The first year is over and a big thank you to all our customers for their support and an apology to all those who were not so fortunate to be able book a car.

 

With demand quickly out stripping supply it was soon very obvious that we had to increase the fleet, but getting more cars was not as straight forward as you may think. The "French way" seems to make the most simple of processes very difficult. Ordering more cars was easy , but getting the right colour, with correct specification, on the correct date at the agreed price was not so straightforward. It is not the fact that things get messed up which is the problem, it is that they seem to expect that this is how it is and you have to accept it. Not the kind of backup we were hoping for from our local Renault dealer. So off to Peugeot & Ford to see what they could offer. The Renault salesman seemed surprised we had not confirmed our order and started to squirm a little at the sight of our Ford brochures. Finally they came up with a reasonable offer, something near to what they originally promised, and we increased the fleet to meet the demand. The French levels of customer service leave a lot to be desired and we encounter many frustrations, but that is the French way, and we are sure "us English" are driving them mad too. It was quite disappointing, but we know for the future to order cars 12 weeks in advance not 6 as they suggested.

 

So with more cars (just in time) this meant more airport visits, it was no surprise to see that 90% of our cars were being allocated for collection and return to the airport, and with our policy of having the rental agreements already prepared and "no add-ons" at collection, the clients are off the plane, in the cars and on their way within a few minutes, (waving to the queues at the other car hire desks as they passed by).

 

It was not long before the changes at the airport were underway, and a new car park was being built. Great, we can get some allocated spaces and things would get even easier. After about 3 visits, 3 letters and many phone calls we finally got a response from the airport .Sorry, would like to help, but all spaces are allocated.. How can this be? surely the car parks allow for expansion so how can they be full before they are built? There is loads of space so why not just make them big enough to accommodate the demand. .C'est ne pas possible. and the "big" car hire companies seem to get priority and the local businesses get nothing. So we spoke with our Chamber of Commerce, who assist local businesses and happen to be connected to the Chamber of Commerce that run the airport, we were sure that this may work in our favour. They said "sorry, but we have no problem with you using the public car park, but we cannot allocate or guarantee you any spaces". So this is what we do, and looking back it has turned out to be a better option. It appears that they have made the Hire Car Park too small and you can hardly get the cars in and out of the spaces. So we watch the carnage from the comfort of the public car park.

 

Having spent much time at Bergerac airport it is very apparent that the planned refurbishment, which has just started, is desperately required. With the current lack of basic facilities like toilets, information screens and easy access for trolleys and general space, we look forward to the completion of the building work and the benefits of a small, modern local airport in 2008. The result of this will suit both passenger and airline and we look forward to the prospect of more routes to other European destinations . (A weekly service to Morocco is already planned and talk of Holland and Italy are on the cards).

 

Being new boys to the car hire business it is not hard to see why the industry does not have a particularly good reputation, probably giving estate agents a run for top place. During the summer months we noticed many clients of the larger car hire companies were let down by the booking system that they operate. With numerous websites and weblinks, using car hire brokers to book cars, many reservations were not making it through to the Bergerac Airport Franchisees (of which there only 4). This resulted in many visitors being left stranded without a car. These websites seem to guarantee lots of things but one thing they do not seem to guarantee for the client is a car. It is not the fault of the local offices, and it is the local personnel who take the brunt of displeased clients, who were sent to the empty taxi ranks with their car hire booking confirmations un allocated.

 

You can only book a Buggs car direct with buggs. We do not allow any third party company or website to reserve our cars. At Buggs we only book out cars that we have available, we will not even quote for cars we cannot supply. With this method we guarantee (subject to no disasters) that we have the car you booked allocated and reserved, and it will be where you want it when you want it.

 

Our "Buggs Buddies" section has proved a great success and we plan to expand this facility in the future. So if you have website for visitors to the area please let us put your link in this section, it is free and with increasing numbers of visitors to the Buggs website we can help promote your business.

 

Buggs is fast approaching another busy and expanding year, the big push is on to promote us in the area with new partnerships & relationships with other local businesses. With the huge success at Bergerac we are looking to role out other branches at similar small airports in SW France, so if you are looking to move to an area near an expanding airport give us a call, you never know you could be buggs 2.

 

The website has been revamped, to iron out a few glitches and increase the information and we are also looking at new systems to improve the payments methods we currently use.

 

Please contact us if you have any suggestions or ideas we can incorporate into our plans.

 

Thank you for your interest in buggs and we look forward to meeting you when you collect your car.

 

Regards

Simon & Karen Parr, Karl & Sandra Ayling