Jason Manelli started his career at Rent-A-Wreck as an intern in the company’s Marketing and PR department in 1999, responsible for the company newsletter, which was printed and mailed bi monthly, as well as press releases to newspapers announcing new locations and anniversaries, and occasionally layouts for yellow page and newspaper advertisements.

The company website at the time was mainly an informational directory of locations listed by state with contact information.  Working closely with programmers, Manelli oversaw the creation of the company’s first password controlled intranet portal, launched in 2001.  The portal was a place to distribute news and collect reports from franchise owners, and for the first time, the portal allowed franchise owners to list inventory and prices online, with a website integration to allow the public to book reservations.    

At the time, franchisees would be booking reservations mainly over the phone, one at a time, and Manelli led the company push to modernize its marketing efforts, pivoting away from traditional advertising toward digital advertising and SEO, while continuing to evolve the company websites to deliver a better quality reservation experience for the customer and franchise owner. 

Along with those efforts, Manelli pursued and eventually negotiated in 2005, the company’s first connection to an Online Travel Aggregator (OTA), the meta search site SideStep.  After SideStep was acquired by its competitor Kayak, Manelli negotiated a connection there as well, and oversaw the development of a connection to Kayak in 2008, which distributed the inventory of all three brands across Kayak’s platform, becoming the company’s first substantial source of commissioned travel bookings. 

In 2015,  after years of incremental growth of the reservation system, Manelli successfully negotiated the entrance of NP Auto Group and Rent-A-Wreck onto Expedia, North America’s largest Online Travel Agency.   The Expedia Group connection increased the reach of the company’s reservation system tenfold overnight, and was followed by an agreement with Priceline, North America’s 2nd largest OTA in 2018.  He was the winner of the prestigious Auto Rental News Professional of the Year Award in 2015,  one of the industry’s highest honors.

Backed by the proud franchise operators of the NextCar, Priceless and Rent-A-Wreck brands, Manelli has negotiated commercial agreements, and along with a team of trusted programmers and development partners, he has managed the technical implementation of connections between the NP Reservation system and dozens of broker sites, GDS based travel agent networks, and even Government booking systems.

Manelli was named the President of Rent-A-Wreck of America in July of 2018 by CEO Jack Fitzgerald.  He serves in that capacity, with Rent-A-Wreck as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fitzgerald Auto, the parent company of both NP and Rent-A-Wreck.  In that capacity he and NP President Michael DeLorenzo collaborate on a daily basis for the betterment of all of the brands in the Fitzgerald portfolio.

In August of 2023, Manelli negotiated a commercial agreement with and oversaw the development of a connection to Hopper, North America’s Third largest OTA.

Manelli continues to work every day with franchise owners, managers and counter staff to market, promote and optimize their rental car businesses.   

A Graduate of Towson University, Manelli is married and a father of two daughters, he and wife Megan live in Ellicott City, MD, a state Manelli has called home for his entire life.