Payless Car Rental is a

car rental A car rental, hire car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time to the public, generally ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It is often organized with numerous local branches (which allow a user to ...

company owned by

Avis Budget Group Avis Budget Group is American car rental agency holding company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. It is the parent company of several brands including Avis Car Rental, Budget Rent a Car, Budget Truck Rental, Payless Car Rental and Zipca ...

and headquartered in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. While mainly a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

system, the company owns and operates several corporate locations. Payless Car Rental, Payless Car Sales, Payless Parking and REZlink International are sister companies under the umbrella of Avalon Global Group. The Payless brand operates in North America,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The company has 167 locations worldwide. Payless was acquired by

in 2013.

History

In 1971, John Les Netterstron opened the first Payless Car Rental location in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...

. Under the direction of Netterstron, the company grew from a local car rental store to a franchise system with over 100 car rental offices throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. By 1987 the company acquired the U.S. portion of Canadian-based Holiday Rent a Car, at which time the company built its first automated central reservation system. The first Payless image was created in 1989, which has endured to the present day with only minor changes. Payless opened its first two corporate stores in 2002, adding 4 more between 2004 – 2006. The company currently has corporate locations in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Ft. Lauderdale,

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

and Tampa. In March 2009 Payless Car Rental was added to the

Expedia Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, an American online travel shopping company based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacat ...

Preferred Vendors view. Payless also offers rates through travel portals such as

Orbitz Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois. Background Origina ...

Priceline.com Priceline.com is an online travel agency for finding discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company facilitates the provision of travel services from its suppliers to its clients. Priceline.com ...

Travelocity Travelocity.com is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group. It has 12.4 million monthly unique visitors, making it the third most popular website owned by Expedia Group, after Expedia.com and Hotels.com. One of the pioneers of web-based ...

and Rentcars.com. As of 2008, Payless provides car rental services in over 80 locations in 20 countries operating over 10,000 vehicles. In July 2013, Avis Budget Group acquired Payless for reported cost of 50 million dollars. Despite the acquisition, Avis had not improved Payless' reputation of sour customer experience by 2016.

Vehicles

In order to keep costs low, Payless typically shares a fleet with other

-owned companies, Avis Rent a Car, as well as

Budget Rent a Car Budget Rent a Car is an American car rental company that was founded in 1958 in Los Angeles, California by Morris Mirkin. Budget is a subsidiary of the Avis Budget Group, with its operations headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. History ...

, in many locations. Payless uses sales techniques to maintain profitability, including offering fewer vehicle classes than other rental car companies.

References

External links

* {{Renters American companies established in 1971 Transport companies established in 1971 Retail companies established in 1971 Car rental companies based in Florida Companies based in St. Petersburg, Florida 1971 establishments in Washington (state) 2013 mergers and acquisitions Avis Budget Group

History

Vehicles

See also

References

External links