Car hire prices - janey

zagmund

That smug feeling I had from getting a bargain on my airfare and accommodation this summer is wearing off as I see the car hire prices go higher and higher and higher by the day. I'm looking for *any* tricks people can suggest please.

Back all of 2 weeks ago, most of the car hire places were quoting in the region of €400-500 for two weeks hire of a CMDR/Peugot 308SW type of vehicle from Geneva (French side) from Friday 26th June to Saturday 11th July. Alamo had a Peugot 5008 for €370 or so and I was all set to go with them. I had them all in a spreadsheet, so I know I'm not remembering things in error.

I didn't book with Alamo at the time as I had a lot of stuff on. Unfortunately when I went to book their site said something like €3,500 on the payment page, despite saying €370 on the query page. I resigned myself to paying the extra €100 or so with the other companies, but when I went back to them they were now quoting more like €500-600. Sharp intake of breath time. Again I didn't book as I thought it might have been some sort of Easter blip and prices might come back down. Sadly they didn't and we're now looking at something more like €700-800. That's quite the increase in just two weeks.

So, it's crunch time now. Flights are booked. Accommodation is booked. A car is required for most of the time, but is essential for the start, the weekend in the middle and the end. The mid-weeks are optional, but getting & returning a car and getting another one and returning it and getting a third one doesn't look to be any cheaper.

Unless someone can come up with some inventive ideas it's looking very like I am going to have to bite the bullet and book in the next few days. If the rates keep going up at this rate we'll be paying over a grand for a car.

I've looked at the likes of novacarhire.com, kayak.com, expedia.ie . . . but I'm open to any suggestions that people have.

Thanks,

z

p.s. is this rate of increase normal, or is it somehow my own process backfiring on my and the car companies deciding there's a huge interest in rentals from Geneva for these dates (because I searched 70 or 80 different ways) and pumping the price up accordingly?

Tails142

I use autoeurope - try clearing your cookies or get a quote using an incognito browsing tab, you might get a better price this way if they're tracking your visits.

ardmacha

Sometimes things are busy, the problem is that if you are staying 2 weeks if it is busy the first weekend then that can set the price. One trick I've used is to book a few days, returning the car to a different convenient location and then book the rest of the time from there at midweek rates.

But some places are just busy in the summer and if demand is high then prices are too.

zagmund

Thanks for the suggestions. I think it's a function of the length of hire and a relatively busy location that's the problem alright. I've managed to get a much better deal now - bus from Geneva to Annecy and hire from there. We are planning on staying around Annecy anyway, so this isn't a problem. We went for a larger car in the end and a drop off in Geneva on the way back, but we could have got the same sort of vehicle as originally researched - a 308 estate for something in the region of €360 with a pickup and drop off in Annecy.

I tried clearing cookies, incognito, etc . . . but sadly that had no effect.

I also tried looking at hire, return, hire, return options - there were actually some good value over-weekend rates available from the airport, so I might have gone that route, but I'm all sorted now.

z