Ctrip, the Chinese online travel giant, launched an overseas private tour platform with eight international car rental companies, including Hertz, Avis, Alamo, Enterprise, Dollar, Thrifty, and National. The service will cover more than 2,000 cities across 86 countries, including favorite destinations of Chinese travelers, like the U.S., Canada, France, U.K., and Thailand.
Users can book cars on the platform with their passports at a minimum price of 136 yuan ($22.35) per day and there is no need to pay deposits. Moreover, the site also features price comparison function.
The company has constructed online hotel, flight ticket, and attraction ticket service platforms for outbound travelers. Zhuang Yuxiang, vice president of the company, said that car rental service, an indispensible part of travelling, is a new business focus of the company.
Ctrip has partnered up with eHai, Avis and Top1 to launch private tour car rental services in domestic market. It recently leads a $100 million round in eHai and $60 million funding in Yongche. In addition, it has partnered up with two leading domestic taxi apps of DidiDache and KuaidiDache to embed their services in the newly launched 5.2 version of Ctrip’s mobile app.
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