Booking your Rental Car Reservation

UNI Travelers

Last Updated: Mar 4, 2025

Booking your Rental Car Reservation

Before you begin:

An approved spend authorization is required to book travel.

A credit card is required for bookings in Lightning or with a CTP agent. The university-issued T&H Card is recommended.

Enterprise and National are UNI’s preferred rental companies as we have a contract with them.

Travelers should use Enterprise or National unless they cannot meet your needs.

Search results for Enterprise and National in Lightning include UNI’s contract rates.

The credit card in your Lightning profile will hold the car rental reservation but the traveler will still need to present a credit card at check-in to charge the rental.

The OBO travel team has a direct bill account for Enterprise rental cars in situations where a student or non-university guest will not be able to present a card at check-in.

If you need to book a rental car for a student or non-UNI guest using our direct bill account, an OBO travel specialist will need to assist with this reservation.

Our Enterprise direct bill account should not be used for employee travel. Employees should reserve the rental car and present a credit card when they pick up the rental.

The OBO travel team has a direct bill account for Enterprise rental cars in situations where a student or non-university guest will not be able to present a card at check-in.

If you need to book a rental car for a student or non-UNI guest using our direct bill account, an OBO travel specialist will need to assist with this reservation.

Our Enterprise direct bill account should not be used for employee travel. Employees should reserve the rental car and present a credit card when they pick up the rental.

Do not book local rentals through Collegiate Travel Planners. If you need a vehicle for local travel, please contact Motor Pool for more information.

Coming Soon: Rental Car FAQs

Log into the CTM portal

Please note that even if a Travel Arranger or Travel Assistant will be booking on the traveler’s behalf, your Lightning travel profile must be updated and all required fields completed. A credit card is required for booking.

Review the traveler’s profile, Known Traveler Number (KTN) and frequent flyer information.

Open the Lightning Booking Tool

To start a reservation, select the New Booking tab at the top.
To view or manage existing reservations, click the Manage Bookings tab

Check the circle buttons to select all the applicable travel services: Flight, Hotel, Car, Rail

Type in the employee traveler name in the Add travelers for this itinerary field.
The employee name will pop-up; select the name to populate the field.

Note: Searching by last name is recommended; employees are listed by their legal first and last names.

Note: If you are traveling together with other employee(s) and you want to reserve for other travelers in your booking session, the other employee(s) must first complete their Lightning profile.

Travel Arrangers: If you want to add other employees to the reservation, type in the name of the next employee and select from the pop-up. You may choose up to 9 travelers who are traveling together on the same itinerary.

Guest Travelers

Travel Arrangers: To add a guest traveler or a student, click the Add guest traveler link. Then complete the required guest traveler detail fields.

Enter the pick-up/drop-off location and pick-up/drop-off dates and times. Ensure these times line up with the traveler’s flight times.

Spend Authorization Number

Enter the 8-digit spend authorization number (Spend Authorization must be approved)

Click Search

Lightning will search for available rental cars

Select “sort by total amount”

Filter by “class”, “chain” and “transmission”.

Class must be economy, standard or full size.
Chain must be Enterprise or National unless not available
A business reason will be required if Enterprise or National is not chosen
Transmission must be Auto
Set price at traveler’s spend authorization limit

Quoting Rental Cars (travel arrangers only)

Review the travel preferences given by the traveler.

Provide two quote options to the traveler from these criteria.

Choose the rental car to reserve based on the traveler’s decision.

Confirm the booking for the traveler

If you later decide you want to add hotel or flight you can do so by clicking the desired service(s) on this page.

Enter Payment Method (if not already loaded from traveler's profile)

Select the Business Purpose for the trip

Review the additional information

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of this information!

Do not add any personal coverage or additional damage waivers beyond what is included in the contract.

The Loss Damage Waiver and Liability coverage is included in the rate on business rentals when booking with Enterprise or National.

Review the terms and conditions

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of the terms and conditions!

To complete the booking, click the Confirm Booking button. You will receive an email confirmation from ctptravelservices.com.

Next Steps: View your reservations by going to the Lighting home page and click Manage Bookings at the very top.

For questions, please contact Business Operations at 319-273-2162, Option 3 or email obo-hub@uni.edu

Booking your Rental Car Reservation

Booking your Rental Car Reservation

UNI Travelers

Booking your Rental Car Reservation

An approved spend authorization is required to book travel.

A credit card is required for bookings in Lightning or with a CTP agent. The university-issued T&H Card is recommended.

Enterprise and National are UNI’s preferred rental companies as we have a contract with them.

Travelers should use Enterprise or National unless they cannot meet your needs.

Search results for Enterprise and National in Lightning include UNI’s contract rates.

The credit card in your Lightning profile will hold the car rental reservation but the traveler will still need to present a credit card at check-in to charge the rental.

The OBO travel team has a direct bill account for Enterprise rental cars in situations where a student or non-university guest will not be able to present a card at check-in.

If you need to book a rental car for a student or non-UNI guest using our direct bill account, an OBO travel specialist will need to assist with this reservation.

The OBO travel team has a direct bill account for Enterprise rental cars in situations where a student or non-university guest will not be able to present a card at check-in.

If you need to book a rental car for a student or non-UNI guest using our direct bill account, an OBO travel specialist will need to assist with this reservation.

Do not book local rentals through Collegiate Travel Planners. If you need a vehicle for local travel, please contact Motor Pool for more information.

Please note that even if a Travel Arranger or Travel Assistant will be booking on the traveler’s behalf, your Lightning travel profile must be updated and all required fields completed. A credit card is required for booking.

Review the traveler’s profile, Known Traveler Number (KTN) and frequent flyer information.

To start a reservation, select the New Booking tab at the top.To view or manage existing reservations, click the Manage Bookings tab

Check the circle buttons to select all the applicable travel services: Flight, Hotel, Car, Rail

Type in the employee traveler name in the Add travelers for this itinerary field.The employee name will pop-up; select the name to populate the field.

Note: Searching by last name is recommended; employees are listed by their legal first and last names.Note: If you are traveling together with other employee(s) and you want to reserve for other travelers in your booking session, the other employee(s) must first complete their Lightning profile.

Travel Arrangers: If you want to add other employees to the reservation, type in the name of the next employee and select from the pop-up. You may choose up to 9 travelers who are traveling together on the same itinerary.

Guest Travelers

Travel Arrangers: To add a guest traveler or a student, click the Add guest traveler link. Then complete the required guest traveler detail fields.

Enter the pick-up/drop-off location and pick-up/drop-off dates and times. Ensure these times line up with the traveler’s flight times.

Spend Authorization Number

Enter the 8-digit spend authorization number (Spend Authorization must be approved)

Click Search

Lightning will search for available rental cars

Select “sort by total amount”

Filter by “class”, “chain” and “transmission”.

Quoting Rental Cars (travel arrangers only)

Review the travel preferences given by the traveler.

Provide two quote options to the traveler from these criteria.

Choose the rental car to reserve based on the traveler’s decision.

Confirm the booking for the traveler

If you later decide you want to add hotel or flight you can do so by clicking the desired service(s) on this page.

Enter Payment Method (if not already loaded from traveler's profile)

Select the Business Purpose for the trip

Review the additional information

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of this information!

Do not add any personal coverage or additional damage waivers beyond what is included in the contract.

The Loss Damage Waiver and Liability coverage is included in the rate on business rentals when booking with Enterprise or National.

Review the terms and conditions

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of the terms and conditions!

To complete the booking, click the Confirm Booking button. You will receive an email confirmation from ctptravelservices.com.

Next Steps: View your reservations by going to the Lighting home page and click Manage Bookings at the very top.

For questions, please contact Business Operations at 319-273-2162, Option 3 or email obo-hub@uni.edu

To start a reservation, select the New Booking tab at the top.
To view or manage existing reservations, click the Manage Bookings tab

Type in the employee traveler name in the Add travelers for this itinerary field.
The employee name will pop-up; select the name to populate the field.

Note: Searching by last name is recommended; employees are listed by their legal first and last names.

Note: If you are traveling together with other employee(s) and you want to reserve for other travelers in your booking session, the other employee(s) must first complete their Lightning profile.