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-   -   Need FT community help to review AutoSlash.com (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-tools/1093166-need-ft-community-help-review-autoslash-com.html)

jackal Jun 7, 2010 5:00 am

Need FT community help to review AutoSlash.com
 
I would like to help a friend out and let everyone know that about a new website: AutoSlash.com. My friend Jonathan, who posts under the handle of AutoSlash, will be along shortly to follow up, but I wanted to help him get the ball rolling.

A lot of work has been put into the site, but Jonathan wants to get a broader perspective. We FlyerTalkers are the cream of the crop in the travel world, and AutoSlash wants to make a site that will meet our needs. The hope is that we will use this thread to provide feedback on the site and help make the site as useful as possible. Who better to tell a travel site what it should do than the frequent travelers here who can get the best benefit from it?

The site is still in the very early stages. There are a number of unique and innovative tools in the development queue right now. Here's hoping that the FT community will engage to help shape and grow the site.

If anyone from FT would like to be involved in previewing and providing feedback on unreleased functionality and content and/or help out with the site in some way, please PM AutoSlash if interested.

Please note that the site is still in *early beta*. As such, some pieces of functionality may be broken or not fully fleshed out, so please keep that in mind. :)

Thanks in advance for everyone's help and feedback. With your assistance, AutoSlash could soon be the #1 destination on the Internet for car rentals!

P.S.--There's a launch party for the site this Saturday, June 12 in the NYC area in the afternoon/evening. If any FTers are in the NYC area and would like to attend, please PM AutoSlash for details.

AutoSlash Jun 7, 2010 5:03 am

Thanks, jackal!

Right now, we're focused on displaying the best pricing possible. One thing that we're trying to make sure is that the rates we're displaying for a given rental are hopefully beating the "other guys". Based on initial feedback, I believe that we are doing this in a majority of cases, but not all. We'd like your help to optimize our engine.

We've got the basic booking engine and coupon database enabled. The booking engine should automatically apply the best coupons to your rental.

Please try plugging in locations and dates for your upcoming rentals to see if we're beating the other site(s) you usually use. You can also book with us to have us track the price of your rental over time, since rates often drop. If you want to run us in parallel with your existing reservation as a test, we're cool with that. If our system doesn't get anything better than what you've found elsewhere, you can always cancel your reservation with us with no penalty.

If you find that we're not showing great rates on a particular search, please post the details here of the pickup/dropoff location(s), dates/times, and vehicle size, and we'll investigate. We're also happy to answer any questions you may have on the site.

We've got some great features planned--not only for the average consumer, but for the power users who frequent FT as well. We'll release more details on this thread as we move forward. I'm reserving this post as a sort of release board to keep everyone updated of new features.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Jonathan

goalie Jun 7, 2010 8:07 am

thanks jackal and baseline ^^ (one for each of you ;)). very nice and very simple to use. just added it to my bookmarks

SanDiego1K Jun 7, 2010 9:11 am

Incredibly easy, and it came up with the sole solution for a small airport where we are arriving off hours for our primary rental company.

cl.lurker Jun 7, 2010 10:40 am

awesome idea! (why didn't I think of that???:))

My new #1 site for car rental....best of luck to you guys!

AutoSlash Jun 7, 2010 12:43 pm

Sean O'Neill from budgettravel.com takes AutoSlash for a spin and likes what he sees...

http://current.newsweek.com/budgettr...autoslash.html

Jonathan

sc flier Jun 7, 2010 12:59 pm

I couldn't figure out how to make it use Hertz's promo code "drive" for a one-way rental.

AutoSlash Jun 7, 2010 1:10 pm

You just need to add the applicable promo code for the special you want. Here are the numbers:

PC# 113061 for a One-way Weekend rental
PC# 135671 for a One-way Weekly rental

You would first click on the More Options dropdown at the bottom of the box on the AutoSlash homepage.

Then check the box to enter a discount code.

Then select Hertz, and enter the appropriate promo code from above depending on the duration of your rental.

The price displayed will take into account the appropriate discount. Note that we review each reservation after booking, so if there is a better discount code available that will lower your price further, we will apply it to your reservation after the fact and email you with the details.

Hope this helps!

Jonathan


Originally Posted by sc flier (Post 14092420)
I couldn't figure out how to make it use Hertz's promo code "drive" for a one-way rental.


N965VJ Jun 7, 2010 1:32 pm

I put the site through it's paces shopping around. Very nice! ^

hfly Jun 7, 2010 2:09 pm

I won't be renting a car in the US for at least another month, but I will surely use it.

sc flier Jun 7, 2010 3:00 pm


Originally Posted by baseline (Post 14092489)
You just need to add the applicable promo code for the special you want. Here are the numbers:

PC# 113061 for a One-way Weekend rental
PC# 135671 for a One-way Weekly rental

Neither of these apply to my situation because my rental period is not on the weekend and is for only 1 day. I've already booked this mid-week, 1-day, one-way rental directly through Hertz. On hertz.com, the RQ code "drive" drops the price from $201 down to $42. I left the PC# blank. These numbers are with a CDP# that already took off 10%.

AutoSlash Jun 7, 2010 4:04 pm

A drop from $201 to $42 is a phenomenal deal. Would you mind sharing your pickup/dropoff locations and dates? I'd like to play around with this.

As we state on our How It Works page, if we can find the consumer a better deal on another site, we'll tell them about it so they can book it there. If the RQ "drive" does indeed drive down the prices, then it will be something we check for when re-pricing reservations.

Thanks,

Jonathan


Originally Posted by sc flier (Post 14093172)
Neither of these apply to my situation because my rental period is not on the weekend and is for only 1 day. I've already booked this mid-week, 1-day, one-way rental directly through Hertz. On hertz.com, the RQ code "drive" drops the price from $201 down to $42. I left the PC# blank. These numbers are with a CDP# that already took off 10%.


sc flier Jun 7, 2010 5:49 pm


Originally Posted by baseline (Post 14093535)
A drop from $201 to $42 is a phenomenal deal. Would you mind sharing your pickup/dropoff locations and dates? I'd like to play around with this.

YGPM.

Also, I haven't looked to see if you're doing anything on the site to maximize promos for earning FF miles. I'm certain that FTers are interested in that even if it's necessarily not the lowest price.

AutoSlash Jun 7, 2010 6:00 pm

Thanks, I'll check it out.

The optimizations are all around price right now. We definitely will look to see what can be done in the mileage optimization area down the road a bit. The list of planned enhancements is quite long, but that's a good thing. We feel there is a lot of innovation that's possible in this space.


Originally Posted by sc flier (Post 14093993)
YGPM.

Also, I haven't looked to see if you're doing anything on the site to maximize promos for earning FF miles. I'm certain that FTers are interested in that even if it's necessarily not the lowest price.


Efrem Jun 8, 2010 8:07 am

I tried it for a one-way rental in France. It was quite happy to take airport codes, but unfortunately I'd like to pick up the car somewhere near central Paris and return it in Bayeux. (Hertz, at least, has offices in both places.) It won't let me enter a non-airport address outside the U.S. and Canada. Is an enhancement for this in the works?

(That said, I liked what I saw for the trial searches I did.)


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