The hotel industry has the profession of "sleep tester", and the business travel platform invites amateurs to experience the hotel services of the platform from time to time and provide anonymous opinions for the facilities and services of the hotel rooms. For the first time, the car rental industry will also usher in "mystery shoppers", as a strong supplement to the management measures and service standards of the Hello Car Rental platform.
The reporter learned from Hello Car Rental that in order to further improve the service level of the car rental industry and restrain and govern the bad behavior of merchants in the car rental industry, Hello Car Rental has recently launched a series of management innovation measures, in addition to the launch of the "mystery shop" system, it will also set up the "red and black list" of the car rental industry for the first time to help users avoid lightning and pitfalls in the process of renting a car. At the same time, Hello Car Rental has launched the "Car Rental Industry Self-Discipline Convention" for thousands of merchants on the platform, which explicitly prohibits merchants from offline transactions, offline collection and fees, forced insurance sales, additional charges, etc.
Take multiple measures at the same time to strengthen the control of the whole process of car rental
According to Hello Car Rental, the mystery shopper mechanism will be launched soon, and mystery shoppers composed of industry experts, user groups, media, and third-party organizations will be recruited to experience the implementation of the rules of the Hello Car Rental platform and the implementation of standards in the performance process from time to time. The evaluation of mystery shoppers will be linked to a series of incentives and punishments such as traffic, recommendation, and removal of the merchant on the Hello Car Rental platform. HelloCar Rental is also considering opening up mystery shopper research to the public at the right time.
Hello Car Rental has also set up the industry's first "Merchant Red and Black List", which regularly updates the list of high-quality and unsatisfactory merchants on the platform from the perspective of customer complaints and disposition, and publishes it through the official account to help users make more comprehensive judgments when facing car rental choices.
At the same time, Hello Car Rental also collaborated with thousands of merchants on the platform to launch the first self-discipline convention in the car rental industry. Offline transactions, offline collection and charging fees, forced sale of insurance, and additional fees are expressly prohibited. Merchants who violate the provisions of the Convention will face a series of penalties such as warnings, fines, and dismissals.
The person in charge of Hello Car Rental said that the original intention of launching the "Convention" was that in the past, it was found that there were many cases of merchants privately contacting users to cancel orders in an attempt to circumvent the platform's supervision. After breaking away from the supervision of the platform, a very small number of merchants use various illegal and untrustworthy means, resulting in poor user service experience and even damage to interests. HelloCar Rental will spare no effort to crack down on these bad behaviors, and also welcomes the supervision of the majority of users in the process.
According to reports, since the beginning of this year, Hello Car Rental has made great breakthroughs in the direction of online and transparent the whole process of car rental performance with the "online platform fulfillment" project as the starting point, so as to ensure that the whole process of car rental can be tracked. For example, on the "Confirmation of Vehicle Inspection Results" module that has been landed, users can view the vehicle inspection information on the mobile phone, check the details of the vehicle, and protect the rights and interests of users by retaining more certificates under the supervision of a third party.
For all types of deductions initiated by merchants on the platform, HelloCar Rental has deployed a large number of auditors with experience in insurance loss assessment to strictly review the merchants' vouchers and reject applications for abnormal deductions.
The aggregation platform has become the first choice for users to rent a car
With the new trend of younger users, car rental lifestyle, and diversified car rental demand, the car rental industry has seen a new and rapid growth momentum in China in recent years. According to the Boston Consulting Group, the size of China's car rental market will reach about 158.5 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of about 13%.
However, at the same time, some public opinion incidents caused by merchants' violations and dishonest operations have also begun to be paid attention to by more consumers. In recent years, in many tourist cities, there has been a lot of news about "users being cheated". Related content such as "there are many car rental routines" floods the Internet.
The above background provides a new stage for the development of car rental platforms. On the one hand, the efficiency advantage of the car rental platform in SaaS system and product innovation can provide services and empower many small and regionally dispersed car rental merchants. On the other hand, the car rental platform can form constraints on the originally scattered car rental market through management norms and service standards, and provide protection for users' car rental behavior through insurance and other means, which has gradually become the first choice for users when they have car rental needs.
Since May 2021, Hello launched its self-driving car rental aggregation platform "Hello Car Rental", adhering to the concept of "user-centric" to provide users with more secure, convenient and comfortable travel options. At present, Hello Car Rental has rapidly grown into the industry's leading car rental platform with the most comprehensive vehicle models and outlets, covering more than 100,000 service outlets in more than 600 cities (including county-level cities) across the country, and serving more than 1 million users in total.
Appeal to users to refuse offline transactions
Hello Car Rental also issued a notice on the Internet about the situation of "scratches on the headlights after renting a car and being claimed with a high amount".
On April 11, it was reported on the Internet that after a college student tourist rented a car in Chengdu, he was required by the company to pay 68,800 yuan in compensation because of scratch marks on the outer glass of the front left side of the car. On the same day, Hello Car Rental paid attention to the feedback of relevant users on social platforms, and intervened to deal with it as soon as possible, and has simultaneously removed the stores involved.
After a preliminary investigation, the restoration events were as follows:
This single user placed an order for an ideal ONE on the Hello car rental platform on April 1, and the use time was from April 4th to April 5th, and the order supplier was Chengdu Dingfu Xinsheng Business Co., Ltd. Later, the user was informed by the supplier that the ordered model was no longer in stock, and the user cancelled the order on Hello Rent-a-Car at the suggestion. Background data shows that the user canceled the car rental order on April 4. After the user left the platform, he personally made a car rental transaction with the merchant and paid the deposit face-to-face.
Although the entire transaction chain has been separated from the Hello Car Rental platform, in a positive and responsible manner, Hello Car Rental contacted the single user as soon as possible, and is willing to help him protect his legitimate rights and interests in all aspects, including but not limited to further clarifying the truth of the incident, further dealing with the merchant's violations, and holding the supplier accountable under the guidance of relevant government functional departments. On the night of the 12th, under the active mediation of Hello Car Rental, the user has successfully obtained the 12,000 yuan car rental deposit from the merchant involved.
HelloCar Rental calls on users to reject all offline transactions as they may not only hurt the car rental experience, but also cause damage to the actual interests of users under the premise of lack of platform supervision and insurance coverage. In the future, HelloCar Rental will further strengthen the crackdown and management of merchants' offline transactions within the platform, and carry out centralized rectification of merchants who have verified offline transactions.