Skift Take
Getting mobile self-service rentals to market quickly is clearly in the best interest of Avis Budget as business travelers prefer the swiftness of mobile as the company saw weakness with its commercial rentals during the fourth quarter.
Avis Budget's CEO Larry De Shon told analysts on Wednesday that his car rental company is in the car-sharing business as he mapped his vision for using mobile, self-service rentals to challenge ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft at their own game.
The company's rally cry that on-demand ride-hailing apps haven't impacted their business and that rental volumes increased year-over-year for the fourth quarter, coupled with record high revenue for full-year 2015, sets up major changes for how its cars are rented around the world. For example, Avis has been testing self-service car rentals through its mobile app in a few markets and plans to expand into more in 2016 and De Shon outlined how self-service works during the company's fourth quarter 2015 earnings call on Wednesday.
Travelers will use the Avis app to book a car and when their flight lands their phone will tell them the location of their
