“I haven’t yet booked a hire car, and a colleague says that there’s a shortage of rental vehicles that’s pushed up prices. Is he right?

No, not this summer. In 2009, the credit crunch led to a big shortfall, which pushed up prices to three or more times the normal prices. There was also the odd squeeze last year. But when any travel enterprise is seen to be making excessive profits, rivals pile in with loads of capacity hoping to cash in – only to see prices fall. Checking Holiday Autos for prices for the first week in August: an Opel Corsa costs £135 at Alicante airport, which is less than £20 a day. Florida is equally cheap.”

The article also covers such topics as passport out of date…what do you do? – Mobile phones – Rynair’s luggage rules and travel currency.

The Independent is on sale today, however if you have missed buying a copy, see the aricle Here

“Is car-hire company giving me the runaround?” by Paul Gosling

Came across this earlier today. A reader contacting the Independent’s correspondent Paul Gosling about booking car hire for a six-day car hire in Corsica, for collection at Ajaccio airport and leaving it at Porto Vecchio and expecting a refund of €133.50

See the full Independent story HERE

Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) is a form of cover that you can buy to increase your level of Third Party insurance for car rentals in certain parts of the world including the USA.

Third party insurance protects you against financial awards made against you by a court resulting from claims from others (the third party) that you have injured them or damaged their property with the hire car.

For car rentals in many parts of Europe including the UK and in many other parts of the world, this cover will typically be supplied with the rental vehicle and be unlimited, which is to say that no matter how much the court awards in damages your policy would cover it in total.

This is not the case in countries such as the USA where there is little, if any, obligation to buy car rental insurance of any sort. Third party cover as supplied by the rental company, if it exists at all, may very well be limited to amounts which may be inadequate and well below the levels that could be awarded against you by a court.

In these circumstances it would be your personal responsibility to fund any amounts left unpaid by the insurance.

Supplemental Liability Insurance can be obtained from your car hire company but you may find that this is an expensive way of buying this type of cover. There are a number of independent insurance specialist providers who operate on the Internet specialising in cover for car hire rentals. They have a wide portfolio of products specially tailored for your insurance needs in different parts of the world, including SLI and their prices are typically cheaper.

In such situations it may also be worth taking into account that if your rental car comes with little or no third party cover and you need Supplemental Liability insurance, then there may not be sufficient cover for the car itself.

It may be worthwhile to have a look at the collision damage waiver (CDW) and what?s called the ?excess cover? available from these Internet specialists to ensure that you have insurance adequate for your needs.

When you buy SLI and/or collision damage waiver cover from these independent providers you will need to take your policy with you as you will need to give the car hire company details so that they can liaise with your insurance company in the event of a claim.

With ?excess cover? on the other hand, you may find that the car hire company may just charge the excess to your credit card and all you would then have to do would be to claim on your policy for reimbursement.

So, you don?t need supplemental liability insurance for car rentals in many parts of Europe including the UK, and for those other countries worldwide where third party cover is unlimited. However for destinations such as the USA and Canada where there may be no cover or for other countries where cover may be limited, it may be worth considering Supplemental Liability Insurance from the independent specialists for your rental.

An additional feature of many of the policies available from these independent specialists, including SLI cover, is that their policies can be available on an annual basis. An annual policy, subject to some conditions on types of vehicle, can be used for all of your rentals during the course of the year.

To find out more about car hire excess insurance, take a look at the www.insurance4carrental.com site

As we are now approaching the peak summer holiday period do make sure that you have the proper car hire insurance cover in your holiday car hire rental.

with an article by Miles Brignall on How to cut excess costs.

The following week on the 28th March,2010, this new car hire excess insurance service had an article by Chiara Cavaglieri in The Independent on Sunday. The article was entitled “When hiring a car, stop before you pay the excess cover The price you pay for insurance at the rental desk is unlikely to be a bargain, warns Chiara Cavaglieri”

There was price comparisons with “Dailyexcess.com, for example, charges ?4.75 a day for worldwide cover, while iCarhireinsurance offers excess policies for Europe from ?2.99. Compared to the ?9.99 per day that rental companies can charge, the potential savings are substantial. As well as being more expensive, not all hire firms will cover damage to windows, tyres or undercarriages, which many standalone providers cover as standard.”

There is more and more competion in this market and insurance4carrental.com currently has five major providers advertising. Two of them are part of the same company, but the site has recently compiled a page showing all the providers in the market and this can be found at: http://www.insurance4carrental.com/Car_Hire_excess_services.htm

It is that time again to do some reviews about internet car hire companies. This post will focus on Holiday Autos, Any Car Hire and Nova Car Hire. It is my goal to write reviews for a lot of companies so you can have a good idea about what you can expect the next time you need a car hire. After I have done a big review, I will put all of the data into an easy-to-read post. But for now, let?s dive into some car hire reviews.

Holiday Autos Review

Main Website : www.holidayautos.com
Year Started : 2005
Parent Company : Sabre Holdings Corporation
Subsidiary Companies : www.holidayautos.co.uk, www.lastminute.com, www.travelocity.com

Overall Ranking = 4 / 10

Company Overview ? Holiday Autos is part of a really large travel website group. With the main parent company office in Texas, the rest of the subsidiary companies operate all over the world. Holidayautos.com is a brokerage website that offers really competitive prices.

Pros ? Most of the Holiday Autos reviews said the cars were inexpensive. Unfortunately, that was about the only positive trend. Of course there were a few people that enjoyed their entire experience, but they were by far the minority.

Cons ? The most common response that people gave in their Holiday Autos review is that the cars were in poor working condition. It sounds like the cheap prices reflect the quality of the cars. Not all of their cars are old and run down however, some people reported that they had a nice car for their trip. I think that one person said it best, ?have rented before with holiday autos, and sometimes had good experience, sometimes bad. Renting with them is a lottery, and one which I won’t play again.? This Holiday Auto review basically says that the odds of a good car are less than 50%. I would only recommend using Holiday Autos if you want a cheap price and subsequently?A CHEAP CAR.

Any car hire review

anycarhire.com

Main Website : www.anycarhire.com
Year Started : 2005
Parent Company : Any Car Hire
Subsidiary Companies : unknown

Overall Ranking = 5 / 10

Company Overview ? It was difficult to find information about Any Car Hire so I went to their website to get a feel for the usability. It is fairly simple to search for available cars and they put the name of the supplying company next to the price. The only problem is that they only have a few suppliers.

Pros ? Competitive prices and the website is easy to use.

Cons ? Not many partners and they do not have pictures for a lot of the cars. It is hard to give this company a ranking so I put 5 out of 10. They are worth a try, but I am not sure how it will work out.

Nova Car Hire Review

Main Website : www.novacarhire.com
Year Founded : 2005
Parent Company : Nova Car Hire
Subsidiary Companies : www.placestostay.com, www.goireland.com

Overall Ranking = 8 / 10

Company Overview ? Nova is a car hire broker that offers cars all over the world. One of their main markets is in Ireland because that is where I saw the most Nova Car Hire reviews for. They even operate another website goireland.com. They seem to be a strong company in the UK and the USA.

Pros ? Good prices and a nice website. Nova Car Hire does everything you would expect from a high quality internet car hire brokerage firm. They deliver what they promise and they do it for a low price. I can definitely recommend using this website, especially if you will be traveling in the USA or the UK.

Cons ? The only bad quotes in the Nova Car Hire reviews were in regards to the independent car hire companies they work with. If I had 5 cents every time I had to say what I am about to say?I would have about 5 dollars. Nova Car Hire is not to blame if you have a problem with the independent car hire company. Ok, maybe Nova is responsible for about 1% of the blame. But, we cannot honestly expect Nova to have control over the actions of all of their partners. It is ludicrous, ridiculous, down right impossible. Here is how one person reviewed Nova Car Hire, ?No stars. I have a complaint currently with Nova hire. Upon arrival at Pisa airport I had to deal with Auto Europa. On the last day of hire there was a problem with the vehicle. Cut a long story short I am now in dispute with Nova trying to reclaim taxi fares. They are trying to claim they are only a broker and wont take any responsibility for the company they use.? Well I say good for Nova.

Happy Traveling!

Incoming search terms for the article:

• anycarhire com reviews
• anycarhire reviews
• holiday autos reviews
• nova car hire
• problem travelocity holidayautos com review

There are tons of options on the internet when you are looking for the perfect places to book a car hire. There are many things that you need to consider: price, quality, customer service, location and value. I have been doing some research about the top internet car hire companies and compiled a large list to review some of the websites out there. Your feedback is always welcome, so if you have used one of these websites in the past, please give your own account. I am always open to hear what people have to say. Leave a response if you agree or disagree with my comments. Let?s give everyone out there a good idea for what they can expect from these internet car hire companies.

CarRentals Review

Main Website : www.carrrentals.co.uk
Year Started : 2008
Parent Company : ASAP Ventures Ltd.
Other Websites : www.carrentals.com, www.car-hire-insurance.co.uk

Overall Ranking = 8.5 / 10

I found many reviews about this company out in the internet land. It seems that there are loads of people who want to give their opinion on a CarRentals.co.uk. Due to all of the positive responses, it is no wonder why this is one of the best companies out there to find great deal on car hire?they have a lot of customers because of their unique system and low prices.

Pros ? Almost everything I read about ?CarRentals? said something about how easy the website is to use and how low the prices are. They are oftentimes have the lowest price available on the internet and that really helps them get a lot of customers. They have a different system than most other internet car hire companies because they compare a lot of different websites to find the lowest price. They are basically the middle man for the middle men. What I mean by that is they search all of the car hire brokerage companies to get you the lowest prices. Many ?CarRentals? reviews also said that it was really easy to use their website because the information is very straight forward. You should definitely check them out if you need to book a car hire.

Cons ? Basically the only bad ?CarRentals? review I could find was in regards to their customer service. One person said, ?CarRentals was basically nonresponsive when it came to a post-rental problem.? Here is the reason: this company only links the customer with another company. They do not handle the car hire directly. They simply point people to a company with the lowest rates. That means people that complain about the poor customer service are not even complaining the the right place. It is basically like asking a friend for a restaurant recommendation then going to the eatery and getting some cold food and rather than complaining to the restaurant, they go back to the friend and ask them to fix the problem. You will not have any problems with CarRentals.co.uk if you only use the website for its purpose.

Travel Supermarket Review

Main Website : www.travelsupermarket.com
Year Started : 2008
Parent Company : Moneysupermarket Financial Group
Other Websites : www.moneysupermarket.com

Overall Ranking = 7 / 10

Generally, ?TravelSupermarket? received fairly good reviews. The only real complaint people had is that they prices were not as low as they hoped. It seems like some other websites can offer better deals. You can always tell how good or bad a company is by the number of reviews out there. Not many people leave positive feedback, because they are already satisfied. It is only the people that are upset that will post a bad review. Needless to say, it was hard to find a TravelSupermarkt.co.uk review, which means they are probably going a good job.

Pros ? The website is very easy to use. That is what almost all of the people that posted a ?Travelsupermarket? review had to say. So, I checked it for myself and I have to agree. They put the names of the company very big so you will easily see where the car is coming from and the prices were generally good. It is similar to CarRentals.co.uk too because it redirects you to the website you choose.

Cons ? This website is more for cheap airline tickets than car hire. It seems like they put more work into the airfare section than the car hire. Sometimes the prices are not consistent when you are redirected to the new site. This is one of the biggest problems with a website like this. I can appreciate that it is difficult to integrate all of the work that is need to keep prices consistent, but if they have too much to handle, maybe they should scale back a little. Also, many people were not happy with the value of the car hire related to the amount of money they had to spend.

easyCar Review

Main Website : www.easycar.com
Year Started : 2000
Parent Company : easyGroup
Other Websites : www.easy.com (There are many other ?easyGroup? websites at this page)

Overall Ranking 6.5 / 10

Many of the ?easyCar? reviews I read are pretty negative. However, most of the people are upset with the independent car hire companies and not easyCar.com. This is an interesting conundrum?You have to be careful what company you are renting the car from. It is unfair that the easyCar reviews are so bad, even though it is not entirely their fault.

Pros ? One of the most commonly stated positives for ?easyCar? is that they have low prices. Interestingly, you can find ?easyCar? on both of the previously reviewed websites. That means you can use carrentals.co.uk or travelsupermarket.co.uk and you will end up going through easyCar.com.

Cons ? It seems like ?easyCar? is not very careful with the partners they select. There also have some very confusing fuel policies. Here is what one of the easyCar.com users had to say, ?Awful experience with Easy Car Rental. They transferred us to Targarent in Pisa, waited ages at airport for awful service, then got a beat up well used Alfa. Even worst when we returned the car. Charged us nearly ?100 for 25ltrs of fuel.? But, as you can see, many of the negative ?easyCar? reviews were because the independent car hire company supplied a raw deal. This person was more upset with ?Targarent? than ?easyCar.?

Conclusion

We need to look at these reviews objectively. Let?s say you go to CarRentals.co.uk and you find the best deal comes from ?easyCar.? So, you go to the ?easyCar? website and the ends up being supplied by ?Avis.? Then you have a bad experience with the car. Who is to blame? I would say it is more the fault of ?Avis? than ?easyRent? or ?CarRentals.? Therefore, it is a good idea to find out the source of the car hire and then read a review about that individual company before deciding if that is the best place to get the car from.