Irish car-hire technology firm CarTrawler has made a deal with the US Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) that will extend its services to over 20,000 travel agents and corporate travel departments across the US.
CarTrawler is a booking engine and middleware solution created by industry veterans Greg and Niall Turley in 2004 as an effective way to sell car hire by crossing it with airline reservations.
“ARC is the backbone of the North American travel industry, and by working together with CarTrawler and the best auto-rental brands in the world, ARC is really providing an excellent incremental revenue source for its travel agency base,” said Greg Turley CEO of CarTrawler.
“This is a ringing endorsement for the CarTrawler distribution strategy and we’re very proud of this milestone in our growth.”
CarTrawler currently provides car-hire services in over 95 airlines around the world and through more than 1,500 online partners by channelling information from 450 different car-hire companies across 134 countries.
Lauri Reshus, ARC general manager for industry products and services, said the deal with CarTrawler was a good move because “car rental is an extremely important source of revenue for travel agencies, and travel agencies are an extremely important distribution channel for car rental companies”.
Since its beginning in 2004 as Arguscarhire.com, the Dublin-based, car-hire tech firm has grown rapidly, adding 65 new jobs to the Dublin office in 2006.
The business grew out of a desire to mix affordable car hire with the ease of online booking used so much by the travel industry, while aggregating all the smaller independent car-hire firms in one place.
By Marie Boran
