DUBLIN-BASED software company CarTrawler is considering opening a US office following a deal with Airline Reporting Cor-poration (Arc) which will see its car rental distribution platform made available in 21,000 travel agencies and corporate travel departments in North America.
The deal sees CarTrawler providing a desktop version of its technology for the first time. Until now, it has primarily been used for online sales.
Established in 2004, CarTrawler provides a low-cost distribution platform for car rental companies. It provides access to their inventory for airlines, tourist boards and online travel sites and enables them to sell car hire through a variety of electronic channels.
CarTrawler has cars available at 1,500 locations in 134 countries and the system is operational in 26 languages, according to Greg Turley, co-founder and chief executive of the company.
"We have a multi-supplier offer to airlines," explains Turley.
"If an airline is with just one supplier and they run out of cars, the airline runs out of revenue. With our system, they can go until the last car in the airport," he says.
The company, which employs 50 staff at offices in Rathgar, is profitable and has been growing rapidly.
Revenues grew 65 per cent in 2007 and are already ahead 38 per cent before the traditional Easter start to the tourist season.
Turley says the firm has been successful because it levies no charge on the car hire firms. A small booking fee is added on to the cost of the transaction, which is paid by the end-user.
Earlier this year, CarTrawler said it was being integrated into the platform of fellow Irish software company Datalex. Datalex provides a travel distribution system primarily to airlines.
CarTrawler also has a three-year exclusive deal with VisitBritain, the national tourism agency in Britain, to provide car rental bookings on its websites.
Last summer it signed an agreement with SITA, which has a passenger management platform used by more than 100 airlines.
Turley was a pioneer of online car hire through his Argus Car Hire business.
The Argus site pioneered the car hire brokerage model in the late 90s but the business was sold last year.
