Advantage Rent a Car
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Type | Car rental |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1963 |
| Headquarters | San Antonio, TX, USA |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Website | www.advantage.com |
Advantage Rent a Car is a car rental company, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. They provide business, leisure, government and local customers with a wide range of services at more than 150 U.S. locations and 130 locations in 33 countries internationally.
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[edit] History
In 1963, a small business called “Three Ninety-Nine Car Rentals” opened its doors serving the large military population in San Antonio, Texas. Initially serving the government traveler, they expanded very quickly over the next 20 years into feeder and leisure markets including local retail and airport markets located throughout the Western United States, the operation was later consolidated in 1985 under the name – "Advantage Rent a Car". As the 1990's progressed, expansion of the Advantage brand continued throughout the U.S. into the Sunbelt states and major leisure airport markets. In 2001, Advantage attained worldwide presence by launching an affiliate partnership program that grew to an international network serving more than 33 countries.
[edit] Bankruptcy and acquisition by Hertz
In December 2008, Advantage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed about 40% of its U.S. retail locations, citing "a simultaneous drop in leisure travel, with greatly increased costs, and frozen credit markets" (presumably an effect of the 2008-09 global economic crisis). 440 workers, or almost half its workforce, were laid off at the time.[1] Advantage had been privately held by Minnesota auto dealership mogul Denny Hecker.
On March 31, 2009, Advantage was purchased by The Hertz Corporation for $33 million. Hertz had successfully outbid Enterprise Rent-a-Car for acquisition of Advantage's assets in bankruptcy court in Minnesota, including their logo and website (Hertz stated their intentions after Enterprise had previously announced they would acquire the assets). Since at least June 2009, the Advantage website has been modified to match (or closely mirror) some design and operational aspects of the Hertz website. Hertz plans to use Advantage, among other things, for "...further expansion into the price-oriented travel demographic", "...providing Hertz a second brand to sell to corporate accounts and to market with key travel partners" and "...extending the useful life of vehicles in Hertz's rental fleet for Advantage's fleet needs".[2][3]
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[edit] External links
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