For operations involved in a national or international franchising organization, the business is often run under the brand name of the franchiser. These franchising organizations can own more than one car rental brand such as Hertz also owning Thrifty and Dollar or Avis owning Budget. Under this arrangement, it is possible for a single physical rental location to serve more than one Brand. This chapter covers some of the unique set-up steps required if you are running a Dual Brand (or triple branded) location.

II. DATA SET-UP

A. BRAND CODE FILE

Using the program Brand Revenue Controls, set up a Brand Code record for each brand that will be supported.

B. LOCATION FILE

Using Edit Locations, set up separate Location codes for each brand that a single physical location will serve. For example, if the LAX location will serve both Dollar and Thrifty rentals, it is necessary to set up two Location Records for LAX -- each using the Location Code that each brand uses such as LAXDLR for the Dollar business and LAXTHR for the Thrifty business. On page 6 in Field 31 enter the Brand Code that is served by each location.

C. LOCATION GROUPS

Using Edit Group Codes, define a Location Group for all the branded locations that are served by a single physical location or area. For example, Location group "+LAX" could be made up of LAX51 (Hertz) and LAXTHR (Thrifty) and LAXDLR (Dollar) where all 3 brands are at one physical location. Enter this Location Group Code into Fields 19 and 20 on page 7, of the "Veh and Res Search Groups" field, in Edit Locations for all of these 3 locations. Following the example above, these locations, LAX51, LAXDLR and LAXTHR should have the Location Group Code +LAX in these fields. (Res and Vehicle Search Groups.)

NOTE: This location Group (+LAX) should be set for all users at the LAX airport counter in their Edit User Access File. ("Restrict Location" field). The user's Terminal Record should also reflect one of these locations.

More information on Location Groups:

If the LAX airport counter served three brands, Hertz (LAX51), Thrifty (LAXTHR) and Dollar (LAXDLR) at the same counter, Hertz will consider these as three separate locations. That means that if Hertz sends a reservation to LAXTHR, Hertz will expect a Thrifty rental agreement in the DRB/GAR feed. The rental agreement is branded by the brand of the opening location. So in this case the Thrifty reservation from the LAX counter will need to be opened from the LAXTHR location with a Thrifty Branded Rental Agreement.

By setting up these locations groups, a user can be signed into Cars+ from LAX51 (Hertz), it would be understood by the Cars+, location group, +LAX, that the user has access to all of the locations in that group without being forced to sign in and out of the different locations. Cars+ will keep these transactions separate by location, and will allow the three brands to access and rent any vehicle that is at any of the three locations served by the one counter. Treating them as a single common fleet. (All of this happening automatically, with out any intervention or interference to the user.)

Key points:

• Regardless of what location the user signs into, when opening a reservation for LAX51, the RA opening location will be automatically set to Hertz (LAX51).
• At the end of day, there will be three separate DBRS, one for each of these locations. (LAX51, LAXTHR, and LAXDLR) The DRB/GAR feed will also be sent individually.
• All reports for LAX51 will only include the Hertz branded transactions. To see all transactions that occurred at the LAX counter for all brands, the user can set the reports by the Location Group that was created (+LAX).

III. CHANGES AT THE COUNTER

A. RESERVATION DISPLAY

Under the above set-up, when using the Control-X Rez Display, reservations for all the pickup locations that are defined in your default location's Res Search Group will be listed in one combined list.

B. RA Open

Using the above set-up when selecting a reservation from the Reservation Display screen and calling RA Open:

1. The system will look up the Brand Code of the reservation.

2. Then using the Res Search Group of the Location the counter agent is currently logged into, it will find the Location within that group with a Brand Code that matches that of the reservation.

3. Using that Location, the system will automatically change the user's default to Location to that with the correct brand.

That means that if the agent was signed on to the Dollar location for LAX but the reservation selected to open is for Thrifty, the agent will immediately be switched to the Thrifty location for LAX without having to use Change Environment. All contracts will open at the properly branded location.

C. RA CLOSE

Using the above setup when closing a rental, after entering the RA# into the RA Close screen;

1. Cars+ will look up the Brand Code of the RA's opening location.

2. Checking the Res Search Group of the Location, the user is currently logged into, Cars+ will find the Location Group that matches that of the RA.

3. If the user belongs to that Location Group, Cars+ will automatically change the drawer to the correct brand's location.

D. LOOK ONLY Programs