Car Hire Considerations
Choosing which car hire company depends on a lot of factors and often the determining factor is location or opening hours. Your company might have special rates with a car rental company and wish you to use that company. Finally which rental company has the car that appeals to you. With so much competition there may still be several car hire companies ’still in the frame’ so it comes down to price.
Do not choose the cheapest headline price without looking at the extras. To find the cheapest you need to work out what the final bill is going to be. Inclusive rates are likely to appear the most expensive but actually work out the cheapest when the rental is concluded. For example which is cheaper $25 a day all inclusive or $15 per day plus an amount per kilometre, plus CDW, plus insurance, plus theft protection, plus location surcharge, plus tax or VAT etc.. In this example if each km cost 20p and you did not take any other items such as insurance, if you drive more than only 32 kms it is cheaper to have all inclusive!
It is often best not to book direct with a car hire comapny, but through a broker using their specially negotiated rates. Here again there are differences which you may wish to consider for instance Holiday Autos charge 100% cancellation fee whereas cheap-car-rental charge a cancellation charge equal to just one days rental.
It is very important that you consider insurance. If you wish to use your own insurance cover check with your insurer that they offer full cover on a hired car. You should also check the cover provided and consider carefully the options given by the car rental company as an accident, particularly for car hire in USA and car hire in Canada could be very, very costly.
Before driving off make a close inspection of the car to see if it has any scratches or had an accident. The paint work should be checked but also remember to check the interior, the tyres and low down where the car might have hit a kerb. If you spot any defects report them to the check out staff and ensure that they are marked on both your copy and the car hire firms copy of the agreement. If you do not report any damage you are likely to be charged for the damage when you return the car. We don’t want that do we.
Enjoy your rental car!