Moovers: a car rental company that sells via API and wanted the same rigour on WhatsApp
Almost all of Moovers' bookings arrive automatically from brokers and agencies. Customers writing on WhatsApp, however, got manual service with no metrics. With an AI agent connected to RentHub and a channel-exclusive promotion, 19% of quotes now end in a booking.
Summary
- Moovers sells mainly to holiday customers, with deliveries at airports and stations, and almost all of its sales come in via API.
- WhatsApp was the exception: manual service, no rigour and no indicators, on a channel where more than half of messages arrive outside office hours.
- An AI agent on RentHub handles WhatsApp and web under the same rules, and a 10% promotion on the first WhatsApp booking pushes conversion.
- Result: 19% of conversations that reach a quote end in a confirmed booking, and the channel is measured like the API.
Some car rental companies already have sales automated. Moovers is one of them: brokers and agencies send it bookings via API, with nobody keying them in, and direct sales were marginal. In an operation like that, WhatsApp stands out by contrast: it is the only place where someone had to read, understand, check availability and reply by hand.
This case is interesting because it asks the usual question backwards. Not "how do I automate customer service", but "how do I get a manual channel to work with the same rigour and the same metrics as the rest of my operation". And, along the way, how to turn that channel into direct sales, with no intermediaries.
1. A holiday car rental company with automated sales
Moovers operates in Spain, focused on holiday customers, with deliveries at airports and train stations. Its reservation system is RentHub, and on top of it brokers and agencies are connected that bring in most of the volume automatically.
The result is a closely measured operation: every API booking has its source, its date and its outcome. What was not measured was what happened on the company phone when a customer wrote asking for a car for the weekend.
2. The challenge: a manual channel in an automated operation
WhatsApp customers got a different kind of service from everyone else: someone on the team replied when they could, with no direct access to availability from the conversation, and without logging the outcome. More than half of those messages arrived outside office hours, so many went cold.
Moovers wanted three things: for that channel to work as well as the API, for it not to add load to the team, and for it to be measurable with the same indicators. And, if possible, for it to win direct sales back from intermediaries.
3. What was set up: an AI agent on RentHub and a channel promotion
A car rental AI agent was switched on for WhatsApp and the website chat, connected to RentHub, with the same agent and the same rules on both channels. The most interesting part was commercial: Moovers created an exclusive promotion in RentHub, 10% off the first booking on WhatsApp, and the agent announces it in the conversation and applies it to the price.
- Quotes with RentHub's live availability and rates, in each customer's language, and confirms the booking in the system.
- Announces the channel-exclusive promotion and applies it to the price: the customer knows from the first message that booking on WhatsApp is a better deal.
- Routes questions about ongoing rentals to the company's support channel, so sales do not get mixed up with incidents.
- Logs every conversation with its outcome, language and timings, with the same indicators as API sales.
4. Results
- 19%
- of conversations that reach a quote end in a confirmed booking
- 55%
- of conversations arrive outside office hours
- 10%
- off the first booking on WhatsApp
Holiday customers who write get an immediate reply in their language, with more conversations in English than in Spanish. Moovers has channel metrics for the first time, and a direct channel with its own promotion that wins bookings that used to go through intermediaries.
“Almost everything comes in via API, but a customer who writes to us on WhatsApp deserves the same service. With Bota they get it, and the channel promotion has brought us more bookings than we expected.”
5. What you can copy from this case
- Measure WhatsApp with the same indicators as your other channels: if it has no conversion rate, it is not a channel, it is a phone.
- Give the direct channel a reason to exist: an exclusive promotion created in your own reservation system turns WhatsApp into your best rate.
- Keep sales and support apart: send incidents on ongoing rentals to their own channel so they do not muddy conversion.
- If your sales already come in via API, that is the bar for messaging: live availability, booking in the system and a log of every conversation.
Frequently asked questions
Is the channel promotion handled by the agent or by the reservation system?
By the system. Moovers created it in RentHub as a normal promotion; the agent announces it in the conversation and the price comes from the system with the discount applied.
Does the WhatsApp channel compete with bookings that arrive via API?
It complements them. API sales continue as before; WhatsApp wins back customers who used to end up booking through intermediaries, with a better direct rate.
What if a customer writes on WhatsApp about a rental they already have?
The agent identifies it as support and routes it to the company's service channel, so sales and incidents do not get mixed.
Written by
Johan Smith
Car Rental Editorial Team
Sources
- Moovers case study on Bota — figures and implementation details published by the customer.
- Moovers — the car rental company's website.
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