FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - How could the Dollar/Thifty group be worth $2 billion?
Old May 16, 2012, 9:54 am
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jackal
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Originally Posted by iahphx
There's obviously money to be made in this brand diffentiation, or the companies wouldn't be doing it. For example, I can't understand the difference between Dollar and Thifty: it seems like their prices are now almost ALWAYS identical on their websites. I don't rent from them enough to notice: I assume they still have separate airport counters in some locations? I know they just share one fleet. There's obviously SOME consumer brand differentiation between National/Alamo/Enterprise, but does ANYONE in the public see a difference between Dollar and Thrifty? Somebody once told me that Dollar was supposed to be the more upscale brand, but I've never observed that to be true, and I be surprised if many folks believe it these days.
Having been intimately familiar with DTAG for much of the past decade, I can tell you that even *I* have no clue what the difference is supposed to be.

There certainly isn't any brand differentiation. Historically, Dollar was the on-airport provider and Thrifty was the off-airport (as well as suburban/insurance replacement) provider. That distinction has largely gone away.

IMO, the only reason they run two brands now is to try to capture a larger mindshare by presenting customers with two options--i.e. taking up twice the column-width on the Travelocity price grid and perhaps also to try to get around the whole "I'll never rent with [Thrifty]/[Dollar] again" thing by pretending they're two independent companies (which probably 99% of the traveling public believes). And even then, I'm not sure all the duplication in staffing and facilities makes it worth it, but it is what it is.

Also, the fact there are so many franchised Dollars and Thriftys would complicate any brand merger plans. Most larger airports have both brands operated by corporate and would be an easy merger, but there are some places where it could present a problem. Here's a list off the top of my head:

-SEA/PDX Thrifty: corporate
-SEA/PDX Dollar: franchise

-BOS Thrifty: corporate
-BOS Dollar: franchise

-SLC Thrifty: franchise #1
-SLC Dollar: franchise #2

There are many smaller airports where Dollar and Thrifty are both franchised by the same operator, so that would go easier (although I wouldn't be surprised if those licensees asked for one of their two franchise fees to be refunded ), but there are also many smaller airports and off-airport locations where only one brand exists or both brands are operated by two different operators (SLC is the only major airport I can think of where this is the case, but there may be smaller regional airports I don't know of where it is also the case).
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