Car Hire advice?

Zascar

Hey guys, I want to rent a car for a week in Marseilles in France. Wondering should I use the price comparison sites or do direct with Hertz etc. I don't want to be stung for extras and taxes when there I want to pay it all up front on line and have collision cover just in case etc. I'd prefer an automatic as well.

Can anyone recommend a company or website that will give me a good service for a good price?
Thanks

J@yK@y

Hertz via Aer Lingus web site and then carhireexcess.com to buy excess cover.

Zascar

Brilliant thanks I had never heard of that before, great idea I just did it there. Thanks!

mamaobama

Auto Europe is an excellent site. The price is all in, so hidden charges! Also,
check out arguscarhire. I have found good deals on both and the offer sale rates several times during the year.I have found the rates with both of these companies sometimes half the cost of booking directly with Hertz or enterprise. Also, Arguscarhire is an Irish company!

Zulu

Do you need to purchase "excess cover" or is it a sham?

Zascar

Paying €20 to make sure you won't have to pay up to €1500 if you crash is worth it for me personally...

Zulu

any recommendations for excess cover?

martinedwards

dress up for the flight.

if you arrive at the desk in a hawian shirt & flipflops you'll get exactly what you booked.

arrive in a suit and look like you do this ALL THE TIME and you stand a good chance of being upgraded for free.

i've hired two cars in my life, and got upgrades both times.

coylemj

martinedwards wrote: »

dress up for the flight.

if you arrive at the desk in a hawian shirt & flipflops you'll get exactly what you booked.

arrive in a suit and look like you do this ALL THE TIME and you stand a good chance of being upgraded for free.

i've hired two cars in my life, and got upgrades both times.

You were lucky twice, that doesn't mean that you've discovered the secret of how to get a free hire car upgrade.

If you hire cars all the time, they will see this in your customer record and they will upgrade you in preference to the guy in the Hawaiian shirt, but only if they cannot supply a car of the type that you've booked.

On a given day they know how many cars are going out and how many are in the pool. If there is a mismatch between the car types (in the pool compared to what is booked to go out), they will offer upgrades first to their regular customers (e.g. Hertz No. 1 club).

They do not give free upgrades to people who are not regular customers simply because they're wearing a suit. If they did, all of their business customers would book Fiestas and expect an upgrade when they showed up which does not happen.

martinedwards

absolutely true.

but......:D

Savman

coylemj speaks the truth. I'm in the Hertz Gold club and the upgrades aren't anything to write home about, most of the time it's a single class upgrade or something marginally better than what you booked. Less again in the smaller locations where they don't have parking lots of cars to choose from.

It's still the case whereby you get better upgrades if you let them sell you extras.