Car hire - any tips on the best deals please?

[AndRu]

For our trip to Orlando in August '07 we're booking things individually, i.e. flights, accomodation and car hire. We've already got the villa, we'll be sorting the flights in September (using Virgin points + money) but don't know what to do about car hire.

Please can anyone recommend rental and insurance firms? On the last two trips we've had cars from Dollar via Virgin and whilst we've been very happy with these, there must be other better value choices available.

Thanks in advance.

 

[alisonbestford]

We used Alamo from MCO

Used the US rental site, a Walmart code from 'Mousesavers', my annual 'Ins4carhire' insurance and got an MPV for £220 (plus £104 -the cost of annual ins) for 3 weeks at Easter

 

[patdavies]

If you want to stay with Dollar, try www.airline-networks.co.uk

 

[Miffy2003]

If you want to stay with Dollar, try www.airline-networks.co.uk

The correct web address for the above is www.airline-network.co.uk

AnRu, I have recently discovered the following website which trawls through 25 different car hire sites to pull out the best deal from all of them for you, pretty sure it looks at airline network & Alamo as part of their database search.

http://www.travelsupermarket.com/travelmerge/travelsearch.aspx?package=6

 

[patdavies]

The correct web address for the above is www.airline-network.co.uk

Sorry - typo

 

[AndRu]

Thanks very much for the replies so far ... gives me something to investigate!

Cheers!

 

[Mr Brit]

well i used to travel alot to Florida (approx 3 times a year) and now i live here and the best place in my experience is a UK company called Autos Abroad or sometimes know as holiday autos. I used to pay for the smallest car they offered, a 3 door car 125 pounds, the key is that in USA they dont stock these cars as they are too small so they upgrade you free of charge to a mid size like a Ford Focus Sedan. I found it cheaper to then upgrade locally to a convertible which was an additional $250 i believe for 2 weeks as i had used them before, just say u used them before as they dont check and say someone else was driving if they press you on it. The beauty about this company is there is no additional insurance as its all included and they use the large car rental firms, with them ive used both Dollar and budget.

Happy travels and hope this helps

 

[flynnibus]

not sure if you can place an order internationally.. but I'd try!

http://www.hotline.com !! Its a steal compared to 'list price' rentals and you get the same rental car companies and same cars.

 

[Minniespal]

This site is quite good. I used them last time without any problems.

 

[TinkTatoo]

I've used http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/ a few times now and the service has been great. They have a live web chat facility so if you have any questions they can be answered immediately

 

[martinrmn]

You Could Try Yescarhire. I Have Used Them And Found Them Excellent, They Use Alamo.

 

[Chaellin12]

We go to Orlando in a weeks time. We were going to book our car with holidayautos co uk but found a cheaper deal on carhire4less com. We have used holiday autos before and were very happy with their service, so I phoned them directly and told them I had seen the same categorey car on another web site and quoted them the price. The guy checked it out and came back to me and offered me a car at the cheaper same price. Holiday autos use Alamo and we've always found them to be extremely helpful. Hope this helps.

 

[Chaellin12]

We go to Orlando in a weeks time. We were going to book our car with holidayautos, co, uk but found a cheaper deal on carhire4less, com. We have used holiday autos before and were very happy with their service, so I phoned them directly and told them I had seen the same categorey car on another web site and quoted them the price. The guy checked it out and came back to me and offered me a car at the cheaper same price. Holiday autos use Alamo and we've always found them to be extremely helpful. Hope this helps.

 

[momof3disneyholics]

If you are traveling in a non peak time of year, your best bet in my opinion is to wait and book the car when you arrive at your hotel with your concierge. During the slow times the car rental companies have cars sitting on their lots and are practically giving them away. I've seen people get their cars for as little as $19.99 per day. A good concierge will know how to get you a good deal. Sometimes I'll call up one company and say "Can you compete with a $25.00 a day rental on an economy size?" Then they'll usually say yes and before I close the deal I'll ask them about free upgrades. They don't care when their slow, they just want the cars rented.

 

[allyjack]

Try these
http://www.uscarhire.co.uk?villa=422

Really good value and you only have to pay deposit on booking .
Uses Dollar or Alamo both onsite at airport

Only Non US bookings - problem with not booking before you go is insurance as it is much more expensive to pay it when you get there
Alsion

 

[Midnight Belle]

Hi,

We have used airline network for car hire many times, these are far the cheapest for Dollar rentals that I have found.

 

[Zovo]

just to confuse matters for you last night I booked our car hire for August and Dollar was by far the cheapest for a gas guzzling 4x4 - on the UK site it was over £100 off the normal price of a 10 day hire, and was cheaper the holidayautos, airlinenetwork etc.

Good luck with all your planning, we are doing it ourselves as well this year, saving a packet so far.

 

[UKDEB]

not sure if you can place an order internationally.. but I'd try!

Yes, you can - I just tried! And it automatically quotes in GBP. Having said that, the prices for our dates are more than both Airline Network and US Rent A Car. We've used both in the past. We've found that the cheapest price alternates between these two.

 

[Tron[ADS]]

We found Co-op travelcare the cheapest for us this year, plus, for some reason it was cheaper phoning them up than the online qoute. They actualy use holidayauto's, but again, we got a signiicantly cheaper price than going straight to holiday autos direct, even with my csma discount code.
I suspect they mis-priced us.