History of AVIS Slovakia
More than 70 years of experience and innovation in car rental
Since 1946, when former military pilot Warren Avis founded the first rental car company at Willow Run Airport near Detroit, the AVIS brand has become a symbol of quality, reliability and a modern approach to mobility. Today, it operates in more than 172 countries and offers more than 500,000 vehicles in all categories.
🇸🇰 Slovak story AVIS Slovakia
1996 - The beginnings of courage and vision
AVIS Slovakia was founded with the aim of bringing world-class car rental services to the Slovak market. In the beginning we operated as a small local rental company with 45 vehicles. Three years later we became the largest car rental company in Slovakia.
2000 - 2006 - Growth and expansion
Building branches, establishing AVIS Lease and AVIS Van Rental. In 2006, we exceeded 5,000 rentals per year and gained the status of a leader in the region.
2010 - 2019 - Digitalization, expansion, awards
Under the United Group brand, we built a vertical service structure, expanded our offering to 22 car categories, introduced AVIS Maxirent and AVIS Prestige, and won the Superbrands award 7 times. The number of rentals exceeded 15,000 per year and the fleet 1,500 cars.
2020 - 2023 - Pandemic, transformation and ecology
In the Covid-19 period, we focused on digitalisation and sustainability. From 2021, all processes are "paperless".
In 2023, we achieved 97% customer satisfaction, introduced the Rent & Buy programme and implemented COâ‚‚ tracking in customer calculations presented publicly on our websites.
2024 - Expansion of representation and regional expansion
The year 2024 was marked by increasing mobility in Eastern Slovakia.
AVIS Car Rental Slovakia opened a new representative office in Prešov, expanding its network of branches in the east of the country.
Both passenger and commercial vehicles up to 3.5 t are available to customers, including modern vans for corporate partners.
The new branch in Prešov has strengthened regional coverage and brought the AVIS standard to a wider range of customers, including small and medium-sized enterprises.
AVIS has thus confirmed its position as the longest operating car rental company in Slovakia with the largest fleet of vehicles.
2025 - A new era of mobile service and comprehensive availability
In 2025, AVIS continued its dynamic development and opened another representative office in Košice and at Košice Airport.
This brings the total number of offices in Slovakia to 8:
- Bratislava - 3×
- Senica - 1x
- Partizánske - 1×
- Prešov - 1×
- Košice - 2×
With this move, AVIS has strengthened its national presence and gained a strategic location at all key transport hubs in the country.
The company serves more than 20,000 customers annually, ranging from short-term rentals to long-term operating leases for companies and tradesmen.
AVIS Slovakia history in chronology
1996 - Rent a car company AVIS Slovakia founded with a fleet of 25 cars
1997 - hiring of first employees, purchase of new cars, introduction of up to 12 categories, the widest offer in the country.
1998 - Leasing establishment of operating leasing as No. 2 subdivision ( in 2003 it became a separate legal structure) AVIS became the largest car rental company in the country (by number of cars, rentals, and branches)
2000 - number of rentals per month exceeded 100
2001 - Rent a Car sub-licensing: signing of the first 4 sub-licensing agreements , opening of branches in Nitra, Banská Bystrica, Poprad, and Košice.
2002 - Van Rental establishment of No.3 AVIS subdivision in the country, renting of commercial vehicles
2004 - Slovakia became a member of the EU, implementation of the international car rental system AVIS Wizard
2005 - AVIS the only company on the market offering up to 16 categories
2006 - Opening of 15 car rental agencies throughout Slovakia
2007 - Total fleet exceeded 725 cars
2010 - change of the company structure to a new model of a complex integrated vertical structure under the single name of United Group operating car rental services
2013 - the total number of dealerships reached 22. AVIS Slovakia achieved the Superbrands award for the first time (the first year when Superbrands started operating in Slovakia).
2014 - AVIS received the Superbrands award for the 2nd year in a row.
2015 - The total number of categories reached 22 car types and up to 35 models, the largest range in the country. The average age of the cars reached 9 months. Establishment of sub-division 5 under the name Avis Maxirent. AVIS won the Superbrands award for the 3rd consecutive year. The number of rentals in the commercial vehicle division increased by 550%
2016 - Opening of the call center, AVIS is the first car rental company with a call center in the country. AVIS wins the award for the 4th year in a row. Fleet surpassed the magic mark of 1000 cars in the fleet. In the commercial vehicle division, we offer refrigerated cars for the first time ever. Opening of 11 dealerships for commercial car rentals. For the first time in history, we established a loyalty - marketing plan called AVIS Ambassador Maxirent. AVIS's total purchase share vs the market exceeded 1.6%. Total number of rentals for the year exceeded 12,000.
2017 - Intelligent Customer Questionnaire - AVIS was the first car rental company to launch a customer questionnaire in order to improve the quality of service. The AVIS Maxirent sub-division added a new service for high-end customers called AVIS Super Maxirent. The Group's total fleet exceeded 1,300 cars.
2017 - AVIS Prestige established with a fleet of 80 cars
2018 - more than 100 MB Sprinters added to the fleet with automatic transmissions for long distance routes
2019 - AVIS Group's leases exceeded 15,000 and the fleet size reached 1,500 cars, we have already won the Superbrands award 7 times in a row.Deployment of the Camasys fleet management system.
2020 - Covid -19 pandemic, the world has changed and AVIS has changed with it. At the end of 1Q 2022, the fleet will be significantly reduced by up to 30%
2021 - First car rental company in the Slovak Republic to rent vehicles "paperless", all processes digitized including electronic document and signature in Camasys 3.8 Development of digitization of Avis Maxirent Standard and Premium programs
2022 - Extension of digitised processes to all Avis sub-divisions. Deployment of Mercedes Benz V 250 4matic minibuses for 8 people to the fleet . For the first time in the history of AVIS SR outside other brands, purchase of 200 Citroen vehicles in C3 and C4 models. Introduction of a new brand to the range from Citroen brand DS with the DS4 model.
2023 - Achieving 97% customer satisfaction in 2023 according to internal CS report. Number of vehicles exceeded the 2019 pre-delivery volumes. Digitalisation of all customer-side processes achieved 98% fulfilment. Addition of Rent & Buy to the customer offer. As part of the digitisation and CO2 compliance, from 1 June all customers will have their comprehensive vehicle emissions added to their bill in full for the period they have had a rental and the miles they have driven.
