Car Rental Saving Tips
The summer seasons is almost gone and we have been carefully tracking the car rental industry. If you compare the average rate for a weekly rental in March and July, you can see that the rates spike in early June through the end of the August. However, if you fly to a distant destination and you need car, we will share some tips with you to cut the costs down. If we are too late for this summer, you’ll be ready for the next busy car rental season.
Don’t focus only on big chains and look beyond to independent agencies. These agencies operate at lower costs and therefore their rates are up to 30 percent lower than those from mainstream companies.
Look for virtual discounts. Search for coupons and discounts, since you can save significantly this way. How? Simply type the name of the rental agency plus the “coupon” into the search engine and see what will turn up. Rental companies often offer discounts to frequent flier program members. Sometimes you can even combine the coupon codes and the discount codes.
Track rates through car rental comparing websites (for example Autoslash.com). These websites continually check for lowest rates and coupons. However, some major companies don’t let these websites to list their cars, so use these websites only for tracking smaller, independent agencies.
Avoiding the airport is recommended, since off-airport locations are significantly cheaper. You can spend more than $100 weekly that way!
Reserve the vehicle for longer period than needed. Counter-intuitive? However, it sometimes lower the rate significantly so that you can even save some money. Calculate everything before booking the vehicle.
Don’t forget to negotiate. Sometimes even if you have booked the best possible rate, you can get the better car, depending on the number and type of vehicles on the lot, but also on the mood of the clerk. Sometimes, the company will put you in a less popular or bigger car for the cost of a compact, if it happens to be in their interest.
Are you willing to prepay? You should be, because taking car rental agencies usually offer up to 20 % discounts to clients willing to prepay.
