Not every trip requires a rental car – if you’re going to visit friends and family who already have cars, heading to a city or country with great public transportation, or are not planning on going from place to place too much – you might be just fine using busses, trains, cable cars, trolleys, funiculars, or even ride sharing (like Lyft or Uber). I’m of the opinion that taking public transportation can introduce you to parts of your destination and culture that you would otherwise miss out on. However, there are plenty of instances where you may need the convenience of your own vehicle or you may need to reach places that cannot be accessed by other means. For those times, there are a lot of great places to get rental car deals. Before we get into those sites, here are a couple of tips to consider when renting a car:
- Try and pick one rental car company and stick with it. There are a lot of perks you can get by renting multiple times from the same company. Similar to frequent flier miles, you can get a lot of bonuses – from free rentals to vehicle class upgrades if you stick with a single company.
- Most of the major car companies offer very similar levels of service and vehicles. Some fleets are newer than others, others have higher end luxury cars, some are less expensive in certain markets and more expensive in others, etc. – but for your average every day rentals they are usually more similar than different.
- In a great many instances, additional insurance may duplicate the auto insurance/health insurance/renters or homeowners insurance you already pay for. Check with your insurance agent to figure out exactly what your insurance policy covers when you’re driving a rental car.
- Make sure to fill up the car on your own before you return it. While it might be a pain – it is a much better deal than pre-paying for fuel or paying on an as needed basis when you return the car.
Just like with flights, the first place I start my rental car search is usually Kayak. Kayak is great because it is a meta search engine – meaning it is a search engine that searches individual sites as well as other search engines. This allows you to compare the prices of similar classes of vehicles across a variety of rental companies. Once you’ve made your decision, Kayak sends you to the website where you can book the cheapest (sometimes this is through Kayak themselves).
If you’re in the U.S., the other place I highly recommend booking rental cars is Costco. Costco does require a membership to utilize their services, but they often have incredible deals on travel, and their rental car deals in particular are excellent.