Car Rental tips from the horses mouth!

[nsudisneyrep]

Saw a post on another board and thought maybe I could be of some help in the car rental area, since I am a telephone sales agent for Thrifty Car Rental, I think I can give you a few pointers on car rental

Rental car rates are based upon availability, and they are constantly changing. Just because you booked a car in one city for 100 for the week, doesn't mean you will get the same price at a different city on a different week, even if it is the same company. Here is what you do:

Call all the companies, know your days and times, and get rates on the midsize car (or whatever car you need to accommodate you), and ask what that company considers a mid size car. Then ask if there are any specials/any lower rates on larger vehicles. Remember, rates are based on availability so the small cars can have higher rates since people go for those first. Make reservations with as many companies as you like, because most don't take credit card numbers on the phone (Thrifty and their sister company Dollar are that way)... next thing you do is call back periodically (every week or 2, depending on how far out your trip is) to check your reservation and see if the rate has gone down. If it has, you can get the lower rate... if it has gone up, you are locked in at your low rate.

Also a good idea to be polite to the agent you are talking to, we're suckers for sweet talkers, but at the same time if we tell you it is out of our hands, it really is out of our hands... sorry! Also, don't just stop at online rates, I have recently found that the rates I can give a customer have been lower than the rate they found on the website 5 minutes ago.... never hurts to call!

Make your final calls 3 days before date of arrival, then the day before/day of arrival, because if we aren't renting out as many car as we had forecasted, rates will drop immensly!! Don't forget to cancel the reservations you won't be using, to free those car for other people, as soon as you know which companies you won't be using.

Hope this helps, "Thank you for calling Thrifty and have a great day!"

 

[neonurse]

Thanks for the tips!!! I will definitely keep this in mind!!

 

[Debi]

What great advice!! Thanks for posting. I did follow one of your tips from my recent WDW trips. I had a car booked through National, and on a lark 4 days prior to arrival, I checked prices again. The price had dropped by about $40, so I was happy!

 

[Hodder]

Just wanted to say that I worked for a car rental agency at one time (year and a half). You did a great job, I know that it can be confusing when renting a vehicle. There are some differences between companies. We did take credit cards as a deposit and the cancellation policy was to cancel 24 hrs in advance or your credit card was charged one day. Another thing they didn't hold veh. If you had missed your flight and didn't call to let us know, 1/2 hour after your time to pick up came we would cancel the reservation. I am only speaking for here. There are often times when they run out of vehicles to rent. Really bad here the summer. If booking on line make sure you print out what all the things that are included in your price as well as the reservation number. So many people came up and said I booked on web and it said xxxx of milage per day, how come this rental agreement says less. No proof then no dice. Just make sure to ask the reservation agent.

Also becuase it can be a big thing...check insurance...does your insurance company cover rentals? How about your credit cards? Make sure what they cover you for. Some policies will only cover you up to the cost of your vehicle (if your car's value is $10,000 they won't cover that $30-40,000 veh you just rented. Sometimes there is a cap as well) Just make sure you are covered well.

And most importantly....READ what you sign and or initial.

 

[my3disneygirls]

One important thing to find out is the hours of operation before you book you rental, especially if you have a late night or early morning flight. We always used one company and never had a problem returning the vehicle at say 5 or six am. One year we used a different company and they wouldn't be open for us to return the car. Well, we got lost finding the drop off spot at the airport and we barely made the shuttle to the airport. What made it worse was that when picking up the car I asked what time I should drop off for X flight. The guy said we're not open at that time and shoved information at me. If I didn't ask I wouldn't have known since he didn't volunteer the info. So needless to say we are back to using the same agencey we used in the past.

 

[checkwriter]

This may or may not be helpful. I just tried this for the first time. After doing a lot of research, using various discount codes, for a week-long car rental for Ft. Lauderdale in July, I tried Priceline. I halved the per-day rental rate, and "bid" on a $14/day rental for an economy car (all I needed). I got it. Now, when you add the state, local, airport, and who-knows-what-other taxes, it's about double that, it's still a sizeable chunk less than what I would have paid.

IF you are sure of the duration of your trip; and IF you are ready to pay for most of it now; and IF you have done your homework and know a good deal when you see one, THEN priceline.com may be worth looking into.

 

[kjs1976]

I actually check back daily after booking. Rates have changed for 24 hrs. only and some times for days, and I always try to get teh lowest rate. It's a little pre-trip game for me! The latest we've changed our rental car was abouy 48 hrs. before. On a whim I checked, before I knew this was the thing to do, and it dropped $45 bucks! We took that money, already saved for, and went to Boma for dinner and had an awesome meal!!! It always pays to keep checking!