What explains Expedia's undisputed success in the travel industry in general and in the car rental sector in particular? Why is customer experience more important than price for Expedia? How will the contactless transaction change the future of the car rental transaction by taking the concept of merchandise to the next level?
In this episode, Emmanuel Scuto, founder and CEO of WeYield, talks with Nicolas Le Nue, Director of Global & Key Accounts Car at Expedia Group.
They talk about
- pricing and spiral of shrinking prices further down
- customer experience as number one driver for Expedia
- the future of contactless and the possiblity to sell ancillaries by the car rental operator
- new markets like peer-to-peer and electric vehicles (EV)
- sharing point of view and vulnerabilty
When it comes to pricing, the most important thing Nicolas needs to focus on is customer value. There is no doubt that the lower the price, the worse the customer experience for the traveler, as Expedia shows.
Despite the perception that brokers are increasingly pulling down prices, Nicolas explains why low prices are a vicious circle. All parties lose in this approach.
Nicolas Le Nue has spent his entire career in the car rental business since 1997 as a booking agent for Europcar International, then moved to the UK to manage the UK booking team for Europcar. In 2011, Nicolas left the rental business to join Ebooker (Orbitz Group), the wholesale business.
From 2020 to 2023, the two-year pandemic had a significant impact on the car rental market, especially on the supply side for car rental operators. But on the consumer side, customers felt they were being served by a lower quality service as prices increased and the cars offered were older. Customer ratings have especially dropped in the U.S. market since Covid's launch (March 2020).
WeYield reported a higher level of cancellation with an increase of +25 and +35% in 2022.The number one criterion before the pandemic was price. Then during and after the pandemic, free cancellation policy became the number one criteria followed by car sanitation. The price went down. But starting in 4Q22, price and flexibility (change and cancellation). For Expedia, prices can go down as long as the customer experience is not affected.
As far as technology is concerned, a customer who uses the operator's applications is more loyal and regular. Contactless will enhance that loyalty and customer happiness. But from a revenue management perspective, will the car rental operator have less opportunity to recoup the low reservation price by selling accessories at the counter? For Nicolas Le Nue, the operator will have to push his options at the time of booking the special contactless transaction (in the form of a bundle).
Integration of medium or local brands remains a problem for Expedia because of technical issues related to connectivity. But peer-to-peer like Turo (carpooling) is a new market that Expedia Car is studying, but technical constraints remain a problem.
Nicolas learned from his long career that he should never hesitate to share his ideas. There is no wrong point of view, but a different one. Compared to a European (French) way of working, Expedia is much more open to sharing different points of view on a situation while making sure that all parties listen to each other.
Vulnerability: for Nicolas, it is extremely important that nobody is perfect and, as human beings, we should never hide when we don't know something.
To follow Nicolas, https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-le-nu%C3%A9-ab43214/
References
- Wheels operating system edited by Wheelsys
- Jimpisoft car rental software RentWay
- Expedia car rentals
- Turo
- Nonviolent communication
- Philippe Moyen, coach
Discover in this episode:
- 0:00:00 to 0:10:00 Introduction of Nicolas Le Nue
- 0:10:00 to 0:18:10 Link between price and customer satisfaction at Expedia
- 0:18:10 to 0:36:25 Consumer changes since Covid started in March 2020
- 0:32:25 to 0:48:30 Contactless will be the next step to improve customer satisfaction
- 0:48:30 to O:53:35 Is it possible to be listed by Expedia if we are not a big brand?
- O:53:35 to 0:58:40 Nicolas' perception of the mobility market with electric vehicles EV
- 0:58:40 to 1:10:05 Differences between a European and an American company
- 1:10:05 to the end conclusion
How has scuba diving certification influenced the way Shady Younis learns and inspires his team at Advanced Car? Revenue Management is not only a topic to optimize pricing and fleet. It is also at the crossroads of Sales and Marketing. Shady shares all his tips, ideas but also the concrete actions he has put in place over the last 20 years to enhance all aspects of Advanced optimization.
In this episode, Emmanuel Scuto, founder and CEO of WeYield, talks with Shady Younis, Director of Sales and Marketing for Advanced Cars in Lebanon. Advanced is an independent car rental company based in Beirut and operating nationwide since . Originally a Datsun dealer before Nissan in the automotive industry, Advanced car rental company was established right after the "911" event.
Advanced's concept was created to provide service to a real customer, as in the hotel industry (with some amenities and a welcome drink), not just a driver of a car. This approach triggered significant word-of-mouth (40% of total rentals). It turned Advanced's satisfied and impressed customers into enthusiastic fans and turned them into its best sales force Shady could have dreamt about.
Staff participate in three corporate workshops each year on customer service. Each team member is asked to tell a story about a situation they encountered. In addition, all customers are asked to complete a satisfaction survey to ensure that no customer leaves unhappy.
In 2014, prior to the implementation of an operating system, Shady began managing Yield through an Access database, checking each reservation manually. The company has grown rapidly, from 30 cars to 1400 in 15 years, and especially in the last 5 years. One of the gas pedals was the contracts signed with NGOs, as no other rental company was involved in this activity during the various unfortunate humanitarian situations Lebanon was facing.
To compensate for the seasonal effect of summer (peak) in addition to the political instability from time to time, Advanced has moved from retail to more corporate activities. But how do you define the perfect mix of market segments? Shady uses the proportion of the national drink (Hara 30% / water 70%). This is how she was able to cope with the new Syrian crisis.
Shady is now a scuba diving instructor. The different steps he took to reach this level in order to be able to teach scuba diving to learners changed his way of doing things. This has had an impact on the way he manages training within Advanced for staff so that the "message" of the department is conveyed to the rest of the team. knowledge equals time x attention. It is the only way to learn and master a new subject.
Advanced has an important social responsibility that is shared among the employees: ecological impact, free cars for nurses during Covid 19 (campaign "Our cars are yours"), available cars and drivers ("Drivers Helping Hands" after the Beirut harbor explosion) or road safety (defensive driving lessons to improve road safety) are some of the social initiatives of Advanced Car.
"What is the best car rental in Lebanon? Shady interviewed ChapGPT and Alexa. Listen in to get the answer provided by the AI.
Timeline
- 0:00:00 to 0:06:00 Introduction of Shady Younis
- 0:06:00 to 0:20:50 The begining of Advanced Cars with 5* hotel service standard
- 0:29:10 to 0:34:00 Engagement to improve the quality with the staff
- 0:38:00 to 1:00:30 How did Shady learn about Yield Management?
- 1:00:30 to 1:12:10 Can scuba diving influence the business change approach?
- 1:12:10 to 1:18:40 Business values to go beyond customer satisfaction
- 1:18:40 to 1:23:40 Read, read and read to continue to learn
- 1:23:40 to the end conclusion
References
- Jamil Assemaani
- Jimpisoft car rental software RentWay
- "Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think" from Viktor Mayer-Schnberger and Kenneth Cukier
Data to anticipate the future.
In this episode, Olivier Jager, co-Founder and CEO of Forwardkeys is interviewed by Emmanuel Scuto, CEO and Founder of WeYield.
Olivier was journalist and started his first tech company at the end of teenage while he was following a business school curricular. Quickly he move to AOL and joined at Amadeus which was a good mix between data and the travel industry.
Data (Amadeus, Travelclick) gathered around the travel became a golden nugget to fine tune the sales action plan and extract more value for the optimization for the hotels. But without understanding the use case (pains) and the objective to reach, data is useless.
To go one step further in the understanding of the traveler behaviour, Olivier co-founded Forwardkeys analyzing huge amount of data generated by the GDS. But clearly, more data are coming from IATA source as the GDS gets only 25% of the total volume of transactions. Travel professional are not the only the one interested in the data: deluxe retailers have understood the strong link between origin of travelers and the amount of money spent in their shops. They now build their strategies on Forwardkeys data.
Olivier never stops exposing himself on sea, walking in mountains, moto and biking to remain creative as possible but also to continue creating value. "It is not what you do thing but why and how you do it"
Timeline
- 0:00:00 to 0:04:35 Introduction of Olivier Jager
- 0:04:45 to 0:08:20 Foreign language as an intercultural bridge between people
- 0:02:20 to 0:11:25 Youth in Senegal was a pilar of Olivier's personality
- 0:11:30 to 0:17:25 Journalism and entrepreneurship in tech at teenage
- 0:17:25 to 0:24:35 Start at Amadeus was a jump into the travel industry
- 0:24:35 to 0:30:50 Without a clear objective, solving a paint point with data might be useless.
- 0:30:50 to 0:41:50 Creation of Forwardkeys using air data to extract a new value from the air
- 0:41:50 to 0:52:40 How luxury brands are anticipating their sales using travel data
- 0:52:40 to 1:04:55 Sea, mountain, motor bike : oxygen bubbles
- 1:04:55 till end Teenage advices to Olivier : expose yourself and create value to society
References
- Forwardkeys
- Travelclick now Amadeus Hospitality
- WeYield Air Analytics feature
- DMO = Destination Management Organization
- Revenue Machine Alienor Izri, passion in sailing
Book
- Endurance : Shackleton's incredible voyage by Lansing, Alfred
This podcast is producted by WeYield, the revenue management company dedicated to the car rental industry.
In this episode, Emmanuel Scuto, Founder and CEO of WeYield, interviews Marcos del Cid, Managing Director of Niza Cars in Spain. Niza is an independent car rental company orginally based in Malaga and operating also in Barcelona since 2019. Niza has been a family business created by Marcos' father. The company grew a lot locally until 2010 and faced the internet revolution until brankrupcy in 2014 before to be bought by Moventia, a large mobile group in Barcelona.
Marcos and Niza has been strong in developing their direct channel to catch the consumer without being controled by the Brokers via significant marketing funds. The inclusive product "pay what you get" has been a great success: price is not a question of money but a question of clarity for the customer. There is economics behind renting a car.
The Revenue Management (RM) started manually and then with WeYield apps. For Marcos, RM is much more than simply monitoring the price of the competitors: demand forecast, pricing pace, macro demand with Air Analytics. Car rental business is not a question of volume but how to turn it profitable: volume of demand and fleet are not the drivers of a better margin. And company staff are accountable to the success from the Operational car cleaners to the rental agents. Marcos' hug way to salute his team.
Golf is still the passion of Marcos, up to handicap 5. For him, playing golf at professional level is like managing a company. Like on a starting tee or every morning at Niza, it is important to set a goal and have a clear vision how to reach it. Advices: listen more to his father and take more care about himself, continue to be curious to learn.
Timeline
- 0:00:00 to 0:04:35 Introduction of Marcos del Cid
- 0:04:35 to 0:09:50 Story of Niza Cars starting the 1960's with cars and coaches
- 0:09:50 to 0:16:30 Strong growth from 1995 to 2014 facing internet revolution
- 0:16:30 to 0:21:45 Niza fell into bankrupcy until 2018
- 0:21:45 to 0:35:45 Technology to develop Niza's direct channels, transpartent pricing
- 0:35:45 to 0:45:00 Revenue Management project changed the way Niza is optimizing in 2021
- 0:45:00 to 0:52:00 All staff is crucial for the success of the company from the cleaner to the clerk
- 0:52:00 to 1:02:00 Similarities between playing golf and driving business
- 1:02:00 to 1:11:40 How does Marcos keep learning to progress and become better in life?
- 1:11:40 till end Conclusion
References
- www.nizacars.com/en/ inclusivo products
- www.sixt.com/#/
- www.dataseekers.com/en/, automatic rate scrapping
- www.linkedin.com/in/marcos-del-ci…C3%B3-211675175/
This podcast is produced by WeYield, the revenue management company dedicated to the car rental industry.
In this episode, Emmanuel Scuto, founder and CEO of WeYield, interviews Alienor Izri, a revenue management consultant in the car rental industry. Alienor is a French car rental optimization expert since 2015 and is based in New Zealand.
Alienor has a very scientific academic background combined with a creative passion in many fields (theater, photography). Moving to New Zealand to experience a new life, she started in car rental at Easy Car. Alienor moved the organization from static to dynamic pricing with the help of external consultants to implement this new approach with great improvements in efficiency. Quickly, Excel was not enough and systems were needed to update pricing at scale. For her, internal communication is crucial to facilitate exchanges between the different departments. Revenue Management quickly became the control tower of the organization.
Timeline :
- 0:00:00 to 0:07:50 Introduction of Alienor, history of mathematics
- 0:07:50 to 0:11:00 Start of car rental with Easy Car Rental
- 0:11:00 to 0:17:55 Switch from static to dynamic pricing
- 0:17:55 to 0:28:35 First results on company performance
- 0:28:35 to 0:38:20 System change to update prices at scale by leaving excel
- 0:38:20 to 0:43:35 Organization of internal communication between all departments
- 0:43:35 to 1:00:40 Transition from an independent car rental company to a large international brand
- 1:00:40 to 1:21:40 A strong choice to reconcile work and freedom
- 1:21:30 to 1:31:40 Advice to Alienor by Alienor
Reference of the book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho
References
- Cars+ by Thermeon
- Wheels by Wheelsys
- MarginFuel
- WeYield
- instagram : alienorphotonz
- linked: alienor-izri-47355a52
- Wild life expo www.photo-montier.org/en/
This podcast is producted by WeYield, the revenue management company dedicated to the car rental industry.
In this episode, Emmanuel Scuto, Founder and CEO of WeYield, interviews Michael Meyer, Founder and CEO of Rate Highway. Established in Irvine, California, Rate Highway has a 20-year long well known experience in the automated rate positioning technology for the car rental industry.
Michael started is career in the mid-1980 and saw all the evolution of the technology from his first Commodore computer to today internet predominancy in all our life.
Timeline :
- 0:00:00 to 0:05:50 Introduction of Michael
- 0:05:50 to 0:08:26 How programing became the core of problem solving
- 0:08:26 to 0:33:00 Symmetry Computing, first company
- 0:33:00 to 0:42:00 Rateshoping started in hotels
- 0:42:00 to 1:00:00 US market vs the rest of the world
- 1:00:00 to 1:12:00 How has the techno impacted Ratehighway?
- 1:12:00 to end How does Michael learn and improve?
Book references:
- The phantom Tollbooth from Norton Juster
- The Power of Habit from Charles Duhigg
This podcast is producted by WeYield, the revenue management company dedicated to the car rental industry.
In this episode, Emmanuel Scuto, Founder and CEO of WeYield, shares his point of view on the coexistence between brokers and car rental companies.
He explains the differences in perception of the business on both sides and shares his recommendations for car rental companies to better manage this relationship built on the basis of power relations.
Timeline :
- 00:50 - introduction, context, differences between car rental operators and brokers, Emmanuel Scuto perspective,
- 02:04 - definitions
- 03:34 - history of car rental operators (Sixt, Hertz, Avis, Europcar) and history of OTA (Expedia, Last Minute) and brokers (Booking.com, Rentalcars, Cartrawler and more)
- 07:16 - differences between brokers and car rental operators
- 14:00 - pressure on the supply (fleet) for the car rental operators
- 15:40 - WeYield tips on how to monitor precisely the broker performance (volume of activity and cancelations generated too) via www.weyield.io/