eKomi Releases StarInsights™ Study for Online Car Rental Portals

BERLIN, May 17, 2017 – eKomi, the world’s largest provider of user-validated ratings and reviews, has just released its StarInsights™ (Ref.# 17052017) study, an exclusive report on the internet’s TOP Car Rental Companies. This study marks the second in the automobile industry of the year, followed by the StarInsights™ (Ref.#29032017) on Car Sharing Companies.

Car Rental Companies – Market Overview

According to a new market report published by Lucintel, the forthcoming years of the car rental market look promising and opportunities are identified in the on-airport and off-airport market segment. The global car rental industry is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2016 to 2021. Under the same study, the continuously growing figures of the global tourism industry, the rising globalization of corporate operations, and the increasing income levels across the globe are identified as major drivers of growth.

Emerging trends have a direct impact on the dynamics of the industry. Companies shall keep their eyes wide-open to follow the evolution and, more, in particular, be able to offer a digitalized driving experience, introducing eco-friendly vehicles, adopting enhanced technologies and bringing in many applications in the concept of self-drive.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., Avis Budget Group Inc., Europcar Groupe S.A., and Sixt AG are identified as the major car rental service providers in the global car rental industry. So, let’s have a look at how these major players are ranked in today’s competitive market?

As many marketers now recognize, customer ratings and reviews are absolutely essential for success in the online marketplace – especially when results are integrated into Google search. Although comprehensive, user-friendly sites are obviously crucial, public reviews build trust before visitors even click the site’s link, significantly increasing its chances of receiving traffic.

eKomi StarInsights™ Results on Most Reviewed Car Rental Companies;

It is true, that the results were quite surprising since those considered as big players have been left considerably behind smaller ones, allowing enough space for development and changes to the car rental market landscape.

More analytically, the German Billiger Mietwagen occupies position number one, as the most reviewed online car rental portal with 42.296 reviews in total. Second best position belongs to Rental Cars  and stands out with 30.571 reviews up to date. Cicar is on our list of Top online car rentals with 18.644 reviews, right in front of Sunny Cars that is listed on position number four with 13.776 reviews. Still within the list of TOP five car rental companies, in top fifth position, stands Zest Car Rental with a total of 7.373 reviews up to date.

As many merchants now recognise, customer ratings and reviews are absolutely essential for success in the online marketplace – especially when those results are integrated into Google search. Although a comprehensive, user-friendly site is obviously crucial, public reviews build trust before visitors even click the site’s link, significantly increasing its chances of receiving traffic.

 

Top 5 Best – Rated Online Car Rentals – Analysis Report

Just as positive ratings and reviews are crucial to a site’s success, they also provide a relatively reliable indicator of that site’s usefulness and user-friendliness. With that correlation in mind, eKomi’s StarInsights™ (Ref.#17052017) study examines the TOP consumer electronics retailers, using their aggregated Google Shopping Seller Ratings from the past 12 months.

Among all online car rental companies studied in May 2017, these five portals came out as the clear winners:

Enterprise Rent-a- Car seems to occupy top positions in both the .co.uk and the .com domain registered. The company receives in both occasions a dominant rating of  4.8 Stars but it seems that the public reviews have not been released yet through Google, possibly leaving the company vulnerable to its competitors. Joint third, for Cicar, Sunny Cars and Zest Car Rental which all receive a star rating score of 4.7 out of 5, through Google Aggregated Seller Rating in the last 12 months. What is really impressive is that really big players of the market, have not managed to be on the top 5 list, and instead smaller car rental companies are gaining reputation, possible causing part of the pie in the market share to be swiped away from them.

The Complete List

Here’s eKomi’s complete list of TOP Car Rental Companies Online. All data are collected through Google Shopping Seller within the past 12 months:

• Billiger Mietwagen: billiger-mietwagen.de – 42.296 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.6
• Rental Cars: Rentalcars.com – 30.571 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.3
•  Cicar: cicar.com – 18.644 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.7
•  Sunny Cars: sunnycars.de – 13.776 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.7
•  Zest Car Rental: zestcarrental.com – 7.373 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.7
•  Gold Car: goldcar.es – 6.869 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.4
•  Rastreator: rastreator.com – 6.197 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.1
•  Rent a Car: rentacar.fr – 5.435 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.4
•  Holiday autos: holidayautos.com – 3.485 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.7
•  Sixt: Sixt.com – 3.087 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.5
•  EuropCar UK: Europcar.co.uk – 2.595 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.2
•  Sixt UK: Sixt.co.uk – 2.236 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.5
•  Sixt Spain: sixt.es – 2.193 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.5
•  EuropCar COM: Europcar.com – 2.122 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.0
•  Easy Car: easycar.com – 1.363 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 3.7
•  AutoEurope Germany: autoeurope.de – 1.320 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.7
•  AutoEurope Spain: autoeurope.es – 684 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.6
•  KemWel: kemwel.com – 488 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 4.2
•  Rhino Car Hire: Rhinocarhire.com – 484 Ratings & Reviews to date across Google Shopping Selling; Ratings from the past 12 months have an average Star Rating of 3.9

Our list continues with those companies that have been rated but have not released in public any reviews yet.

• Enterprise.co.uk  – 4.8 average Star rating with no active reviews in the last 12 months across Google Seller Rating
• Enterprise.com – 4.8 average Star rating with no active reviews in the last 12 months across Google Seller Rating
• Budget.co.uk – 4.4 average Star rating with no active reviews in the last 12 months across Google Seller Rating
• Thrifty.com – 3.9 average Star rating with no active reviews in the last 12 months across Google Seller Rating
• Dollar.com – 3.8 average Star rating with no active reviews in the last 12 months across Google Seller Rating

And finally, we listed those car rental companies that have received neither reviews nor ratings online. Among them, we have spotted some strong players of the market. It is not a doubt, that those companies that do not currently use customer feedback tools, are potentially driving themselves to gain less credibility online.

• Avis.com – Neither Seller Rating nor Active Seller Reviews to date
• Autoeurope.eu – Neither Seller Rating nor Active Seller Reviews to date
• Hertz.com – Neither Seller Rating nor Active Seller Reviews to date
• Alamo.com – Neither Seller Rating nor Active Seller Reviews to date
• Nationalcar.com – Neither Seller Rating nor Active Seller Reviews to date
• Acerentalcar.com – Neither Seller Rating nor Active Seller Reviews to date
• Economycarrentals.com – Neither Seller Rating nor Active Seller Reviews to date

“If these merchants hope to regain their top spots, they’ll need to make a concerted effort to gather positive ratings and reviews over the next 12 months,” stated Michael Ambros, eKomi Founder and CEO.

The Crucial Importance of Ratings and Reviews

In fact, large numbers of reviews and high ratings have enabled several smaller companies – most notably Billiger-Mietwagen and  Cicar  – to gain significant market share this year.

Reviews and ratings boost revenue-generating activities and inspire even more positive reviews – setting off a “virtuous cycle” in which a well-reviewed website’s popularity continues to skyrocket. Poor reviews, on the other hand, can set off a downward spiral: a site’s sudden disappearance from top search results can abruptly destroy its customer base.

A 2017 ZenDesk survey discussed in Forbes reported that a staggering 88 percent of customers make buying decisions based on online customer reviews. This makes it clear that publicly visible feedback from real customers is a key component in a merchant’s success. And as Google’s search algorithms grow ever smarter, positive reviews and ratings are becoming especially vital in the heated competition for those all-important “above-the-fold” natural search rankings.

“We’ve seen time and again, across a wide range of sectors, that brands who activate their reviews and ratings see a dramatic leap in search engine referred traffic, and a corresponding boost in revenue”, commented Michael Ambros, eKomi Founder and CEO.

 

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