RentalCar.com – Manchester
The Requirement
Manchester based worldwide car broker RentalCars.com, are responsible for over five million car rentals every year employing more than 1,000 employees in the Manchester area alone. RentalCars.com operates in 180 countries covering 40 languages and has unique multicultural teams within the company.
RentalCars.com has relocated into its new £2.7 million 47,000 sq feet HQ at 35 Fountain Street, and has taken all 6 floors in their 10th anniversary year. The Senator Group worked alongside James Scott, Lead Designer at OBI Property to furnish the new 6 storey modern office space with furniture to fall in line with its unique interior design also by OBI and create unique spaces for this modern day fun house, turning meeting rooms into games meccas, indoor parks and mini cinemas – and was reported to be the biggest commercial property letting in Manchester during 2015.
The Solution
OBI Property and The Senator Group supplied furniture, which reflects the brand’s ethos to create spaces that energise and accommodate the diverse team of employees. Each floor of the 47,000 sqft office was designed with it’s own unique theme including road trip, world cars, drive-in movies and metropolis.
The themed floors were designed to reflect what the company is about, to embrace RentalCars.com values but also make them feel unique within the office space. Each floor has been colour coded to help customers determine what area and team you are entering. Each theme was designed around ‘what do you do when you rent a car’ – where do you go and what do you see, this enabled customer services to interact with the customer and take the same journey of renting a car from the comfort of their desk.
Within each of the 6 floors a number of quirky meeting rooms were created to keep staff energised and encourage collaboration, including James Bond, Manchester, Las Vegas and Back to the Future, as well as a number of fun ‘break-out’ rooms including an open air cinema, PS4 room, a tranquil park and a beach on the top floor complete with beach huts, a Starbucks bar and pool table in a car! The Senator Group specified products from the Senator and Allermuir brands such as; Confer, Ad-Lib Work Lounge, Haven Bench, Play and Ad-Lib.
The floors have ‘roads’ designed into the carpets creating the vision of you getting in your car from the lift and following a journey through the different departments, which run through the corridors and walk ways offering access to meeting rooms as well as interlinking teams of desks to create a collaborative open workspace.
Great thought was given to the desking within the office space, which was based on DNA and how it interlinks – how one team can’t work without the other. Core 120 degree desks were specified to create the ‘DNA’ design, Pause stools and Clipper task chairs were also chosen for these inspiring areas and great care was taken by the team to choose colours and fabrics.
The Results
After successfully completing the installation in 3 weeks, RentalCars.com now has moved all employees into the new 6 storey building. The move to Fountain Street has created a further 200 jobs and a new office space that reflects their ethos and the diversity of their teams. The feedback from staff has been extremely positive; the furniture has created collaborative, comfortable, inspiring and efficient areas, which complements the unique interior design created by OBI.
Case Study in partnership with Senator International
