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It all started in Washington

Today, the company is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, but the company's very origins are tied to Spokane, Washington.

The company was founded by John Les Netterstron in 1971. Even without slogans, the company name itself, Payless Car Rental, was meant to draw attention to the affordability of car rentals. Even then, there was already strong competition in the car rental market, consisting mainly of AVIS, whose history dates back to 1946, and Budget Rent a Car with over 60 years of tradition. Apart from them, other smaller or larger car rental companies tried to compete for the attention of customers, among which it was necessary to stand out. Putting the phrase "pay less" directly into the name proved to be a step in the right direction.

Payless Car Rental had forged a path as one of the most affordable rentals in the United States throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and achieved low prices primarily through drastic cost optimization. Unlike many other car rental companies, Payless Car Rental did not operate branches directly at airports, but near them, which significantly reduced the cost of parking unused vehicles. Customers were comfortable with this anyway, as they saved considerable money for the few minutes sacrificed on the way from the airport to the car rental company. In the United States, the price category of Payless Car Rental is also called the "deep-value segment".

The number of car rental branches under Netterstron's leadership grew and by 1987 reached the magic mark - one hundred branches. By the same year, the company was doing well enough to buy another large company, the U.S. division of the Canadian company Holiday Rent a Car. Its acquisition gave Payless Car Rental a major innovation that literally changed the entire car rental market - a centralized reservation system.

In the years that followed, the company boomed, gradually building up more than 167 locations, not only in the United States, but also in South America and Europe. New branches are created as franchises, taking over not only the visual identity of the company, but also its know-how and vehicle care methodology, and today there are more than ten thousand of them.

Payless Car Rental in Slovakia

The car rental brand Payless Car Rental currently has two branches in Slovakia in Bratislava, and is actively working on creating a branch network across the country.

In 2021, the company has grown with a new division, GigaRent, which is really expected to do a lot and predicts a promising future for the company. It is a hybrid of rental and operating lease - flexible rentals available to absolutely everyone.

The fleet will only include vehicles that are equipped to a high standard. Each vehicle comes with cruise control, navigation, air conditioning, in some cases automatic transmission, heated seats and many other useful features.

All engines are fuel efficient and meet the public commitment that Slovak Payless Car Rental made last year - to actively reduce the fleet carbon dioxide emissions of its vehicles. The aim is to achieve the prescribed European target of a fleet average of 95 g/km of CO2, which, although not applicable to car rental companies, Payless Car Rental is nevertheless committed to as a member of the United Group.