Which Car Rental co should I use?

[annz53]

Getting close for us now. Thinking about renting a van. Any suggestions on companys or advice in connection with renting will be greatly appreciated. Thanks all

 

[Andona]

We've booked cars with holidayautos.com.au a couple of times for the USA and were happy with the prices and the service. I've also heard several good reports of uscarhire.com. and am thinking of using them next time.

We prefer to book and pay in advance via a broker, have all insurances paid upfront so you avoid the hard sell at the rental desk to pay extra for insurance etc. The only rental company we would definitely NOT use again would be Dollar, I booked a car direct with them once in Orlando and it was a shocker of a car

Good luck with your booking!
Andona

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I just recently booked a car with Alamo through the third party website, ebookers. Since I haven't actually picked the car up yet, I'm reluctant to recommend them. But so far I'm very happy with my booking. They were considerably cheaper than I could find anywhere else, so I read through the T&C's twice to check it was okay for a kiwi to book car rental through a British website, and I'm pretty confident it's all fine.

Like Andona, I want all my insurances paid in advance. Most of the big car rental places in the USA charge upwards of $30 p/d for Collision Damage Waver (CDW) and $14+ p/d for Liability Insurance (SLI/EP). So if you don't get these 2 insurances as part of a package, you could be in for a big sticker shock when you reach the car rental depot. I have booked a Standard SUV with both of these insurances included for under US $45 p/d.
It's a common misconception that travel insurance will cover CDW and SLI, whereas most travel insurance companies don't.

When booking directly with Hertz or Alamo, you will probably notice that for overseas customers they roll insurances into their overall costs. (At least they did for me when I said I was a kiwi). So if you want to book direct with a car supplier, one of these two might be your best option. However, often third party websites/brokers are able to bring these costs down even further. Just read the T&Cs very carefully. I nearly booked through an airline website when I found a great price. But after closer inspection, I noticed that they used independent insurers and their SLI only covered property, not person. Too bad if I injure a person and they try and sue me half a million dollars for medical expenses.

Needing a van could make your booking a bit more difficult. I noticed that my options for bigger vehicles narrowed considerably when I was searching for an all inclusive package. I found many options for a 7-8 seated minivan, but not a full size van.

Good luck with your booking. US Car rental is definitely down near the bottom of my list when it comes to fun research and bookings. Just too many logistics and legal considerations.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Renting out of California we have used Alamo, National and Enterprise, and had good experiences with all of them.

 

[aussie shaz]

We book our cars in California through Traveljigsaw.com.au. We got Dollar both times and they were fine.

 

[annz53]

"Needing a van could make your booking a bit more difficult. I noticed that my options for bigger vehicles narrowed considerably when I was searching for an all inclusive package. I found many options for a 7-8 seated minivan, but not a full size van." Wunderlust

Oops, my mistake, I am looking to rent a MiniVan not a van.

Thanks folks, off to check what else needs to be done/booked etc

 

[Melbourne5]

Have used Alamo with good reviews.

Later this month we will use Avis as we need a minivan. Whoever you use make sure you google for vouchers/ coupons and watch the price reduce before your eyes until you find one you want. Got a 30% reduction with Avis plus a GPS by typing in some obscure voucher I found online ( one of the coupon aggregators ) and feel we did pretty good.

 

[AussieMumma]

We normally just go with whoever is cheapest out of Alamo, Hertz, or Enterprise (they seem to be in the areas we need them), but after our recent trip in April we will never rent with Hertz in the USA again. We had awful customer service at three separate locations, Miami, Chicago and LAX, and in Chicago and LAX we also waited for over an hour in the line to have them tell us there were no cars available so we'd have to wait for one to come in! Only took another 20 minutes in Chicago (in 1 degree temps though) but was another hour at LAX!!! Luckily our four children are used to travelling and were very patient and well behaved! It wouldn't have been so bad if there had been some sort of apology for the delay etc, but there was nothing and some of the staff were actually quite rude. A lot of messages all over their Facebook page that month from people saying the same thing at other offices all over the USA also.

Sorry, that became a bit of a rant didn't it! I'd go with Alamo or Enterprise

 

[hellosue]

I booked through Travel Jigsaw in Orlando 2011 with Alamo -great to deal with. Booking again with them this time as they cover you for 5 insurances and offer good competitive rates. We will buy a GPS map to take with us as we'll.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I booked through Travel Jigsaw in Orlando 2011 with Alamo -great to deal with. Booking again with them this time as they cover you for 5 insurances and offer good competitive rates. We will buy a GPS map to take with us as we'll.

I'd heard good things about travel Jigsaw, yet for some reason whenever I tried doing a dummy booking I could only ever get quotes which included CDW and Theft Protection. It never gave me the option of any other insurances, including SLI. So it's interesting to hear that they are covering you for 5. I wonder what I was doing wrong, or what makes the process different if you're booking from NZ?

 

[DVCAustralia]

I am sure many people have had great experiences with third party websites, and I am sure you sometimes get a better rate, however after a couple of bad experiences with pre-paid vouchers for a things like car hire and accommodation I will NEVER use them.

I strongly recommend booking direct and so not paying until the end, in particular after you have seen the car on offer. This is easy with National, my first choice, and Alamo (owned by the same company) with the added advantage that you generally pick from a row of cars in the category booked. Avis is my back-up, as all three quote a rate automatically including CDW and SLI for Australians (and NZ I presume).

 

[Caroline NZ]

I am sure many people have had great experiences with third party websites, and I am sure you sometimes get a better rate, however after a couple of bad experiences with pre-paid vouchers for a things like car hire and accommodation I will NEVER use them.

I strongly recommend booking direct and so not paying until the end, in particular after you have seen the car on offer. This is easy with National, my first choice, and Alamo (owned by the same company) with the added advantage that you generally pick from a row of cars in the category booked. Avis is my back-up, as all three quote a rate automatically including CDW and SLI for Australians (and NZ I presume).

We have always booked direct in the past. This is our first time using a 3rd party ( uscarhire - they have excellent testimonials) so fingers crossed it goes okay, the price was considerably cheaper than going direct with Alamo, which is the reason for using them.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We have always booked direct in the past. This is our first time using a 3rd party ( uscarhire - they have excellent testimonials) so fingers crossed it goes okay, the price was considerably cheaper than going direct with Alamo, which is the reason for using them.

Same as me. I've used 3rd party websites countless times for hotels and never had a single issue (touch wood that continues), but this is the first time for car hire. I saved almost $400 by going through Ebookers rather than direct through Alamo, so it was a risk I was willing to take.
Besides, booking direct doesn't always guarantee you'll have no issues. I booked direct with Thrifty one year in the Gold Coast and had all sorts of stressful problems.

I think you can research the T&C's death, but unfortunately it sometimes just comes down to luck of the draw and who you end up dealing with on that particular day.

Fingers crossed that from this day forward, all of our bookings turn out to be perfectly fine.

 

[Caroline NZ]

I'd heard good things about travel Jigsaw, yet for some reason whenever I tried doing a dummy booking I could only ever get quotes which included CDW and Theft Protection. It never gave me the option of any other insurances, including SLI. So it's interesting to hear that they are covering you for 5. I wonder what I was doing wrong, or what makes the process different if you're booking from NZ?

I just tried Travel Jigsaw and SLI was not mentioned anywhere for me either

 

[WanderlustNZ]

This is easy with National, my first choice, and Alamo (owned by the same company) with the added advantage that you generally pick from a row of cars in the category booked. Avis is my back-up, as all three quote a rate automatically including CDW and SLI for Australians (and NZ I presume).

Of those 3, I could only get Alamo to quote a rate with both CDW and SLI. Avis included one of them (CDW from memory).
Hertz, like Alamo, also quoted a rate that included both.

It's strange how different searches pull up so many different results. I'm beginning to wonder if the difference is not just between Aus and NZ, but also depends on what USA airport you are picking the car up from.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I just tried Travel Jigsaw and SLI was not mentioned anywhere for me either

Perhaps they have changed their booking system recently? I tried the AU version of the site as well as the NZ one and neither included SLI.

 

[aussie shaz]

I just looked at Traveljigsaw.com.au and Carhire3000 (their sister UK site...sometimes cheaper depending of the conversion rate).
If you go to choose a car, under the car is Terms and conditions. It's is what it said

Your Rental Includes
* Unlimited Kilometers
* Insurance ( - Collision Damage Waiver - Theft Protection - 3rd Party Liability - Supplementary Liability Insurance - Uninsured Motorist Protection )
* Local Taxes
* Airport Surcharge
* Premium location fee
* Additional Drivers (aged 25 years or over)
* Homeland Security Fee

You can also call them. They're very helpful. They also usually do one way rentals without an extra charge.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Hhhmmm, the T&C's are all a bit confusing on that site.

In the 'Other Optional Items and Fees' section it says "* Supplementary Insurance to cover injuries to drivers &/or passengers "
This implies that the SLI only covers property, not people.

Plus in the Insurance and wavers section it makes no mention of SLI, but does say "...your car rental will NORMALLY include collision damage waver..."
The word 'normally' is in contradiction to what is written in the first section where it implies that CDW IS included.

In all likelihood everything is fine, and I apologise if I'm coming off as overly negative, but the vagueness of these terms is still something I would question. It's good that they are easy to contact on the phone as I would definitely be ringing to check exactly what is included.

 

[aussie shaz]

I'm not sure any car insurance covers injuries to drivers or passengers. I think your travel insurance covers that.
Not 100% sure as I've only hired cars in the US twice, and gone both times with Travlejigsaw.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I'm not sure any car insurance covers injuries to drivers or passengers. I think your travel insurance covers that. Not 100% sure as I've only hired cars in the US twice, and gone both times with Travlejigsaw.

Most SLI covers you for both person and property - particularly if you book direct with the car rental place. Usually it's up to $1 million dollars. The property would rarely be worth that much, but medical bills and loss of work easily could be.

Most travel insurance companies do not cover any third party liability (person or property) if you cause the accident while in possession of a motorised vehicle. Go to the liability part of your travel insurance T&C's and look for exclusions. If you are covered for vehicle use please share your travel insurance company on here as these companies are few and far between and I'm sure others would like to know about them.

Normally the only thing Travel Insurance companies cover as far as car hire goes is excess. However in the USA the concept of excess doesn't really exist like it does in other countries. If you wreck a car and don't have CDW, you pay the full cost of the car.