jackal

Most Avis "franchises" are actually what Avis calls "Agencies"--they are basically contract-operated "storefronts" for Avis. The Agency operator supplies the real estate, local marketing (often just buying brochures, etc. from Avis corporate), staffing, uniforms, and other such miscellaneous expenses. Avis corporate supplies the biggest line item: the cars. In exchange for renting them, Avis pays the operator a small percent of the base rental rate as well as a portion of additional sales (coverage, gas, etc.). Avis corporate determines (based on analytics such as demand, supply, and past performance) the ratees and how many cars each Agency location gets to rent, and cars can be given to or taken away from them at any time.

With these stores, though, you're pretty much renting from Avis corporate, except that a contract employee is filling out your rental agreement. Any issues you have with the rental after that point can be handled by Avis corporate--you can stop at a full corporate store (like a nearby airport) to exchange the car if you have problems, or you can call Avis's central phone number to process modifications to your rental (extensions, change drop location, etc.). These Avis Agencies use the Avis corporate computer system ("Wizard"), and to anyone at Avis pulling the rental up in their system (whether another Avis location or a post-rental customer service representative), it looks just like a regular Avis rental. To the customer, too, it's a pretty transparent process, since Avis provides the computer system, sets the rental policies, and requires the Agency to adhere to Avis corporate standards

Avis in ANC is a very rare type of Avis franchise (since they've been a franchise since 1956)--a fully-independently-owned-and-operated licensee. Instead of Avis corporate paying them a small percentage of the revenue, they buy their own cars, set their own rates, and get to keep all of the revenue they earn (except for a small portion--a few percent--they pay to Avis as part of their franchise fee). Of course, they're responsible for the car payments for the thousand or so cars they keep around--not an insignificant sum. Since they maintain full risk and responsibility for any things that might happen to their vehicles, they are free to set their own policies (within reason). In short, they're basically an independent rental company that happens to carry the big red Avis logo (and pays a small premium to do so).

They also provide their own computer system that isn't integrated well with Avis corporate's (as mentioned above). In fact, Avis once offered the Alaska franchise the option to move to Avis corporate's computer system in order to provide better service to Avis customers, but Avis Alaska declined. Why? Because that would have given Avis corporate the ability to fully see into the franchise's operations and financials. (Avis Alaska has a tumultuous relationship with corporate over the years--check out this story, which made big headlines in the industry trade publications.)

I have no beef with Avis Alaska and wish it much success. However, that success cannot come at the expense of not honoring the basic standards of Avis corporate, especially not honoring reservations and rates as promised and refusing to honor the benefits that elite members are entitled to as part of their loyalty. I also fault Avis Budget Group for not holding Avis Alaska to its standards and not requiring the infrastructure to allow Avis corporate to deal effectively with complaints about their Alaska franchise, especially when other companies (even discount brands that supposedly provide poorer service) do provide that infrastructure.

On a related note, here's an interesting article about the problems that Agencies have had with Avis corporate.