Self-Serve Car Rental

abb_road writes "Claiming 'Web2.0 values meet Brick and Mortar,' BusinessWeek is reporting on an entirely self service car rental company. Zipcar customers make all reservations online or using a cell phone, then use a card-key to pick up their car from the parking garage--no attendants needed. According to the article, one of the other important attractions of the system is transparency; the reservations system allows you to see exactly what cars in the area will be available at what times, and then reserve or adjust your plans accordingly. From the article: 'If the nearest Mini convertible is booked until 3 p.m., the customer might postpone plans by an hour to get it -- or decide the Mazda with a sunroof on another lot will do.'"

Comments

Annoying Trial

[MrPsycho]

This Evaluation of ZipCar 8.0 has expired. Please purchase the full version. Press your horn to continue.

Re:Sounds Interesting

[Karma Farmer]

Plus, what if someone hacked into the server and decided to "rent" a bunch of nice cars?

What if someone in a monster truck drives over all the cars in the parking lot?

Re:Maybe they will copy Blockbuster?

[winkydink]

Yeah. If you're more than 3 hours late, they bill the full value of the car to your credit card.