September 3, 2008
Anyone looking to rent a bus in Sydney?
The following is a paid review.
I've been asked to review this website by a minibus hire company in Sydney.
A lot of times when I do a review (well all 4 or so times), I'm asking questions like 'would I use this site to make a hotel reservation?' or whathaveyou. Reviewing this site presents a bit of a challenge because it's in a specialized niche that I have no real experience in or knowledge of.
But I guess my review has to focus on 'would you use this company if you needed a minibus in Sydney?'
Sure I would. Like I said, I'm not minibus expert but I do know that when a company specializes in one niche product or service they have a good shot at succeeding if they know their business well. And it's more likely that everyone will know their business well in a specialized company.
I mean if I go to a normal rental place, they might know that a Chevy Aveo is a compact (or is it subcompact?) and that a Cadillac is luxury, but your average counter person at a rental agency doesn't know too much about the different cars.
Then you take this company. The have 8, 12, and 21 person minibuses. These are available with or without a driver. That's what they do. It's not hard to imagine they'd be good at it. You can kind of see what I mean here: tourist attractions in Sydney bought to you by a bus hire company. Leave the travel guides to the professionals (and me) and stick with bus rental information....
My complaint about the website is that they don't tell you their rates online. I don't like it when companies make you call instead of just giving you the information you want on the website but it happens.
And that's about all I can say about that.
Posted by James Trotta at September 3, 2008 9:45 PM | TrackBack
As an expat Oz living in the US who will be visiting Sydney over Christmas (family & friends) this was a timely story. In my experience Australian rental firms focus on cars (seating up to 5). Mini vans/people movers are few. Plus they tend to fall on the basic end of the option scale.
So this is a nice find. Couple of points to add to the review:
1] the 8 seater is a Toyota Tarago mini van. It's a pity they don't note that, minibus creates IMO the wrong image and may turn people off.
2] NRMA 24 hour road service is the equivalent of AAA. A nice touch.
3] Pick up location [20 minutes south of the Airport] is not convenient for o/s or interstate visitors. You really do need the airport pick up.
Otherwise as stated this is a resource that I will be looking into.
Posted by: Geoffrey at September 4, 2008 2:05 AM