If you want to travel at your own pace and discover a destination at your own pace, the best way to do it is to choose to rent a cheap car.
The car rental industry is increasingly developed and you can already get, for a few days, a vehicle in almost any part of the world.
However, with so much car rental offer, the task of properly choosing your travel companion becomes a case of in-depth study. Here we leave you a complete guide to help you in this arduous task.
Car rental companies.
Over the years, competition in the car rental market has become more and more intense, and from time to time, new companies appear to join the already existing large offer.
We can basically differentiate them into three groups:
Large international companies. Large car rental corporations have fleets covering nearly all sorts of models and offices worldwide. Their years in the market, large infrastructures, and the possibility of serving clients in a large number of languages are the added assets that make them chosen by many clients. Among them, we can highlight Hertz, Avis, SIXT, and Europcar.
Low-cost companies. They usually launch great deals on cheap car rentals, but their benefits and services are also lower. However, some of them are also large empires that invoice large amounts annually and have fleets of cars of considerable size.
Local companies. In the face of so much competition, these companies have something more difficult to get hold of customers, but some manage to survive with dignity. They are more used by those who already know the area or wait to rent at the last minute.
When to rent the car?
As is often the case in so many other aspects of travel: the sooner we start comparing car rental prices, benefits, and more, the better deals we’ll get. It is particularly true when we are trying to rent a car in places of great tourist fame. If you wait for the last few days or do it when you are already at the destination, the price you will have to pay may be up to 50% higher than what you could have obtained if you had acted with some foresight.
It is also advisable not to make reservations in high season when the prices of rental cars tend to skyrocket more than considerable percentages.
By what means to rent a car?
Although there is still a minority of customers who opt for telephone reservations, the most common medium is still the internet. There is also the possibility of entering a physical office at the airport and making the reservation directly, but it is a practice that languishes towards its disappearance.
Today we can find on the net a multitude of rental car comparators that travelers will most use.
Tips to keep in mind to assess the different car rental offers.
When we are going to rent a car for our trip, there are many factors that we must take into account. The thing is not as easy as simply comparing the prices of the different companies. There are many more benefits that we must take into account and, besides, the prices obtained on the internet are not always what we will end up paying when we are signing the contract at the rental company’s counter.
Car rental insurance.
The price that the company offers on the internet usually includes only basic insurance that leaves many things out of its coverage. To cover any other type of contingency, an amount for the franchise will be immobilized on your credit card.
To avoid these excesses, you can take out additional insurance (which can considerably increase the rental price of the car) or eliminate them with a daily payment with which the companies that market the car rental agree to take care of them in case of an incident occurs.
In any of these cases, don’t forget to read the conditions of the different contracts carefully. You know the classic saying: “insurers never lose.”
Fuel policies in your car rental.
In the past, all car rental companies had the same fuel policy: they gave you your rental car with a full gas tank, and you had to return it in the same way. If you did it like that, they didn’t charge you at all.
Today there are many who use the prepaid technique. When renting the car, you must pay an amount for the gasoline in the tank. Supposedly, when you return it, if you have not used up the entire tank, the company will return the amount of money equivalent to the unused gasoline. This practice is abusive since the price you pay for the tank does not correspond to the price of the fuel on the market.
We recommend that you only deal with car rental companies that opt for the old full-full policy. Of course, if you have to return your rental car before taking a flight, calculate well the time you need to fill the tank, the revision of the vehicle by the operators of the rental company, and the transfer to the airport (various offices are at some distance from it). If you do not have time to put gas, they will charge you what is missing at stratospheric prices.
Pick up and drop off locations for your rental car.
Most car rental offices are near or at airports, but more and more are opening them in central areas of cities or near train and bus stations.
Play with the different locations in the same city, and maybe you can get a better deal on your rental car. Sometimes there is a momentous surcharge in some of them, rendering the final price substantially more costly.
If you are going to collect the car in one office and return it to another, find out well about the costs of doing so.
Hope these guidelines have helped you to be clearer when choosing a rental car. Travel without ties, stopping where you want and at your own pace.
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