(Photo: Silvercar)
Imagine stepping off the plane, making your way to the rental car lot, using your smart phone to unlock your car, then driving off the lot.
No garish car rental counters, no queues of frustrated travelers waiting for cars or lines to exit the lot, no attempts to up-sell you with insurance or gas options.
You just get in your car and go.
That’s the pitch from two-year-old Silvercar, which is now operating in 10 locations across the country and growing fast.
I have not had a chance to try Silvercar yet, but plan to as soon as I need a rental car in one of the cities where it operates. Have you?
As TravelSkills readers know, I’m a fan of smartphone based travel solutions like Uber and HotelTonight— and the Silvercar app falls into this category. You can’t rent a Silvercar if you don’t have the app on your phone.
Last month Silvercar CEO Luke Schneider was in San Francisco on a breezy Tuesday afternoon and we sat down for a chat about his company. (Schneider is a serial entrepreneur and was CTO at Zipcar before it was bought by Avis.)
Here’s what I learned.
1) Silvercar is the largest Audi customer in the US… it adds about 200 new cars to its fleet every quarter and only rents one type of car: a silver four-door Audi A4 sedan. (Another reason I’m interested… I drive an Audi at home.)
2) The company has a higher Net Promoter Score than Apple. You know how companies always ask how likely you are to recommend them to friends or family? A significant 90% of Silvercar customers say they would do so. Based on what I’ve found online, only around 60-80% of Apple customers say that. And in the car rental industry, the average Net Promoter score is a dismal 18%. Check out the company Facebook page where customers eagerly post photos of their Silvercars in exotic or unusual locations like the one below.
Silvercar fanboy Than Maung won 4 free days with this sweet shot (Facebook)
3) Silvercar is not expensive. Schneider says that on average, a Silvercar rental runs about 10% less than a Chevy Impala from one of the major rental car companies. Rates range from $59 to $89 per day (plus taxes and fees that vary from airport to airport).
4) All its Audis come with three essential add-ons included in the price: GPS, wi-fi (seriously), and XM radio. Remember, there are no extras in the flat rate. And get this: There are no messy fuel options. When you are done with the car, you park it and leave it. Silvercar takes care of filling it up, and bills you at the local market rate plus a flat $5 fill up fee. (Or you can fill it up on your own to skip the $5 fee.)
5) Most of Silvercar’s customers don’t travel enough to rank among the ultra-elite, super-duper frequent travelers. They are not wedded to frequent flyer programs and partners– Schneider says his customers trend younger, like the experience of flying airlines like Virgin America or JetBlue, stay at Kimpton hotels and shop at Whole Foods. (Well hello, hipster!)
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6) Silvercar eschews the new centralized car rental centers popping up at airports all over. Why? Because they require that the rental companies maintain a counter. Silvercar saves money by NOT having a counter and not paying employees to staff it. Remember– with this app, you just walk to your car, scan a bar code with your phone, and you are good to go. The transaction is completely paperless. (And there’s a concierge on the lot to assist with any kinks in the system)
Silvercar is currently available at five out of the six biggest airport car rental markets in the U.S. – Denver (DEN), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Phoenix (PHX), and San Francisco (SFO), as well as Chicago (ORD), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Dallas (DAL and DFW) and Austin (AUS) with plans to roll out in five additional markets this year. I was hoping Atlanta would be included in that list, but according to Schneider, it could be a while before the world’s busiest airport gets Silvercar.
Have you tried it yet? How was it? Would you? Please leave your comments below.
To get $25 off your first Silvercar rental, just go to the sign-up page. Be sure to type the referral code TravelSkills into the field at the bottom of the page, and we get $25, too! THANKS!
I did the Silvercar thing out of LAX. Like everything at that awful airport it was a complete cluster *&$#. Hopped off my Southwest flight. Then had to hop on an airport bus for a 20 minute bumper to bumper ride to the shuttle lot. Off the airport bus, then hop in a driven by a SC employee for a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to the Silvercar office in the warehouse district, down and out neighborhood, that is rental car row. Way too much work!
The car itself was a step up, but even with a coupon I estimate I paid 2x what I normally would. Just not sure the extra benefits outweigh the extra cost and effort. I will give SC a future try somewhere other than the worst airport in the civilized world and I am sure I will have a better take away.
Just wait for the car rental cartel to go all vigilante against Silvercar’s model much as the taxi industry has done with Uber. “Oh, but we’ve had to invest in our loyalty programs and airport infrastructure so it’s not fair”. Boo hoo. Go Silvercar! And no, sadly I haven’t had the pleasure of using them but a couple of colleagues have used them in Los Angeles and they rave about them. Does anybody know if they do one-way rentals? I.e. Rent at LAX and drop off at SFO? That drive is still on my bucket list.
I have used Silvercar five times now and they are perfect! They consistently deliver great service and the cars are all new, clean and ready to go as soon as I arrive. Additionally, some locations will even drop you off at the terminal in your Silvercar so no need to transfer your bags to the infamous bus.
Th only thing I would argue with the Silvercar CEO is that I am a very frequent traveler and I always check for a Silvercar first before I book at one of their competitors.
I tried Silvercar on a recent trip to Denver and it was fantastic. I loved getting off the plane to a text message welcoming me to Denver and providing instructions on where to go to get the car. It was a breeze. I only wish they were an approved vendor for my corporate travel 🙁
While in Los Angeles, I used Silvercar. After consistently receiving shitty service from #Hertz (even as a President’s Circle), I wanted to try a new company.
Silvercar was exceptional. Big fan of the free GPS, free satellite radio, free wifi. Picked me up and dropped me off curbside.
Audi A4 > Chevy Spark. Silvercar > Hertz
Any industry that makes customers wait in long lines unnecessarily needs to be disrupted and put out of business. I absolutely refuse to rent cars from certain companies because I’ve waited 30-60 minutes in line at an airport to get a car.
The worst company (which I won’t name) does just-in-time vehicle management at some airports, which means that their incoming and outgoing vehicles are evenly balanced, and if customers are early picking up cars or late dropping them off then no cars are available and the lot goes dry. One time, after waiting 45 minutes in line, I overheard a car rental employee whisper that there were no cars available and that all the agents had been instructed to process the paperwork as slowly as possible until more vehicles arrived. I looked around and every single agent at the counter was moving in slow motion. So much for being a customer-focused company.
If new business models can eliminate these problems, then I hope they do and I hope they make a lot of money. And I’d love to see airports’ monopolies smashed on fees for rental cars. Renting a mid-size car at SFO for one week can incur $50 or more in “facility charges” and “concession recovery charges” and “flight arrival recovery fees.” Figure out a way to avoid these ripoffs and you win my business. I’ve read that local governments impose huge taxes on car rentals because the people who rent the cars aren’t the voters who elect the local government, so the politicians can get away with it and keep jacking the taxes up into the ionosphere. I wish someone would figure out a way to tax greedy politicians.