Competitive analysis for car rental company 8rent

In car rental, the amount shown next to a vehicle is only the entry point. The final cost and attractiveness of a rental change with the date, booking length, mileage allowance, insurance, extras and the rules around the specific vehicle.

A simple price comparison would therefore have produced misleading conclusions. We first had to determine what the customer actually receives for a given amount and at which stage additional costs or restrictions appear.

The pricing database contained 850 variants: 826 SIXT quotes and 24 Europcar quotes. It covered passenger and commercial vehicles, rental periods of 1, 7, 14 and 30 days, different dates and assigned mileage limits.

This approach showed how an offer changed when its conditions changed, instead of drawing conclusions from a single promotional rate. We did not calculate an artificial average across all records because the price unit was not fully comparable in every variant. The relationship between price and the structure of each offer was more important.

We traced how insurance, surcharges and additional packages were presented. We were interested not only in how much they cost, but also when the customer sees the cost, what is actually included in the base price and how each subsequent choice changes an initially attractive offer.

This separated two levels of competition: the vehicle rate itself and the transparency of the entire purchasing process. Both matter to a new rental company because customers compare not only the number in the price list, but also the risk that the final amount will differ from what they expected.

One of the more interesting findings was the difference between reserving a vehicle class and guaranteeing a specific model. In some offers, customers selected a car described as “this model or similar”, while other solutions increased certainty about what would actually be available at pickup.

The same applied to surcharges that guaranteed specific equipment. This showed that offer value does not have to come solely from a lower rate. It can also come from answering a very practical customer question: what exactly will I get for my money?

Combining pricing analysis with the competitors’ communication suggested a possible direction for 8rent: a clearer offer and more predictable rental conditions.

This did not mean a simple “we will be cheaper” message. It meant deliberate decisions about what to show immediately, what to include in a package, which extras to keep optional and how to describe the car, mileage allowance and insurance protection so the customer can genuinely compare offers.

This was a direction to use when designing the offer — the sources do not confirm its later implementation or any sales result.