SUNCARS has taken over Trailfinders’ European and Caribbean car rental account from Budget.
The Unijet-owned car rental company estimates that it will be able to generate up to 8,000 bookings through Trailfinders within the first 12 months of the contract, which began this month, bringing in around ú200,000 in revenue.
Suncars’ general manager John Briggs claimed the contract could potentially be the biggest the Sussex-based company has ever netted.
He said: “The reason Trailfinders switched suppliers from Budget to us is because they knew they were not selling enough car rental. They were doing around 2,000 to 2,500 and we know we can grow that business four-fold.”
Briggs said he believed the way to achieve this was through guaranteed rates that could be set well in advance.
He said: “Trailfinders likes the way we work because we think like a tour operator and set our rates well in advance. Budget would change its rates all the time and would not give them out until one or two months in advance.
“Trailfinders told us as well as rates changing, the product was also difficult to book.
“Trailfinders does lots of seat-only business and was just not doing enough car rental to go with them.
We do all-inclusive which is easy to book. It’s not rocket science but Budget’s inability to do that meant we landed the contract.”
Budget’s marketing manager Kerry Garratt said that Budget had held the account “for at least eight years” and the company was still supplying Trailfinders cars for Eastern Europe.