HALF A CENTURY OF EXPERIENCE
Read more about the story of our brand
It's not about cheap cars, but about a sophisticated behind-the-scenes system that has been behind the decades of work.
Payless Car Rental is still a relatively hot new product on the Slovak market, but it has been behind it for almost half a century of brand building and service enhancement. Read more about the story of the Payless Car Rental brand, which also offers rentals of above-standard equipped cars in Slovakia at prices that other car rental companies can only compete with.
The Slovak branch of car rental Payless Car Rental was put into operation in June 2018, while the brand's intention to enter our market appeared even earlier. Our brand belongs to the United Group with a 24-year history, as such it is part of one of the largest group of international companies for mobility and car rental called Avis Budget Group. And these international Payless Car Rental experiences are significantly longer.
The brand entered the Slovak market with high ambitions, thus representing the entire international corporate strategy.
It all started in Washington
At present, the company's headquarters are located in St. Petersburg in Florida, but the very establishment of the company is tied to another American city, Spokane in the state of Washington.
The company was founded by John Les Netterstron in 1971. The very name of the company, Payless Car Rental, was supposed to draw attention to the affordability of car rentals, even without slogans. Even then, there was strong competition in the car rental market, consisting mainly of AVIS, whose history dates back to 1946, and Budget Rent a Car with a tradition of more than 60 years. In addition to them, other smaller or larger car rental companies tried to attract the attention of customers, among which it was necessary to excel. Putting the phrase "pay less" directly in the title turned out to be a step in the right direction.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Payless Car Rental paved the way for one of the most affordable rentals in the United States and achieved low prices mainly due to drastic cost optimization. Unlike many other car rental companies, Payless Car Rental did not operate branches directly at airports, but in their vicinity, which significantly reduced the cost of parking unused vehicles. It still suited the customers, because in a few minutes sacrificed on the way from the airport to the car rental, they saved considerable money. In the United States, the price category of Payless Car Rental is also called the "deep-value segment".
The number of car rental branches led by Netterstron grew and by 1987 had reached the magical limit of one hundred branches. In the same year, the company was so successful that it could buy another large company, the American division of the Canadian company Holiday Rent a Car. With its acquisition, Payless Car Rental has undergone a significant innovation that has literally changed the entire car rental market - a centralized reservation system.
In the following years, the company flourished, which gradually built more than 167 branches, but not only in the United States, but also in South America and also in Europe. New branches are created as franchises, taking over not only the company's visual identity, but also its know-how and vehicle care methodology. And there are more than ten thousand of them today.
Payless Car Rental in Slovakia
The Payless Car Rental car brand currently has two branches in Bratislava in Slovakia, and is actively working to create a branch network throughout the country.
The offer of vehicles is divided into 4 basic categories - Economy, Compact, 9-seater and Van-N2. In the Economy category offers smaller vehicles, more suitable for the city and for short routes, you will find here, for example, Renault Clio from 13 € without VAT per day when renting for eight or more days. Compact offers larger and more comfortable vehicles. You can take a Renault Trafic from the 9-seater category on the road trip, or move the Reanult Master furniture from the VAN N2 category.
In the fleet you will find only above-standard vehicles. The equipment includes cruise control, navigation, air conditioning and, in the case of the Compact Automatic category, also an automatic transmission.
All engines are economical and meet the public commitment set by the Slovak Payless Car Rental last year: to actively reduce the fleet carbon dioxide emissions of its vehicles. The goal is to achieve the prescribed European goal in the form of a fleet average of 95 g / km CO2, which does not apply to car rental companies, but Payless Car Rental still approaches it as a member of the United Group - More here .