll upgrade you for no charge. Often works for me.

But you're right; the entire process sucks.

01 Mar 2003 | Don Schenck said...

I just visited the Hertz site, and they do something UNFORGIVEABLE: you can't use your "back" button to escape the site.

UNFORGIVEABLE. I'll NEVER rent from them. Seriously.

(Just like I'll NEVER buy HP again since my 4100C scanner won't work with XP. NEVER.)

01 Mar 2003 | p8 said...

... or you could stop buying Microsoft products ;)

02 Mar 2003 | nick said...

budget automatically wins always because they have some of the best commercials i've seen in the last couple years (the roller disco movers!) and they let me rent their largest truck for the price of their smallest truck and gave me the commercial mileage rate, and the guy that was working there said "what the shit?"

given all that, i don't know why anyone would rent anywhere else. and their trucks say funny things on the sides ("if you can't lift box, it is too heavy." woo.)

02 Mar 2003 | ek said...

Hey Don, what's the problem with your scanner -- a driver issue? Seems pretty wacky for HP to sell a scanner that doesn't work with PCs running that OS that most of their own boxes are sold with.

02 Mar 2003 | Don Schenck said...

ek -- Yeah, it's the driver. It's about two years old, and HP won't support it any more. The pop-up window when you try to install the driver actually suggests that you visit a retailer and purchase a new scanner! Imagine.

Oh well ... it's only money.

:-)

03 Mar 2003 | alisha said...

I had the same problems with rental car websites last year. They try not to give you straight quotes face-to-face. Why would they try to be then tranparent on thier websites? The whole industry is a disaster. good tip Willie - thanks!

"Seems pretty wacky for HP to sell a scanner that doesn't work with PCs running that OS that most of their own boxes are sold with."
---
Seems also pretty wacky for Philips to sell MP3 players which are software dependent on software that is non-upgradeable. Ive spent many hours trying every solution - none work. Ive read in several forums that everyone is having the same problem. The player that once cost me 300 bucks is now useless. (no support to boot) NEVER buy audio products from Philips.

03 Mar 2003 | Tim said...

I love that there are, in the screen shot sample above, apparantly three classes of vehicles... "Economy," "Compact," and "Ranger."

03 Mar 2003 | Don Schenck said...

Tim, isn't it obvious? The Ranger is in a class by itself!

*cough*

11 Mar 2003 | cafedave said...

I agree with your general comments about having the daily rate, but on the subject of Hertz being slow (and even here in Australia I have to use the hertz.com site to get pricing) it goes to show that the overall experience goes beyond just the interface design and includes the system response time as well.

It just gives me hope that the transition from web-programmer to interface design / info architect is a useful one at some level.

*dp

16 Jan 2004 | Garret said...

This topic is one we will tackle later in this article, but it refers to making sure that your application and the dock aren't fighting it out for supremacy of the screen.

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