Since 1996 IdeaMerge has helped savvy,
independent people worldwide realize their motor travel ideas.
Expertly and personably, we represent car rental, car lease, and motorhome rental options most agencies do
not command. Hence we command as well the
respect of our several, choice vendors — often allowing us to achieve for you
what you could not achieve on your own.
where we're located
IdeaMerge is based in Portland, Oregon, USA, and Bend, Oregon, USA.
We also have an associate in Barcelona, Spain. We especially welcome international clients.
All the credit card charges we make are in USD (US Dollars).
why you should choose IdeaMerge
For starters, the IdeaMerge rates are identical to or
less than our
vendors' rates. No padding of rates here. Indeed the contrary is true.
Via our
IdeaMerge QUANTUM™ online discounts,
we offer the best true total prices on the Web.
And IdeaMerge charges no booking fee.
If you happen to find a better true total out there, just let us know.
We happily endeavor to beat any comparable price.
Nevertheless we fully and profoundly embrace
our role as broker, treating our clients and our vendors
equally with great respect. It's a winning formula.
In choosing IdeaMerge you gain the leverage that only
such a fair, successful and expert go-between can offer. We're your advocate if something goes wrong.
Our Website
attests to our work ethic, our consequent expertise and
our thoughtful nature.
As you can discern, we are the
industry leader when it comes to representing tax-free short-term
European auto leases and worldwide motorhome rentals.
What's more, you'll be pleased to discover that our remarkably responsive
and personable
e-mail and phone support keep pace with — and perhaps even
outdistance — our other proficiencies.
But don't just take our word for it.
Please peruse (and eventually add to) our
European car leasing customer reviews
and worldwide RV rental customer reviews.
Note that clients post their reviews directly to those pages. That's how much confidence we have in what
we represent and how we represent it.
At IdeaMerge, customer service is more than a concept — it's
an ethic.
our customer service
Our super-responsive e-mail and phone support personnel are ready and truly happy to assist you.
We listen; we respond quickly, thoughtfully, fully and expertly; and we continue to do so, with your satisfaction our goal.
Goodwill, that's basically what we're about.
Experienced, knowledgable, reasonable — IdeaMerge also has heart.
our team / your team
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Managing Director: Eric Bredesen holds a biomedical engineering degree (B.S., U. of Iowa, 1990).
After university Eric worked in the IT industry: for Accenture (in Chicago) and
Deutsche Bank (in Frankfurt, Germany). He founded IdeaMerge in 1996.
Eric, like his company IdeaMerge, is "old school." He understands that business springs from trust, goodwill, integrity, ethics, empathy and hard work.
The buck stops at Eric.
His mobile phone number is 503 484 8416. If you're frustrated with respect to a motorhome rental, car rental or a French auto lease, give Eric a call.
If you happen to get his voicemail, please do leave a message. He will call you back.
Director of Worldwide Reservations: Doug Bredesen holds a marketing degree (B.S., U. of Iowa, 1995). Prior to joining IdeaMerge in 2002,
Doug worked as a pharmaceutical salesperson with Sanofi (of France) and with Takeda (of Japan).
Director of European Operations: Mark Carr holds a marketing degree (B.S., U. of Iowa, 1986) and a law degree
(Michigan State U., 1991). Mark has lived in Barcelona, Spain, since 2000.
Director of French Auto Leasing: Scott Baxter is a licensed commercial pilot who has lived and worked in Sydney, Australia, and Paris, France.
Scott's a technophile, auto mechanic and VW Westfalia owner/enthusiast.
Director of Info Technology: Stewart Loving-Gibbard attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. During his 15-year career Stewart has
been a software developer, team lead, and technology manager for Intel, ScenicSoft, Logika, and TenBox. Since autumn 2007 Stewart has orchestrated the
development of IdeaMerge's next-generation booking engine technology.
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ethical, nimble, stable, safe
The IdeaMerge business ethic together with our very low overhead, our proprietary software and in-house technical expertise,
our global base of clients and carefully selected vendors and our zero company debt render
IdeaMerge extremely well suited to abide long and severe economic downturns as well as economic volatility.
Simply put, your booking is extremely safe with IdeaMerge.
our beginnings
If IdeaMerge was born on a certain day, it was 5 May 1993. That's the
day our founder and president Eric Bredesen landed in Paris
and took delivery of his Renault Eurodrive tax-free short-term French auto lease (namely a Clio diesel manual transmission).
Such leases are outstanding alternatives to car rentals.
Certainly Eric's long travel duration called for
such lease. The trouble was, Eric (who hails from Dubuque, Iowa, USA)
had never been to
Europe nor abroad — and he had never driven a manual transmission car!
While tentatively driving in circles inside the garage of Renault's Paris delivery
center, Eric fatefully happened to meet the president of Renault USA.
Graciously the urbane man offered Eric a cigarello and discussed with him the possibility
of procuring an automatic transmission model instead.
Eric considered but declined the suggestion, mustered his courage, and rolled
onto the streets of Paris — to the tune of
Lenny Kravitz' "Are You Gonna Go My Way?"
Before long Eric had logged tens of thousands of
kilometers on European roads: France, Germany, Spain, Portugal,
Italy, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland, Ireland.
In turn he wrote and self-published the
Moto Europa guide to European motor travel.
An engineer and software designer by training,
Eric in 1996 created the domain IdeaMerge.com and made the entire
Moto Europa text available
free of charge under that aegis
— where it remains (and is frequently updated).
That domain itself became important
in 1999 when Eric rendered it the homepage of his newly conceived
representation of Renault Eurodrive short-term auto leasing. In
conjunction with that step Eric
designed and implemented the world's first online reservation
system offering this French purchase-repurchase or buy-back
program. Quickly IdeaMerge became one of Renault's
top-selling agencies.
rv rentals in europe, australia, new zealand, canada and the usa
In 2002 IdeaMerge began selling
worldwide motorhome rentals as well. In the process,
Eric and company created one of the world's first — and still very few —
multi-vendor online motorhome hire reservation systems.
Eric still captains IdeaMerge, orchestrating the refinement and elaboration of his software
as IdeaMerge adds
choice motorhome hire vendors throughout Europe —
Germany,
France,
Italy,
Spain,
the Netherlands (alias Holland),
Norway,
Sweden & Finland — as
well as RV rentals in
Australia & New Zealand,
Canada,
and the United States of America.
our future
IdeaMerge strives to create and operate the Web's best one-stop shop for motorhome rentals worldwide, sewing
our system to the various systems of our vendors and eventually plugging it all in to the top travel Websites.
Through this effort the first worldwide motorhome rental brand will emerge — a premium hotel-chain-on-wheels
you will be able to count on no matter where you travel. That brand's flagship vehicles will be extremely eco-friendly motorhomes. (Ironically,
the very size of a motorhome lends itself to alternative fuel systems, such a fuel cells and solar panels.)
We welcome to you presently become part of this bright (and green) IdeaMerge future.
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