SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- SideStep (www.sidestep.com), a growing online travel service, has partnered with Advantage Rent-A-Car, the largest independently owned car rental agency in the West. Advantage said the relationship is expected to extend the car rental company's distribution and reduce its costs.

In particular, the partnership is expected to assist Advantage in promoting its recent expansion into new markets, such as Seattle-Tacoma. In addition, Advantage hopes the partnership will increase the visibility of the company's fares and attract more customers to book on its Web site. "Our partnership with SideStep is a natural match, as they, too, follow our motto - 'makin' it easy' -- providing Internet consumers with easy access to a diverse range of rental vehicles for the best possible prices," said Jimmy Walker, CEO of Advantage. "Advantage has grown from five cars to a fleet of 12,000 vehicles since we started the company. Internet distribution is a key element of our marketing and sales strategy, and we're confident that SideStep can help us to accelerate our success by extending our reach to a sizeable set of new customers."