Survey Finds Travelers Want To See Hybrid Vehicles Added To Rental Car Fleets

NORWALK, Conn.--In advance of this weekend’s Earth Day (Sunday, April 22), priceline.com® conducted a new survey of its rental car customers. The company found that an overwhelming majority (72%) of travelers want rental car companies to offer economical, environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles powered by both gasoline and electricity. A similar majority (71%) of the 764 priceline.com customers who answered the survey said they would rent a hybrid and almost half (48%) said they would be willing to pay a premium for their “green” rental.

While hybrid vehicles are generally not available through most rental car companies or through priceline.com, most of the priceline.com customers surveyed (39%) said they would be willing to pay up to $1 to $3 more a day to rent a hybrid. That would represent an increase of up to 11% over the average weekend published-price for a mid-size car on priceline.com ($26 a day) and up to 17% over the average successful offer price for a Name Your Own Price® mid-size car on priceline.com ($17 a day).*

Eight percent of the priceline.com customers said they would be willing to pay up to $4 to $6 more a day for a hybrid. That would represent an increase of up to 23% over the average weekend published-price for a mid-size car on priceline.com and up to 35% over the average successful offer price for a Name Your Own Price® mid-size car on priceline.com.*

One percent of customers said they would be willing to pay up to $7 to $10 a day more. No one was willing to pay more than $10 a day extra, while 53% of customers said they were not willing to pay any premium to rent a hybrid.

The already high and rising price of gasoline was another theme that turned up frequently in the new priceline.com survey:

• If gasoline reaches $3 a gallon, almost half (47%) of the priceline.com customers said they would change their rental car preferences and opt for smaller, more fuel-efficient car types.
• 55% of customers prefer to rent more fuel-efficient cars such as mid-size (example: Pontiac Grand Am), compact (example: Ford Focus) or economy (example: Chevrolet Metro).
• 96% of customers say they fill up their rental cars themselves before turning them in, rather than pay refill fees. 52% said they spend time looking for the cheapest gas in an area before filling up prior to return.

Priceline.com is a popular service with car renters because it offers a broad suite of rental options (http://www.priceline.com/rentalcars/). Customers can choose the exact brand and car type they want from a searchable list of rental options and prices. Or, they can use priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price® rental car service, where they can choose the pickup/dropoff locations, car type and price, and save up to 30% over the published prices found on other leading online travel reservation services. Rental reservations can be made in advance or right up to the day the vehicle is needed. Same-day published-price rentals can be made up to 1 hour before pickup. Same-day Name Your Own Price® rentals can be made up to 2 hours before pickup.

* Average prices were calculated based on published prices and successful Name Your Own Price® offers made in the top 10 priceline.com rental car markets for rentals made over the prior two weekends. Average prices used do not include taxes and fees. Priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price® rental car service is unique and different from fixed price travel sites. With priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price® service, the exact Rental Car company is shown only after purchase. Rental car savings claim is based on comparison to the lowest published rates on other leading online travel sites for the same itinerary. Actual prices and availability are always subject to change and there is no guarantee that any rental car will be available or that any offer will be accepted. Savings are not guaranteed and will vary based on offer price, availability and actual itinerary.