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Why use Oodles?

To travellers shopping on the Net for the best car rental prices in Australia, Oodles.com is the easy alternative to jumping from one car rental website to another or paying agent fees.

Oodles.com is an easy-to-use self-booking tool which compares on the one screen the live Internet rates for 10 rental car classes of Australia´s five major car rental brands at over 700 locations across Australia.

Why was Oodles.com started?

Experienced in the online travel industry since 1997, the founders of Oodles.com made two simple observations about the car rental markets:

First, that the prices on major car rental company·s websites constantly went up and down depending on usage levels, similar to flights. This allowed for big saving to be made, especially during non peak periods as the car rental companies seek to maximize use of their fleet, on a daily and hourly basis.

Second, that people were fed up going from website to website to do price comparisons or being slugged with middle man fees.

To provide a solution Oodles.com has made a self booking tool that connects directly to multiple rental company´s reservation systems so that internet users can now compare the live internet prices on one screen rather than going from site to site. Users then simply choose the best deal and book directly with the rental company of their choice and receive the guaranteed best available rates and no middle man fees.

Why "Oodles"?

In 2003 we set out to find a name for our business that was short and catchy, meant something to us & had double ‘o’ in it, similar to Google, Yahoo and Looksmart.

Initially we liked the word "caboodle" though this was not available, so we did a quick synonym search and found oodles. It was available, short and catchy and a real word with double ‘o’.

We then set about registering trademarks and buying up all the domain names in our target markets including the US, AU, NZ, UK and Canada. One sticking point was the purchase of Oodles.com, with the owner initially quoting us US$500k. We knew having the .com was integral to our business succeeding in the US and globally, so we ended up negotiating a lower price, but still paid a hefty price of US$50k.

Since launching our car rental comparison engine in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, as marketing spin exercise we have tried to tie the name oodles to the product, with the word seeming to fit well with the time and money saving benefits of using Oodles.com.

Online travel and car rental industry knowledge!

The founders of Oodles.com have gained a solid grounding over the past 10 years in the online travel and car rental space.

A key investor in Oodles.com is Mario Salvo, the former owner of Europcar Australia. Mr Salvo started Delta car rentals in 1988 with 100 secondhand cars, building to a fleet of 5,000 vehicles in 2000 when he absorbed Delta into his launch franchise of the Europcar brand in Australia. He sold the Europcar franchise in a management-private equity buyout late 2004 and is now involved in property development and other business interests. Mr Dennis Jeffees, former owner of the Europcar franchise for Western Australia, is also an investor and brings more than 20 years of car rental insight and expertise to the company.

The company sought Mr Salvo´s participation because of his unparalleled management experience in the Australia car rental industry and outstanding success in building the Delta and Europcar brands.

How does the car rental company get my booking?

The Oodles.com system is directly connected to each car rental company´s reservation system. When a booking is placed all booking details are encrypted and instantly added to your chosen rental company´s reservation system.

Can I change or cancel a booking?

As soon as your booking is confirmed you can modify or cancel the booking directly on your chosen rental company´s own website, by simply following the edit cancel link on the confirmation page or email.

Steve Sherlock Co-Founder & Managing Director View Steve´s Bio	Des Sherlock Co-Founder & Brand Manager
Dennis Jeffees Non-Executive Director & Founding Shareholder Former Europcar WA Franchise Owner	Mario Salvo Founding Shareholder Former owner of Europcar Australia Chairman of First Delta Group

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