Internet Booking Engines

Started by Ernie, February 27, 2014, 12:10:11 PM

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Ernie

Hi All,

In recent months I've used the same UK online booking engine (Travel Republic) for my car hire. Only once a choice is made and booked does one receive some documentation showing random names such as Travel Jigsaw, Holiday Autos etc and most importantly the name of the hire company for the first time. Basically it is random who you get, but these individual car hire firms have vastly different ways of working.

After very different experiences between two of the cheaper operators on the island who shall remain nameless, I am keen to use the good one all the time and negate any risk of getting lumbered with the other one ever again. To avoid any direct communication with the good company to get a quote, book directly and then fret that their own payment and admin systems won't work when I show up, does anyone know of a central booking site which shows the name of all the FV hire companies in advance of making a booking ?

Thanks,

Ernie

 

TheCooler

There's no guarantee that an indirect booking agent won't let you down.I've never had any problem going direct. Any pick up at the airport has run smoothly & documentation has been at hand.look in the hire car section of this forum, it's a cornucopia of information.

bedouin

I would never book hire car without knowing the conditions (especially the full-empty fuel scam).  That's why I always book direct with PlusCar.  Good prices, full insurance, no fuel scam, on airport, rapid service, polite, pleasant.  What more could you want?

Can the Man

Ernie,

Please take some advice from those of us who have been there and bought the tee shirt with car hire companies on Fuerteventura.

There are numerous threads in this section that will give you the positives and negatives.

You will see the same names coming up all the time for the positives, like, plus cars, Payless, CICars and you will see the same names come up on the negatives like hertz, gold car and others.

For the good ones rest assured booking direct is the best way to do it.

Happy holiday  8) 8) 8)

Ernie

Thanks for the replies.

Having just bought a place on the island I will be using hire cars on a regular basis but at the moment am just finding my feet as to how it all works.

My experiences so far ...

Orlando for two weeks - great, no problems at all, cheap and efficient, happy to get a car with a few bumps as they are less likely to be precious. Leave fuel as you find it. Great.

Goldcar for two weeks (hoped to get allocated Orlando by the same search engine as above but unfortunately not so) - never again. Scammed on fuel, fiasco at the desk before and after, underside/wheel/windscreen fee quoted at €60 per week or they freeze €600 on your card. Cars in better nick so I suspect they are much more picky. Avoid like the plague.

I know people tend to dislike Orlando but until something bad happens I'm going to try and book direct with them as my experiences have only been good. Sampled Goldcar and won't be going back.

Ernie

isleswing

I don't use the booking sites. There's only a short list of companies to choose from, aso it doesn't take long to check each one, and I never found a booking site to be cheaper than going direct.
Booking and payiing through a third always seems to me more likely to go wrong. I don't think there's any posts on here about cars not being ready on arrival, nor of payment difficulties  when booked direct.

bedouin

Quote from: Ernie on February 28, 2014, 10:40:26 AM
I know people tend to dislike Orlando but until something bad happens I'm going to try and book direct with them as my experiences have only been good. Sampled Goldcar and won't be going back.

You must be extremely fond of Orlando, because their prices are very high - around double what PlusCar charge!

Ernie

tiger,

This is my concern about booking direct with Orlando. When I went through the Travel Republic site I simply chose the smallest car with the cheapest price. I got two weeks in December for £145 and it turned out to be Orlando. Everything ran very smoothly. I doubt PlusCar are doing it for half that but will stand corrected if so.

I repeated the exercise in early February, got practically the identical quote from Travel Republic but this time was allocated GoldCar for two weeks with all the hassle and scams.

The reason I went down this route the second time was that Orlando's online booking website was throwing out prices in the three hundreds. So, I'm confused. Perhaps I chose a fortnight when they were all booked out, perhaps their website doesn't work properly and one needs to email/phone to book in order to get the standard "£10 per day" types of prices that I think are pretty standard at the bottom end or perhaps they genuinely are twice as expensive when one tries to book direct and the third-party sites just drive a very hard bargain ?

Any thoughts/info from anyone greatly appreciated.

Ernie   

Can the Man

Ernie,

give plus car a shot, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. I'm out on 15th March and I have a car for a week see below

Group           : Group D
Car             : Fiat Cubo Family
Price           : 94.71 Euro
Extras          :

Start Rental    : 2014/03/15 11:30
End Rental      : 2014/03/22 10:30

bedouin

Similarly, I'll be out for 12 days in May, and have booked a Hyundai i20 from PlusCar for €145 (about £120).  The Orlando direct booking website gives a price around double that for a similar car.  Travel Republic will do it for £108, but that's with the full/empty fuel scam, which I reckon would cost me another £20-£25.

Ernie

Thanks tiger and Can,

Sounds like PlusCar is bang in line with my £10 per day rule, can easily be booked direct and doesn't scam on the fuel. It has joined my list alongside Orlando. Many thanks.

Can you guys just confirm how the fuel works with PlusCar ? At Orlando it was "pick up and drop off half full". Hopefully the same here too ?

Finally, I'm guessing the prices quoted by you are for zero excess on the CDW (fully covered in case of crash) but that there is the usual payment required should you want full protection from any other damage to windscreen, wheels, underside etc ? If so then how much does Plus typically ask for this when at the counter ?

I've just taken out one of these annual policies in the UK for £35 which covers such damage so will not be taking out any individual hire firms' policy unless it is ridiculously cheap and offers double peace of mind. Orlando offered it for €5 per day whereas it was nearer €10 with GoldCar  :( Told them where they could put that ...

Cheers again,

Ernie


bedouin

PlusCar just record the fuel gauge reading on the paperwork and ask you to bring it back with roughly the same reading.  They don't usually see you return the car - you just park it at the airport and leave the keys and the car park ticket under the floor mat.

I can't remember being offered extra cover for windscreen/underbody damage etc by PlusCar, certainly no hard sell, but like you I have a cheap annual policy for that type of risk anyway.


Can the Man

Same as what Tiger says, and I never look for extra CDW, and it's never been offered by plus car, Payless, CICars, Cabrera, AutoReisen whom I rented from, however the one time my mate decided to hire a car he went through an internet engine and we ended up with a Goldcar car and it cost him double.

SoCal

Approximately 2 years ago, AutoRiesen told me that flat tires were not covered and I would have to pay for the tire... but they had this extra insurance. I paid for it, but realized the for the amount I paid, I could have purchased a new tire.  This is one reason I'm going to try PlusCar this time.

(tire = tyre)
Biking and beaches - total freedom

zedzedeleven

When you say flat do you mean punctured?
Mentor to the boneheads.

Deso

Just to clarify what is NOT insured under Pluscars Fully Comprehensive policy...

This tariff does not include:

Damage to wheels (rims) and tyres.
It is forbidden to drive the vehicle off asphalted roads or in forbidden or dangerous areas (such as sand roads, beaches, mountains, etc).
Lost the keys dame or deteriorate the key or the remote control.
Damage caused by filling the tank with the wrong fuel (.Inadequate refuelling.).
Accident or damages caused by inadequate (dangerous) driving or under the influence of alcohol or other substances.
Any damage caused by bad parking.
The charges of any possible law intervention because of any traffic violation.
PLUS CAR are not liable for personal belongings inside the car

Other than that you are fully covered with no excess, apart from 'Prestige' cars. Don't intend getting one of them anyway.  :D
Regards, Neil
Looking forward to the day I tick the "One way only" box when booking flights to Fuerte. [:)]

bedouin

Those exemptions are pretty much standard for all rental companies.

col328

Deso I have been using Pluscar for the past three years, and I note the insurance policy, that is why I alway's cover myself by taking out insurance excess cover in the UK, usualy costs approx £23.00 for two weeks, as a tyre or broken windscreen is going to cost a lot more.

SoCal

Quote from: zedzedeleven on March 04, 2014, 16:14:36 PM
When you say flat do you mean punctured?

Yes. A punctured tire goes flat. American English - my apologies.
Biking and beaches - total freedom

SoCal

#19
Quote from: tiger79 on March 04, 2014, 17:36:14 PM
Those exemptions are pretty much standard for all rental companies.

These exemptions are not standard policy of what is listed as full coverage in the U.S. Under full coverage in the  U.S., if you experience a punctured tyre, the rental company is expected to provide road-side service.  Hence my initial response was to take out the additional coverage.  Post analysis said, "Not a good purchase." 

Sometime I forget my own philosophy that insurance is to pay for those rare events which would financially hurt us significantly if we lacked the insurance. I can afford to fix or replace a wheel or windshield, but replacing an entire car is a significant burden.  The likelihood of these events occurring is quite small, hence I estimate the value of the insurance as poor.

Biking and beaches - total freedom

bedouin

Quote from: SoCal on March 04, 2014, 19:18:49 PM
These exemptions are not standard policy of what is listed as full coverage in the U.S. Under full coverage in the  U.S., if you experience a punctured tyre, the rental company is expected to provide road-side service.  Hence my initial response was to take out the additional coverage.  Post analysis said, "Not a good purchase." 

Sometime I forget my own philosophy that insurance is to pay for those rare events which would financially hurt us significantly if we lacked the insurance. I can afford to fix or replace a wheel or windshield, but replacing an entire car is a significant burden.  The likelihood of these events occurring is quite small, hence I estimate the value of the insurance as poor.

You're right - much insurance is not good value, but insurers can be very persuasive.  In 40 years of renting cars on holiday ("vacation"), I've never had a puncture, despite driving on some of the worst roads in Europe and the Caribbean.  No glass breakages either.  Or lost keys.  Generally, it doesn't worry me any more.

Ernie

Hi All,

Thanks for all the contributions to this thread.

I have now booked directly with PlusCar for my next trip at the end of April. The price quoted by their website was very good and I received a prompt email confirming my booking. My only concern is that I haven't been asked to pay anything so hope they have me on their system when I turn up with a printout of the confirmation email.

As an aside, I still haven't received any fuel refund from GoldCar. It would only be a smallish sum as I did my best to run it right down but it is another nail in their coffin as far as I am concerned.

Ernie


Can the Man

Ernie,

Plus car do not take any money until they  meet you in the car park, when they will sign you up and you can sign your credit card.

Don't worry and have a great holiday  8)

Deso

Quote from: Can the Man on March 05, 2014, 16:54:00 PM
Ernie,

Plus car do not take any money until they  meet you in the car park, when they will sign you up and you can sign your credit card.

Don't worry and have a great holiday  8)

We have PIN numbers nowadays Can.   :D  :P
Regards, Neil
Looking forward to the day I tick the "One way only" box when booking flights to Fuerte. [:)]

Can the Man

Haha Deso, I know, I think we had them in Ireland before the UK   :P, think it was an Irish kid that developed the safety system for the chip and pin for all the banks.

I thought the last time I paid plus car he had a roller machine.  ::)

SoCal

Quote from: Deso on March 05, 2014, 17:35:42 PM
We have PIN numbers nowadays Can.   :D  :P

Wait, what??!!!

In the U.S., a credit card is confirmed by signature, not a PIN number. The cards don't have a PIN.  And while I haven't been in Europe in a year and a half, I've never been asked for a PIN. And I have rented cars from AutoReisen.

Has anyone been able to simply sign the credit card receipt upon renting from Plus Cars? Or is this worth confirming with the rental agency?

Biking and beaches - total freedom

Can the Man

If you want to use a credit card in Fuerte, you will need your PIN no., you also need ID with you as a lot if places still ask for it. A driver licence or passport will suffice.

SoCal

Quote from: Can the Man on March 05, 2014, 23:33:47 PM
If you want to use a credit card in Fuerte, you will need your PIN no., you also need ID with you as a lot if places still ask for it. A driver licence or passport will suffice.

I admit not being on the island in nearly 2 years, but I have never need a PIN in the past: a signature was sufficient. Is this a recent change of policy? (The ID is not a problem.)

In the US, using a credit card with a PIN means taking a cash withdrawal which means interests starts to accrue immediately.  Ugh... will have to look into this.
Biking and beaches - total freedom

Can the Man

PIN is used in Ireland UK, and most of western Europe

SoCal

Turns out that requiring a PIN is specific to the bank issuing the credit card, not the country in which the card is used. My bank requires only a signature, so I am fine. This policy has been confirmed by Autos Plus Car. Whew.... ;D
Biking and beaches - total freedom