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Odyssey Car Hire Insurance featured provider October 10

Every month for the rest of 2010 we are featuring one of the car hire insurance, van hire insurance or motorhome insurance providers who advertises on http://www.insurance4carrental.com/ For October we are featuring the Odyssey Car Hire Excess Insurance Cover .

Odyssey is a relatively new provider of car hire insurance. They are now one of the UK`s leading online excess insurance provider, giving business and leisure travellers the best deal to easily insure their car rental Excess insurance, thus avoiding paying out additional monies (Excess Waiver charges) to your car rental company.

In May 2010 jml Property Services started to promote the Odyssey brand on the insurance4carrental.com site and at the time of the promotion Greg Holmes of Odyssey said “We are delighted to have insurance4carrental.com as an affiliate and wish them every success with the busy summer car hire market ahead.”

Later in May Odyssey Car Hire Insurance became the Latest Addition to the Moneymaxim Car Hire Insurance Search Engine. Greg Holmes at Odyssey Car Hire Insurance Ltd said of the partnership with moneymaxim: “As a relatively new car hire excess insurance provider, adding ourselves to the burgeoning list of insurance providers on the moneymaxim car hire insurance search engine makes perfect sense. Moneymaxim consumers will be able to see the wider benefits Odyssey Car Hire Excess Insurance offers and use it to make an informed choice.”

Odyssey insurance policies are written under licence by Isle of Man Assurance Limited (“IOMA”), of IOMA House, Hope Street, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 1AP, British Isles. IOMA is registered in the Isle of Man, Company No 003792C. IOMA is authorised by the Isle of Man Government Insurance and Pensions Authority. IOMA is not subject to the same regulatory system as that applicable in the United Kingdom. Holders of policies issued by IOMA will not be protected by the United Kingdom Financial Services Compensation Scheme if IOMA should become unable to meet its liabilities. IOMA is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA Register Firm Ref No 142307)

To find out more details about the costs of the Odyssey Car hire Excess insurance products Click Here

Today I am going to do some reviews about individual car hire suppliers. A word of caution before you continue reading is that your results can vary greatly from the reports I will give. These reviews I am about to make are very general about huge companies. All together, these companies operate over 10,000 car hire pick up locations. There is no way all of them will have the same customer service, car quality and policies. I strongly recommend looking into the specific company you will use before accepting a car hire reservation. If you need a car hire in Bristol, you need to research Europcar Bristol, for example, and not just Europcar in general. I hope this can be a small guide, but it is important to do some really in-depth examinations of your specific company to avoid trouble in the future. So, here we go, let?s start on our car hire company review journey!!!

Europcar Review

Main Website : www.europcar.com
Year Started : 1949
Parent Company : Eurazeo
Subsidiary Companies : National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car (European Operations)
Type of Service : Supplier

Overall Ranking 7 / 10

Company Overview ? Europcar is headquartered in Paris, France and is one of the biggest suppliers of car hire in Europe. They have a fleet list of more than 200,000 automobiles in almost 3000 location all over the world. The brand is very well known and is used by millions of people every year.

Pros ? Most of the people that made a Europcar review said that the prices were cheap and the cars were in good condition. Many people even reported receiving a brand new car. That is a good sign for Europcar. Low prices and nice cars are a great combination for customers. The only problem is that something might not add up. Cheap prices and great cars means that have to make up the money somewhere.

Cons ? The most common response is that the customer service was bad. Another complaint in the Europcar reviews is that people had a lot of hidden fees they needed to pay for. One person that did a Europcar review for a city in the UK said, ?They may well be one of the cheapest providers, with a large network of vehicles, but our experience is that their service is at best poor, and at worst dishonest.? It is very important that you inspect the car before you drive it and make sure you will not be charged for damages you don?t cause. Also, you need to carefully read the contract before you sign. I have used Europcar many times and I have had very few problems.

Budget Rent a Car Review

Main Website : www.budget.com
Year Started : 1958
Parent Company : Avis Budget Group
Subsidiary Companies : Avis Rent a Car
Type of Service : Supplier

Overall Ranking = 5 / 10

Company Overview ? Budget Rent a Car is an American company that has locations all over the world. They employ more than 26,000 people at almost 2000 pick up locations. They are owned by the Avis Budget Group, however they keep a separate identity from Avis.

Pros ? It was hard to find any people that wrote a positive Budget Rent a Car review. However, many people said they were satisfied with the initial price. Many later reported being charged extra, but the initial price was very cheap. It is possible to only pay the initial price if you know what you are doing. Therefore, you need to make sure you know what you are signing for and you need to confirm the final price before you sign. It might even be a good idea to ask for a post rental inspection of the vehicle so you can understand what their extra charges could be for.

Cons ? Every negative Budget Rent a Car review was due to poor customer service. Not only were people treated poorly when they were picking up the car hire, but they were also treated poorly post-rental. The most common Budget review complaint was the extra fees. It seems like a lot of Budget places are charging for unfair things. Again, I have to say that a lot of these problems can be easily avoided with a post rental inspection. Do not just drop off the keys and run away. You need to get a document from the rental company saying that the car is returned in good condition and that you will not be charged extra. There is no way they will be able to argue against their own documentation.

National Car Rental Review

Main Website : www.nationalcar.com
Year Founded : 1947
Parent Company : Enterprise Holdings Inc.
Subsidiary Companies : Enterprise Rent A Car, Alamo Rent a Car
Type of Service : Supplier

Overall Ranking = 9 / 10

Company Overview ? National Car Rental has more than 2000 pick up locations all over the world. They also have one of the best repeat user programs called the Emerald Club. This always the members to book car hire online and then go directly to the car without bothering with the pick up desk. However, this is only available in locations for some of the United States chapters.

Pros ? Most of the National Car Rental reviews said that the prices were good, the cars were nice and the customer service was tolerable. Relatively, this is by far the best customer service rankings of all three companies in this review. On one car hire review website, almost 40% of people actually recommend using the company. If we put that into real terms, it is more like 95% of people would recommend National. What I mean by real terms is this?Almost everyone that has a positive experience does not write a review because they got what they were expecting. Usually, people only write poor reviews. With such a high percentage of satisfied National Car Rental reviews, I can determine that they are an overall good company.

Cons ? The most common negative response was that the prices were too expensive. Actually, that good be viewed as a good thing. If the prices are high and there were not many reports of hidden extra charges, that means the final price is actually cheaper in many cases. Of course, there are always a few reports of horrible customer service, but I think you know this is the case with every company. I really wanted to give them 10 out of 10, but I cannot do it. However, I can absolutely recommend using National Car Rental for your next holiday, especially in the United States.

Happy Traveling!

I know it has been a long time since I wrote a blog post and it is because I was on a holiday to the United States. And Guess what?!?!? I made it a car hire holiday!!!

I know I recently wrote about this topic, but I was drawing on my past experiences. Now they are fresh in my mind and I can really give you some great advice about driving in the good old USA.

Here is my first tip: if you do not like to be cold…Do not go to the northern United States in the winter. Talk about some brutal temperatures. Good thing my car hire had a nice heating system. That being said, you can have a great time in the southern part of the United States in the Winter because the weather can prove quite warm. I experienced it all on this trip and here are some of the incredible places I drove with my car hire.

As I always recommend, you should reserve the car hire well in advance. So, I booked a car through Dollar/Thrifty at the Chicago O’Hare Airport about 1 month before I arrived. The car was a Chevy Aveo Economy Class. It was only my wife and me so we opted for the small/cheap car hire.

Like I said before, good thing the heat worked, because it was cold. It was fairly routine as we picked up the car hire in Chicago. Unfortunately, our first destination took us to the north in Milwaukee, WI. The Chevy Aveo got really great gas mileage. We drove the approximately 150 miles in less than half a tank. If you are traveling to Milwaukee, I strongly suggest going to the Art Museum right on Lake Michigan. Here is a picture.

There is a lot of interesting painting and sculptures inside and the building itself is quite a sight.

After a fun time in Wisconsin, I was more than ready to head south. We decided to stay away from Chicago because it is not the best place to be with a car. Similar to New York, it is hard to find good parking and it is rather stressful to drive there. We drove basically straight to Chattanooga, Tennessee. This took us down interstate highway 175 through the eastern part of the United States. It is a really beautiful place to drive and the highways are nothing short of amazing. My Favorite part of the city was definitely the Tennessee Aquarium.

There are over 12,000 marine animals and I think we saw as many as we could. The Tennessee Aquarium is a really great place to spend a day and the price was very reasonable. After we spent a few days in Chattanooga, it was time to reach our final destination, FLORIDA!!!

So far the car hire was running perfectly and we were saving a lot of money on gas with the economy class Chevy. We had plans to drive all the way to Miami but then we decided to cut it a little short and save an extra day by hanging out in Jacksonville. It is located on the east coast in the northern part of the state. Our hotel was beautiful with a view of the ocean and a private beach. What could be better than that?!?

Of course I had only one thing on my mind at this point…GOLF! Florida, the capital of golf in the United States. There were so many courses here that I felt like a small kid in a candy store. But these candy stores only had nicely cut grass and electric golf carts. Although the course was a little brown, I was happy as could be. After careful consideration, I played the Champions Club at Julington Creek. The price was right and the greens were soft. With my GPS in the car hire, I had no problem finding the course and with the GPS in my golf cart, I had no problem finding the fairway. Here is a picture of the 8th hole.

It was a real treat to play golf in December. Sadly, the holiday had to come to an end and the car hire needed to go back to Chicago. We drove the 1,100 miles in about 20 hours and spent one night in Chicago. My favorite part was taking a picture of the famous Chicago Theater.

Hey! There it is. What a great symbol of the city!

Well, we woke up in the morning after a really great USA holiday and dropped off the car at Chicago O’Hare Airport. Then we got ready for our transatlantic flight back to the UK. All in all, it was nothing short of spectacular and our car hire performed perfectly. I love taking my own advice…In this case it was the best thing to do because we got a great deal and we received excellent service from the Dollar/Thrifty company. I recommend this company to anyone and everyone that will be traveling to Chicago O’Hare.

Take your next holiday to the United States and drive a car hire on interstate highway 175 if you want to enjoy some of the most interesting places in America!

Happy Traveling