Hire cars best/cheapest/nonscam website?

Efour

Efour

Efour

Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
Posts
30,218
Location
Norrbotten, Sweden.
Firstly I'm a non driver.
I've been tasked with organisation of hiring a car.4 people and 4 small cases.

Rather than going directly to Avis, Hertz, Europcar is there a reliable booking site that's renound to offer a decent discount or is there some booking codes I can use. Prices I'm looking at now are crazy, imo.

it is in Sweden so I assume there is international comparison websites.

thx in advance if you CBA or know anything...
 
Booking via a comparison site such as Kayak or Skyscanner is usually cheaper than going direct. Just make sure the end supplier is a reputable international firm (eg Hertz, Sixt, Europcar, Alamo, Budget, Enterprise, National, Avis, Thrifty) and not a local provider who will often have a lower headline price but mess you about with extra charges.
 
weringo said:
Booking via a comparison site such as Kayak or Skyscanner is usually cheaper than going direct. Just make sure the end supplier is a reputable international firm (eg Hertz, Sixt, Europcar, Alamo, Budget, Enterprise, National, Avis, Thrifty) and not a local provider who will often have a lower headline price but mess you about with extra charges.
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Going through a 3rd party site is usually a pain in the balls if you have any problems. Just go direct.

I used a third party once and they refused to honour the booking when I arrived at my destination...I was forced to pay again for my booking, then I had to kick up a stink on social media before the 3rd party refunded my the original booking, as the provider wouldn't deal with me at all. Total pain in the arse.

I always use Avis now as their service is always impeccable, and I know someone that works there so have a good discount . I'd still use them without the discount tbh.
 
In total contrast I had a complete nightmare with Avis who are ran as a franchise. I had to claim via my credit card to get them to refund charges I didn’t authorise.

Just go with a comparison site who have decent reviews and understand what insurance you have included and more importantly what you are not covered for and the excesses involved if you do have to claim.
 
Car hire is expensive everywhere due to high used car prices and lack of replacements. Some players sold off a lot of stock and realised they couldn’t replace it and Manufacturers have cut their discounts massively so the daily rental companies are just going to pass their costs on.
 
I've used rentalcars.com many times and always found them good. I had to use their customer service the other day for an issue and it was fine.

You can always use them to look around then try to go direct to the hire car company, although often I've found a deal on there then found it's actually more expensive going direct or often that on the hire car company's site, the car is just not available or their terrible sites sometimes just don't work.

Regardless of where you book, including if you book directly, you need to read the terms and ideally save a copy of them. Rentalcars.com offers you insurance when you book but as far as I understand, the insurance is directly with them so if you did have to claim, the hire car company would effectively see you as not having the extra insurance so would charge you then you'd have to go to RentalCars.com to reclaim it after. You can book without the extra insurance and the hire car company will be more than happy to sell you theirs when you pick the car up.

Also as weringo said, some of the companies that come up are smaller local companies that can be a bit explotative if you let them. If you book with one of those, you really have to be careful with the small print and make sure you know your rights and what you've agreed to.
 
Definitely make sure you also check into the excess liability. I'd recommend a 3rd party excess insurance. It will be way cheaper than the rental place will offer.
 
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