Earn more per booking with extras, without annoying customers

Extras are the easiest way to raise the value of a booking without touching the daily rate: a child seat, an additional driver, a protection that removes the excess. They are also easy to get wrong. Pushed too hard, or revealed too late, they feel like tricks. Offered clearly, they feel like service.

Start from what customers actually need

Do not copy a catalogue from a big brand. Ask your counter staff what customers request most often, and note what they ask for that you do not offer. Families need child seats. Visitors need navigation or a way to stay online. Two people sharing the driving need an additional driver. Nervous renters want the excess removed. Airport arrivals value delivery. Look at what competitors nearby offer, but charge for the effort you really provide: an extra that needs cleaning, stock and a handover has a real cost.

Keep the first list short. Four or five extras that you can always deliver, clean and on time, beat fifteen that are sometimes missing.

A starter catalogue (illustrative prices)

The prices below are invented to show how each extra is usually charged. Set yours from your own costs and market.

Promise only what your protection covers

A protection is a promise, so word it exactly. Say what the customer’s maximum liability becomes, and list what stays excluded if your cover leaves things out, such as tyres, glass, the underbody, keys or damage caused by negligence. Check with your insurer how you are allowed to sell it and what it must be called.

Offer two clear levels rather than a menu: the standard cover included in the rate, and the protection that removes the excess. A customer who understands the difference in one sentence decides in seconds. Staff should explain it the same way every time: write the two-sentence version and keep it at the counter.

Show options at booking, not for the first time at the counter

Present extras while the customer is choosing the car, with the total price visible and updating as they tick options. Explain each one in a single sentence, in the customer’s language. Translate names and descriptions properly, Arabic included: a protection the customer cannot read is one they will not buy, or will dispute later. Keep non-essential extras unticked by default, and never pre-select anything the customer did not ask for.

At the counter, ask once, politely, without a sales pitch. Keep prices identical online and at the desk, and cap long rentals, for example by limiting a child seat to a maximum amount per rental, so that the total always looks fair.

Be transparent and avoid hidden fees

Every mandatory charge is part of the price and should appear as such before payment: airport or out-of-hours fees, young-driver fees, one-way fees. Show the deposit, the fuel rule and the mileage allowance in the quote and the confirmation, in the same language. A simple test: could a customer who reads only the total understand what they will pay at pick-up and at return?

Then check that the invoice matches the quote line by line. A surprise at the counter turns a competitive price into a complaint, and it is the surprise the customer remembers, not the discount. Put the key terms on the rental agreement in the customer’s language and let them keep a copy.

Measure attach rates every month

The attach rate of an extra is the number of rentals that included it divided by the number of rentals in the period. Track it monthly, per extra and, if you have several branches, per branch, together with the extras revenue per rental. Keep the same definition each month so that the figures stay comparable, and read high and low seasons separately: summer families ask for different extras than winter business travellers.

Invented example for a month with 120 rentals: zero-excess protection on 42 rentals (35%), additional driver on 24 (20%), child seat on 18 (15%), Wi-Fi on 6 (5%). Then read the numbers:

• A low rate on a protection often means it is unclear or hidden, not that customers do not want it.
• A high rate on an item with limited stock, such as child seats, means you may be turning demand away: buy more.
• Compare branches and channels: if the airport desk sells far more protection than the city desk, find out what its agents say differently.
• Do not chase a target rate. Watch complaints alongside the numbers.

Put it into practice

Pick2Rent brings pricing and rate plans, invoices and reports together, so your monthly review of what you charged beyond the base rate stays in one place. See the features or the plans.

• Four or five extras you can always deliver.
• Protections described exactly, with exclusions listed.
• Options shown at booking with a total that updates.
• Mandatory fees included in the price shown before payment.
• Invoice lines that match the quote.
• Attach rates reviewed every month.