TOP 10 CAR RENTAL TIPS AND TRICKS

Although many cities today have numerous public transportation options such as buses, trains, and subways; their schedules or station locations may not be very suitable for your agenda. Whether traveling for leisure or business, you may find that renting a car would be more convenient during your stay.  However, make sure to check this list of top 10 car rental tips and tricks for an efficient and stress free process.

1- Use an online car rental platform

When using an online car rental platform you have the opportunity to browse cars from hundreds of major car rental companies worldwide. Providing you with the cars available within your set destination, category and budget, you will be saving yourself the time and hassle of comparing each car rental company website. A car rental platform will constantly provide discounts and hot deals, therefore make sure to look out for any special offers happening. For its competitive prices and friendly user website, make sure to check out carsirent.com on your next car rental escapade!

2- Avoid picking up your car from the airport

Just like with airfare, certain factors can affect car rental rates. As a matter of fact, the pickup location being the airport is one major rate increase cause. Airport fees are implied on your car deal, hence, avoid them by picking up your car at a local car rental office in the city or by getting it dropped off to you at your hotel. To learn how to save more on car rental, make sure to check out this article.

3- Photograph your car

Upon receiving your car, the company clerk will inspect the vehicle and mark any existing dents or scratches. One of the best car rental tips and tricks would be to photograph the car yourself from all sides saving the photos as evidence to avoid any disappointing issues upon returning the car. This is not only an advice, it’s one of the best car rental tips and tricks. If you are confused about which car to chose for your next rental, this post would help.

4- Fill up your tank

If you did not already know, the car rental company will charge you for the consumed fuel. One of the many great car rental tips and tricks is to return your car with the same amount of fuel when received. You will surely end up with a bigger bill than expected if you decide to return the car with an emptier tank. Fill your tank at a local gas station but avoid the stations close by to the airport; they too benefit off higher fuel rates from car renters on their way to the airport.

5- Check for  Mileage

Read your rental terms and conditions carefully always. If you have an exciting road trip on mind, make sure your car includes “unlimited mileage” when booking. However, of a good deal you might have found, this feature is often unnoticed. Avoid the disappointment by going through all the details.

6- Go for weekend and weekly packages

It would be wise for you to opt for a weekend or a weekly package from your car provider. Most of them offer better rates when renting a vehicle for more than 3 days rather than on a daily base.

7- Book early

An early bird is always the smart way to go. Rates depend on how many vehicles the company has available at the time the rental is made, so the sooner the better! Reserve your car at least a few weeks in advance to benefit from great discounts. For details, find out more about Is it Better to reserve a rental car in advance?

8- Save by getting your own

Additional accessories such as a child car seat, a navigation system and others highly effect your daily car rental rate. For instance, a child seat could cost you about 10$ daily which for a weeklong family vacation may tack a significant amount onto your car rental expenses. Therefore, if possible and you do prefer to save on little here and there, get your own necessities.

9- Check your own insurance policy

Most vehicle insurance policies already include some sort of rental car insurance coverage, so if you sign up for the full rental car policy, you’re paying extra when you may not have to. Check with your current insurance company on what is covered and accordingly decide on what to add on your rental package. Additionally, if you pay for a rental car with a major credit card, there’s a good chance that the card issuer offers secondary car rental insurance at no charge. Check with them as well!

10- Join the club

To conclude our top 10 car rental tips and tricks we suggest that if you are a frequent renter, save money with certain benefits by becoming a member or subscriber to car rental clubs and online portals.

If this is your first-time car rental, there are things you should know. Get introduced to them here.

Now that you’ve read our top 10 car rental tips and tricks don’t forget to relax and enjoy the drive!

If you’re thinking of renting a car soon, you should check our rates for car rentals world wide! Just fill in the below form with your details and click Search Now

Want to Save on Car Rentals? Go Low-Tech

Want to save on your next car rental? You may have to tear yourself away from the Internet and do the unthinkable: make a few phone calls.

Sites like Kayak, Priceline and TripAdvisor have been a boon for frugal travelers. But they also foster a potentially costly illusion: that all bargains are a click or tap away. As I discovered after some obsessive searching for car rental deals, low-tech and no-tech strategies can sometimes be as helpful as the latest online innovations.

I started my hunt — for a two-day weekend rental on a trip to Vancouver scheduled two weeks away — with the usual suspects, the major aggregators and booking sites. Kayak, Expedia, Carrentals.com, Rentalcars.com and the blind-booking site Hotwire all turned up similar rates for an economy rental from the airport. I found that big variations in price on the low end of the market are rare — and it turns out there is a reason for that: industry consolidation.

“Hertz, Avis Budget Group and Enterprise now control 95 percent of the domestic market through their various brands,” said Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting, which specializes in the car rental industry. “These companies are ultracompetitive among themselves.” Kayak found me the best deal by a slim margin, $13.15 a day from Enterprise, a price that included unlimited mileage, taxes and fees but not additional charges like insurance.

So I booked. Unlike a flight or hotel reservation, this was just the beginning. Car bookings can generally be canceled anytime up to the instant you step to the counter and pay. (Hotwire is one prominent exception.) “This is one of the biggest advantages consumers have,” Mr. Abrams said. “There’s really no downside to locking in a good price with a reservation.” (A quick aside for renters without a booking who have, say, just landed at the airport: Firing up a mobile app from Carrentals.com, Priceline or another aggregator will often turn up rates far lower than what you would get quoted just walking up to the counter.)

Now it was time to beat the rate I found in 30 seconds. Granted, it seemed pretty low already, but how hard could it be?

My first stop was Zalyn, a site that sorts through the bewildering array of coupons offered by rental car companies, as well as third-party discounts from credit cards, airlines, AAA and even Costco, showing you only the codes that work. At least that is what it is supposed to do. I put in my dates and location and listed all my memberships and 56 coupons came up, offering savings up to 25 percent. But the first coupon code I tried to apply to a rental didn’t work and neither did the second or the third. After 15 minutes of searching and nothing to show for it, I threw in the towel.

I had higher hopes for AutoSlash. The free site, which has been around since 2010, allows you to input your rental car confirmation code. It then continuously mines reservation channels for better deals on similar rentals, alerting users via email whenever one becomes available. “Rates are fluctuating all the time, especially in the last two weeks before you pick up the car,” said Jonathan Weinberg, AutoSlash founder and chief executive. “So it’s worth checking every few days or, of course, we can do the legwork for you.” (In the past, AutoSlash would even automatically rebook reservations, a feature it dropped under apparent pressure from car rental companies.) I plugged in my original Enterprise reservation code, clicked the track button and crossed my fingers.

In the meantime, I got to work exploring some less conventional rental options. Priceline allows you to name your price on rental cars, just like hotel rooms and flights. The hitch is that if your bid is accepted you have to pay up front and can’t cancel. With that caveat in mind, I put in some ridiculously lowball offers, starting at $1 a day (or about $7 with taxes). That was instantly rejected, as were subsequent offers of $2 and $3 a day. When I realized my rejected bids were approaching the original rate I got from Enterprise, which was for a fully cancelable reservation, I gave up on Priceline.

Maybe car sharing was the answer. Zipcar and similar services were great for getting around my home city, often cheaper than the price of a taxi. Would the same approach work on vacation? Nope. While Vancouver hourly rates for a Zipcar start at about $7, daily rates are around $65. “Zipcar can be convenient if you’re in an urban area, but once you get beyond a few hours it’s definitely cheaper to do a traditional rental,” said Chris Brown, executive editor of the trade publication Auto Rental News. “The car-sharing fleet is still small, and at airports it’s not yet a huge factor.”

I hoped to find better bargains in the growing peer-to-peer rental market, where ordinary people loan out their wheels. Unfortunately, neither RelayRides nor Getaround, two of the most popular peer-to-peer sites, operate in Canada. A search in nearby Seattle turned up RelayRide cars starting at $25 a day, still no match for supercheap traditional rentals. Meanwhile, FlightCar, which allows outgoing fliers to rent out their cars, is available only in a handful of American airports (including Seattle-Tacoma, where I tracked down a compact for $19 a day: a price that included the all-important supplemental liability insurance — more on that below — but limited renters to 100 miles a day).

Bleary eyed, with my browser freezing up from too many open tabs, I was beginning to get discouraged when I got an email from AutoSlash with the subject line “Great News!” Their tireless bots had tracked down a reservation with Hertz for just $10.01 a day, nearly a 25 percent discount over my original rate. In this instance, that worked out to a measly $3 a day savings; but at peak times of the year when rates were higher, or for a longer-term rental, my savings could have been substantial. More important, I had something to show for a day of Internet sleuthing. I clicked through to the AutoSlash site and booked.

5 Cheap Rental Car Tricks You’ve Always Needed, But Never Known

Most travelers know how to search for flight deals, but finding the right rental car deal can seem like uncharted and bewildering territory. We may not rent a ride as often, but that’s no reason to let confusion get the best of us and our wallets.

Whether it’s for a quick weekender in your state or the cross-country trip of a lifetime, use these hints to get the cheapest deal for your next road trip. 

1. Avoid rental cars at the airport. 

Generally, rental car companies impose extra surcharges in airports, where demand is high. Their offsite locations, meanwhile, often boast cheaper prices. 

Locations listed as “off-airport” on airport websites may still charge an airport fee, so call the office ahead of time to ask. If they do, consider the next-nearest option, which will likely require public transportation or a ride to get to. 

And finally, note that big cities like New York may be exceptions to this rule. It’s always worth checking a few locations to compare. 

FRANCIS DEAN VIA GETTY IMAGES

2. Check for discounts. 

If you work a corporate job, chances are you have access to a company code that can score you huge discounts at major rental companies. Brands like Hertz and Alamo also offer discounts for students, and perks abound for government employees and AAA members, too. Before you book, check with your rental company of choice or your HR department for discounts that apply to you.

3. Consider using Costco or Hotwire. 

Yup, Costco has a travel website that compares prices among major rental car brands to turn up some of the most impressive deals out there. It also offers brand-specific discounts, like waived second-driver fees, to Costco members. Hotwire has comparable pricing, but one possible downside is that you won’t know what copmany you’re renting from until after you’ve booked. 

BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

4. Book multiple cars, then cancel as rates get lower.

Unlike plane tickets, you can generally cancel a rental car reservation at any time before you drive, without a fee. This means you can make reservations (with as many companies as you want) and cancel and re-book if you see prices fall. It requires checking your dates every so often, but may be lucrative. 

5. Skip insurance, if you can. 

A quick online check or call to your insurance company will likely reveal that you’re insured when driving a rental car. This allows you to skip insurance when you book, resulting in savings up of to $50 a day by NerdWallet’s estimates. 

More spending money for road-trip snacks? We could all do with some of that. 

This article has been updated to include additional information about off-airport rental offices and the likelihood of their charging extra fees.