Rental car franchise Advantage rental car franchise is a privately held independent car rental company, by Denny Hacker Family Ventures. It's headquarter is in San Antonio, Texas. This brand was acquired by Hertz Corporation in 2009 and now is operated under the same name. The purpose of this company is to provide leisure, business, government and local customers with a broad range of vehicle-rental services. It provides rental services in more than 150 US locations and 130 locations in 33 countries internationally. A small business known as "Three Ninety-Nine Car Rentals" opened for serving the large military population in San Antonio, Texas in 1963. Government travelers were initially served by this company and there after expanded quickly into leisure and feeder markets over the next 20 yrs. Local retail and airport markets located throughout the Western United States were covered by its rental services. In 1985, the operation was consolidated under the name of "Advantage rental car franchise". With the launch of affiliate partnership program, Advantage Company attained a worldwide presence in 2001. Bankruptcy / Acquisition by Hertz Advantage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2008 and shut down 40% of its US retail locations. At the time of bankruptcy, it's almost half of the workforce or 440 workers were laid off. At that time Advantage was privately held by Denny Hacker, Minnesota auto dealership tycoon. The Hertz Corporation purchased Advantage's assets for $33 million on March 31, 2009. Hertz successfully outbid Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Minnesota bankruptcy court. Franchise Cost: Rental car franchise began franchising in 2007. Advantage business franchise is appropriate for entrepreneurs who have exceptional customer relating skills and possess great interest in vehicles. Total investment is required by the franchisee in order to grab the opportunity of owing a franchise. The investment may be quite expensive because a franchisee would be investing in vehicles that are of good quality for their customers.. This royalty fee is for the company's part in the franchisee's profits for using the company's reputation, name and system. It is an additional advantage for franchisees to have a background in the automotive market. This helps them to show customers the advantages of their services. If a franchisee possesses good knowledge then it will be easy for him or her to attract customers. That being said, most people are not aware that 80% of ALL franchise endeavors fail in the first two to five years leaving large debts looming for years thereafter.