Rental website erento launches in the US
20 March 2009
US rental companies already using the site include a Harley-Davidson motorcycle rental company, Street Eagle; limousine provider LimoRes; and Dream Car Rentals, which rents supercars in Las Vegas, Miami, San Diego and San Francisco.
Clinton Patterson, director of international operations at erento, said the timing was perfect to enter the US market; "Many rental companies are seeking an additional sales channel to increase cash flow and are increasingly looking to access and exploit the huge number of people that go online everyday to rent products".
Riz Husain, executive vice president of sales and marketing at LimoRes, said; "erento offers a worldwide performance-based pricing model that fits our marketing strategy and we are certain we will get a great return on investment by using their services".
Gaylen Brotherson, chief executive officer of StreetEagle Motorcycle, said it was business from Europe that was proving an attractive feature of the site; "We've been working hard to attract customers from Europe for a number of years and erento has finally enabled us to do this. We've seen an immediate increase in rentals thanks to erento and it is helping us achieve our goal of expanding the StreetEagle Motorcycle franchise across the US."
Erento works by bringing the product ranges of a wide variety of rental companies together onto its site, creating a ‘one stop shop' for rental. Visitors to the site can search for specific rental products by location and price. Big name rental companies including HSS Hire and Andrews Sykes are among European rental companies to have subscribed to the site.
Despite the recession, erento reported growth of 170% in 2008 and said it had delivered enquiries worth €505 million (US$659 million) to rental companies in Europe last year. It has more than 9200 rental providers signed up, with 2000 joining in 2008.
