The Travel Thread

[ousdahl]

Aren’t they a used car sales company just as much as a rental company?

[shindig]

Indy ==> Baltimore ==> KC....makes sense...lol. I hate flying. It's always a headache. Why not route you through Chicago?

[TDub]

Aren’t they a used car sales company just as much as a rental company?

They have a sales division. Its a different business entirely though. The sales division purchases cars from the rental branches (branches get that money) and then sell them. Selling a car does not mean a loss of profit for the branch....one way rentals do.

[jfish26]

Youre losing rentable product. That car....which is your money maker. Is gone. Even if its the same company its managed per branch. Financials and bonuses and basically all decisions are a branch by branch decision. When you lose your sellable product you have to charge more to make up a little it for the future earnings on that piece of equipment until you can replace it.

Ok, but here's the thing: this is silly, and insanely anti-customer. Do better.

[TDub]

Youre losing rentable product. That car....which is your money maker. Is gone. Even if its the same company its managed per branch. Financials and bonuses and basically all decisions are a branch by branch decision. When you lose your sellable product you have to charge more to make up a little it for the future earnings on that piece of equipment until you can replace it.

Ok, but here's the thing: this is silly, and insanely anti-customer. Do better.

Ok. Its not my business or business model. I was just explaining why 1 ways are expensive for ousdahl.

[TDub]

Its not that unusual really. Its similar to how most franchise operations work. Enterprise, of course, isnt actuslly operated by individual franchisees, but, uses a similar model.

[jfish26]

Youre losing rentable product. That car....which is your money maker. Is gone. Even if its the same company its managed per branch. Financials and bonuses and basically all decisions are a branch by branch decision. When you lose your sellable product you have to charge more to make up a little it for the future earnings on that piece of equipment until you can replace it.

Ok, but here's the thing: this is silly, and insanely anti-customer. Do better.

Ok. Its not my business or business model. I was just explaining why 1 ways are expensive for ousdahl.

Sorry - "Do better" was for the rental car companies!

[ousdahl]

yeah.

some small town mom and pop rental is one thing, but for the bigger companies, it shouldn't be that difficult to manage inventories across a wider area. They prob already forecast which cars are gonna end up where.

maybe one company could even offer it as some marketing pitch or promotion.

then again, if they're the kinda company that's gonna make Fish wait 50 minutes just for service, maybe this isn't an industry likely to roll out a bunch of consumer-friendly new policies.

[PhDhawk]

Seems like a good business opportunity here.

If there are cities that become sinks for cars, have a business, where you and 4 buddies, drive 5 cars from a city of rental car abundance to a rental car desert, and then drive one car back.

And I believe Tdub's explanation, but that means the destination spot gets a free car, right. Shouldn't they do something to offset the cost. Why not make the rental $400 but you get $300 back form the rental place you drop it off at.

Original lot gets some money, customer gets similar rate, place that gets the car gives something up to the other two parties.

[TDub]

Seems like a good business opportunity here.

If there are cities that become sinks for cars, have a business, where you and 4 buddies, drive 5 cars from a city of rental car abundance to a rental car desert, and then drive one car back.

And I believe Tdub's explanation, but that means the destination spot gets a free car, right. Shouldn't they do something to offset the cost. Why not make the rental $400 but you get $300 back form the rental place you drop it off at.

Original lot gets some money, customer gets similar rate, place that gets the car gives something up to the other two parties.

The branches within the same city/metro/district do this and transfer cars between themselves often. But transferring between cities/states is more difficult because you cant send an employee on a quick run to pick it up and they arent setup *or werent* to easily transfer funds between individual branches

Youre business idea is already in play...sort of. Often if you can figure out which branches are low on inventory you can get a discounted rate for a 1 way trip to that destination. In fact, you can get a cheaper rate on a 1 way trip than on a standard rental and return trip IF you had the inventory information.

[zsn]

Seems to be based on antiquated business modeling and thinking. If they didn’t make such a big deal about one way rentals maybe people would utilize them more and there would be a new equilibrium. So there’s a car with Florida plates in Colorado but so what. Unless as TDub indicated there’s a clear demarcation of cost centers - and the model is closer to true franchises.

In some respects this is kind of what has become of telephone area codes. “Free movement of people (phones)” has rendered the significance of the three numbers irrelevant. Same may become of automobile registration and original location.

[Overlander]

Speaking of car rentals, I have been using the Turo app for all of my rentals.
Rent direct from the car owner, a wide variety to choose from, Corolla to McLaren, whatever is in that city.

Highly recommend.

[jfish26]

Montreal - recommendations?

December.

Might be Mrs. Fish only, might be couples. Definitely no kids.

[jhawks99]

Dress warm.

[jhawks99]

Haven't been to Montreal but this is on my bucket list.

https://www.joebeef.com/

[jfish26]

Dress warm.

I lived in Minneapolis for about five years. That was ten years ago. I lose about two degrees of cold tolerance every year.

[MICHHAWK]

Stay in old Montreal.

[pdub]

Stay in old Montreal.

That what an old would say.
Visit old Montreal.
Stay in the Plateau.

Think Old Montreal as a times square/boston commons. Its historic. But its overpriced. Think of the Plateau like East or West village. Now decide of those two places where you'd rather stay.

Parking, if its snows, is a bit of a nightmare. Dunno if you'd rent a car. We drove up. The train system is pretty good.

Most spots we went in spoke perfect English but we did find a pub where that wasn't the case.

There are a bunch of hot spas that I'm sure you and the lady would like. Food bangs there. I specifically remember a spot because it was the first time I had Afghani food ( delicious ) -- Kyber Pass -- and you could byob so bottle o wine for the BUD, six pack for pdub.( I have had middle eastern food plenty but this place was uniquely Afghanistan ). We also went to some swanky gin bar with varieties of gin they made from plants native to Canada that was memorable but the name was in French so....I found the underground "city" underwhelming and even though it was 20 out with a foot of snow, I preferred the spots above ground.

Also, of note, maybe I was just fortunate in the four days I was there, but on average, one of the most attractive population of a city I've ever seen.

[jfish26]

Thanks.

[pdub]

This was the place:

https://botabota.ca/en/

Treat yo self.
And it's in old Montreal so MICH might be there.