I had no idea of car rental in Las Vegas when I was on my way to Los Angeles in 1957. But I learned something about Roulette. Darkness can occur, and it happens, 8 times in a row. Yet I was betting on red. That was unfortunate. But I had stopped betting red after the fourth. Now that was lucky.
I learned about car rental in Vasgas around 1980. I owned an Alamo Rent A Car and worked for a Milwaukee tour operator who included an Alamo car in their Orlando charter pocket, The package included air travel, hotel and car rental. I rarely mention the names but because these people were experts I have dealt with over the years I feel compelled. In those days their name was Funway Holidays which was changed to Funjet Holidays in the 90s. They also had a few chartered flights to Las Vegas and that’s where I learned about car rental.
In those days charter operators did not rent cars and Funway was a major passenger and small operator in Vegas. I do not know the percentage of visitors brought by local drivers compared to the total number of tourists. But the number had to be high. I would also suspect that people who visit Vegas alone did not rent cars in their majority because they loved to gamble. Can I imagine renting a car in Vegas at the time was not a big deal?
Charter owners had to take people to their hotels so often their charging fee included air travel, hotel stay and bus transfers. The most commonly advertised prices were per person, double occupancy. The total cost to the charter operator for round trip transportation was estimated at $ 16 for these two people.
This is an opportunity to offer a car rental instead of a round trip. The offer at Funway was a total of $ 10 on the first day, the day of arrival. This can be offered to their customers as an option. If a client accepts car rental Funway will immediately see $ 6 drop in its original title. This was the difference between their total $ 16 per transfer fee and the $ 10 Alarm charged on the first day.
How did this option affect the players? When the customer accepted the car rental they found out right away that there were no parking costs for the trip and two, he avoided the cost of taking the elevator if he wanted to visit other hotels for gambling or restaurants. He can also visit Hoover Dam, which is probably a must for first-time visitors.
He rented a car on the day of arrival and could extend the rent for two or three more days of his package. Package visits were granted for three or four days. Additional daily costs were $ 19 competitive, approximately $ 5 or $ 6 less than the advertised local car rental price. If he wished to return the car after the first day he was hit by a bus back to the hotel and boarded a taxi back to the airport from which he was to depart. Tenants, almost 100%, keep the car for the rest of their stay.
How did Funjet fare? As mentioned, the car rental option has dropped $ 6 from its lower line. They also receive a $ 19 day commission that the client pays when they extend their rental space for two or three days. Certainly not a huge amount for each customer but everything is combined. Especially if there were 30 or 40 rental cars on each chartered plane.
What about the Alamo? I have never heard a complaint. The program was initially offered by Funjet but there are other players. Younger operators have purchased 10 or 20 seats at a discount to offer a competitive Vegas tour package. The Vegas car rental business has become important. Even our competitors got into the act with a $ 10 car rental gift. This business was very competitive until the cost to the first day operator was zip, zilch, nada, zero. Even when the business was making a profit.
What is the car rental business in Vegas today? I have no vague idea. For the past 20 years I have been unable to manage this type of business. But I will bet if I watch enough black it will appear 8 times in a row on the Roulette table.
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