one-way car rental tips

Booking a one-way car rental makes sense if you are taking a one-way
road trip and have other plans for your return journey or if you want
to pick up your rental car at a location near your home and drop it
off at the airport while you fly to your destination. You can do the
reverse when you fly home.


When searching for a one-way car rental, do the following:


Check into what/if any the drop-off charges will be. A lot of
companies don’t charge an EXTRA fee; the rate is just higher than it
would be if you were returning back to your original pick up
location.

Ask about other charges like fees for car rental insurance, airport
fees, over mileage fees and taxes. Over mileage fees are those fees
that you would incur if the mileage is limited during your rental.
(example 100 miles per day free, each additional mile will cost more)


Usually, this type of rental will cost you more on a daily basis than
a regular car rental. One-way rentals are often more expensive
because the rental company has to find a way to get the car back to
the original location themselves. Even if you plan on picking it up a
week later to drive it back, the company does not want it to sit,
unrented, on a car lot. They will try to find a way to have it rented
right away to return or send one of their employees back in the
vehicle to return it and then fly them back. Thus the extra expense!

You may often be limited on the size and type of vehicle that you can
use for this type of rental. You may not be able to get a minivan or
suv. Check your options!

An exception to the typically high cost of one-way rentals is to take
advantage of specials that rental companies offer a couple of times a
year.

During the fall, most car rental companies transfer a larger
proportion of their fleet to the warmer, winter-time travel
destinations, such as Florida or busy ski destinations like Colorado,
British Columbia and Alberta.

If you are flexible with your travel plans, in the spring, car rental
companies need to return their fleets north for the summer where
they're most needed by travelers preparing for holiday travel and
summer vacations.

Often people want to get a one-way car rental when they are taking a
cruise. You want to fly into a city and pick up a rental car. You
then want to drop it off at the pier where you catch your cruise.
When you come back, you do the reverse.

This saves you the cost of paying for the rental each day plus the
cost of parking it for the days when you will be on your cruise.


Research your one-way rental carefully, and be sure to book as far in
advance as you can!

Visit http://www.best-car-rental-tips.com for more car rental tips!

Another tip for one way rentals is to pick a trip in the opposite direction
to what most renters do.
I did this in Canada a few years ago. We rented from Edmonton and dropped
off in Vancouver. Much cheaper than pick up in Vancouver and drop off in
Edmonton!

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:06:21 +0800, "Gerrit"
wrote:

Another tip for one way rentals is to pick a trip in the opposite direction
to what most renters do.
I did this in Canada a few years ago. We rented from Edmonton and dropped
off in Vancouver. Much cheaper than pick up in Vancouver and drop off in
Edmonton!

Slightly OT for this group, but if you ever travel to New
Zealand you will find incredibly cheap rentals going from
south to north (Wellington to Auckland) on the North Island;
sometimes as low as $1.

Apparently the vast majority of the tourists go the other
way, leaving their cars in Wellington when they either fly
out to Australia or take the ferry to the South island to
pick up another car. Thus the rental companies have an
incentive to get the cars back to Auckland as quickly and as
cheaply as they can.

Unfortunately I didn't discover this until I had made
uncancellable air bookings:-(

Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com
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