Self-drive with flexible booking

 

Every Friday since May, Hertz car rental has been organising a series of webinars with NTOs, an initiative they believe is working in their favour and is creating the right awareness among agents about self-drive holidays. Hertz has also made booking flexible for the convenience of its customers.

Amit Mishra, Sales and Marketing Manager – India, Hertz, InterGlobe Air Transport (exclusive GSA), explaining the aim of initiative, says, “Due to COVID-19, outbound travel has come to a standstill and so have physical engagements with customers and trade partners. Thus, to continue our engagement with the trade community and create a top-of-mind recall for the Hertz brand, InterGlobe Air Transport (the exclusive General Sales Agent in India) created Friday webinars for travel agents and business partners.”

Claiming that the response has been fantastic, he adds, “During the Q&A round of the webinars, we answered questions from agents who had to extend their customers’ stay in other countries due to the lockdown and from corporate travellers who were planning to travel internationally once air travel resumed from and to India. This is the right time to spread awareness about a variety of destinations and an opportunity to explain what customers need to know when planning a self-drive trip during these challenging times.”

Since May, they have been conducting webinars every Friday morning in collaboration with different tourism boards. “Tourism boards have supported Hertz by discussing the advantages of a self-drive holiday experience, highlighting how much you can experience when you explore off the beaten track. To date, we have conducted webinars on self-drive rentals with tourism boards in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Britain, Germany, Thailand, Dubai, Spain, Italy, Atout France and Switzerland,” Mishra shares. The hygiene and cleanliness of vehicles are paramount in their efforts to reduce the risk of the coronavirus. They have identified some critical cleaning points like door handles and vehicle interiors, which are thoroughly cleaned and sanitised in all vehicles before and after each use.

In fact, they are fully booked for these seminars. He says, “In the current climate, we are creating awareness about flight destinations and the advantages of booking a self-drive vehicle that will be clean and safe. In addition, we communicate the safety measures we have in place to protect customers. These include reminders to social distancing, complimentary hand sanitiser at the counter and reduced customer transaction time. We will also continue to share relevant information about outbound destinations during the upcoming seminars. Webinar attendees who have questions about the validity of their driving licence at promoted destinations should make enquiries with their local driving licence authorities.” Mishra also reveals that apart from destinations, airlines are invited to the seminars.

Protocols introduced by Hertz

• Sanitisation of desks, counters and public areas
• Sufficient sanitisation of stations throughout locations
• All staff wearing face masks or face shields and gloves
• Regulating social distancing at locations
• Installing protective screens at certain client facing locations
• Measuring and monitoring staff temperature before and after each shift