Contactless rental is a rental type where the customer does not have to come into direct contact with the supplier’s staff during their whole rental experience. This means that picking up and dropping off the car is done without going to a rental desk.
With contactless rental, customer verification is usually done online beforehand. The customers have to provide personal information, driving licence details (or a photo of it), and sometimes also details of other documents. Another verification technique is to ask for customers to show their documents through their car window before driving off.
To unlock the car, the customer needs keys. Since this is the trickiest part of contactless rental, some suppliers do this in person. The customer can still skip the desk and go straight to the car (or get it delivered to them) but the keys are handed over by a staff member. For offering truly contactless rental, many companies use Key’n Go machines where the customer can choose the specific car and then get the keys to it. At the end of the rental, the customer can also drop off the keys the same way. However, more and more car rental suppliers offer the use of digital keys. With a digital key, the customer can unlock and lock the door with their smartphone, usually through an app.
The ultimate form of contactless rental is smart rental. With smart rental, the customer can do everything on their smartphone from verification and signing the rental agreement to unlocking the doors.
