16 Years of Pattaya Rent a Car: Trust Runs Both Ways

In 2010 I didn't set out to build a car rental company. I owned a golf driving range. Sixteen years later, Pattaya Rent a Car runs a fleet of nearly a hundred cars, and the driving range is long gone. Here's how that happened, and what I've learned along the way.

It started at a driving range

I owned Fairways driving range, one of a string of ventures I've had in Pattaya, and we had a few rooms on site. Customers kept asking the same question: where can I rent a bike or a car? It seemed like a natural add-on. (The range itself became my biggest business failure.)

The real push, though, came from my business partner. He was looking for something to get his teeth into and liked the idea of a car rental business. So we started small, with just 12 cars.

Those 12 cars went out quickly. After years in Pattaya, I already knew a lot of people, and the driving range gave us a steady stream of customers who trusted us. That network was our first marketing plan, and honestly, it still matters today.

When the side business became the business

Then the driving range failed. It wasn't a happy moment, but it forced a decision: the car rental was now my main business and my main source of income, and it had my full attention.

For a long time we hovered around 40 to 50 cars. Steady, solid, dependable. Then the pandemic arrived.

The pandemic: survive first, then move fast

COVID was brutal for Pattaya. Tourism stopped overnight, and a lot of rental companies didn't make it.

We did, largely because we had money set aside. When demand came back, it came back very quickly, and many of our competitors simply weren't there anymore. Because we had cash on the sidelines, we could deploy it straight away and buy cars when others couldn't. The fleet grew past a hundred.

Since then we've scaled back a little as the city has been quieter, and today we sit at nearly a hundred cars. The fleet has always flexed with demand, and I think that discipline is part of why we're still here.

The lesson I'd pass on to any business owner: keep reserves. Surviving the bad times is what puts you in position to win when things turn.

Why customers keep coming back

I think it comes down to friendly service and flexibility. Things don't always go to plan on holiday or on a business trip. Someone's running late for the return, or there's a small bit of damage. We try to be accommodating rather than rigid. People remember how you treated them when something went wrong, and that's what brings them back, and what gets them recommending us to friends.

The hardest part: trust runs both ways

The biggest challenge in this business is theft. Because of the way our insurance works, if we rent someone a car and they steal it, we don't get paid out.

Think about the numbers. A customer might give us a deposit of around 10,000 baht, and we hand them the keys to a car worth 600,000 baht.

When people look for a rental car, they ask themselves whether they can trust the company. That's fair. But in this business it works the other way too, and it's arguably more important that we can trust the customer.

That's why referrals and returning customers mean so much to us. Someone recommended by a person we know, or someone who has rented with us before, is a relationship, not just a transaction. With people we don't know, we take sensible steps to manage the risk, but ultimately some risk comes with the territory. It's part of the business.

What's next

Right now I'm refining our systems using AI, like a lot of businesses around the world. To be clear, this isn't about cutting staff. Our team is a big part of why customers come back. It's about making the whole experience smoother and more seamless for the customer, from booking to handing back the keys.

Sixteen years on

From 12 cars at a driving range to nearly a hundred on the road, Pattaya Rent a Car has been built on relationships: people who knew us, people who were referred to us, and people who keep coming back. Whatever changes next, that part won't.

If you're visiting Pattaya and need a car, come and see us at Pattaya Rent a Car.

Want more stories like this? Join my newsletter.