Vroom Vroom Vroom right here in Sydney

The Mole met last week with the brains behind Vroom, Vroom, Vroom [pictured right, from left in no particular order, Vroom 1, aka V1 or Peter Thornton, Managing Director; Vroom 2 – aka V2 or David Eastes, Wemaster and V3 or Vroom 3, aka Richard Eastes, National Director] in Sydney and it is clear that they have cornered a valuable sector of the car market out of Australia, announcing last week that [and let’s call them VVV so that I don’t get triple vision] that Richard Eastes, Australian Director of VVV currently managing the HQ in Brissy is moving to Las Vegas to set up the VVV operation there, with Dave Eastes, Richard’s brother taking over  running the operation in Aus.

I asked them how the VVV name came about and they could not tell me except that they have capitalized on it and believe that their what could be described as brash branding helps them be remembered – as they said clients will not remember a non-descript car rental company like carrental.com company, but the will remember, Vroom, Vroom, Vroom and once that have booked with us, they will stick with VVV.

Peter Thornton told me that VVV had been in existence about 5/6yrs and while he was a majority shareholder in the company, Richard and David’s input was invaluable and since the acquisition the team had re-jigged the business strategy and while when they bought the company they were doing ten to thirty bookings a day, they were now doing 300/500 bookings a day and more that that in peak times

They also said that they had tried to make the whole process as simple and transparent as possible UK allowing clients to go to the site, put in a location and then within a few seconds they are shown all available cars, right at that time without question, with the added bonus of never have to put in credit card details because you pay for it face to face, when you pick up the car!

In addition they believed that because VVV only used the services of global brands, including Avis, Budget and Hertz and not some strange unknown off airport company like Fred’s car rental, that clients could be confident that they cars would be of the highest quality and because VVV had negotiated unbelievable rates that they would also beat any competition.

I asked V1, V2 and V3, why book with them rather than direct and they said, “We guarantee the cheapest price across all the companies and can save not only money but also time by not having to spend ages searching heaps of sites.”  “VVV is an easy way to search and find out what’s available across companions rather than find out after along time searching that say, Budget is the only company with cars available in particular destination.

The added while they did not offer travel agents commission, they were finding agents booking with them because they were cheaper and much more effective across brands and that agents could add a booking fee and also include the car rental in a bigger programme.

In terms of future growth, the V’s said there are still heaps of people in Aus and globally that have never heard of VVV and the company needs to not only maintain its current growth path, but also not as Peter [V1], an American based in London [sounds like the name of a movie] said, “We must not do a half assed job – we want to do it properly.

He added, “This year has been great fun and it has been great changing VVV from a “deal” site to a comparison site and all that entails.”

David [V2] said, “We have a brilliant customer service operation with great staff ready sure that we deliver top quality service.”

Richard [V3] closed off our discussion by saying, “We are the leading on line car rental company according to Deloittes we are also Australia’s fastest growing on line travel company and you intend to remain in that space.” 

“We are already having a fantastic year, going leaps and bounds, expecting to deliver significant travel revenue to our suppliers and that can’t be bad!”

For more information visit www.VroomVroomVroom.com.au

A Vroom, Vroom interview Report by The Mole