Slightly Panicking about Car Hire!

[GlitterGirl]

Hi all,

We are usually more organised than this with our WDW trips, but this year we've had to leave the car hire until last. We're looking to book it this week and have just looked at quotes and we think we might have left it a bit too late!

We always book with Hertz - mostly because we have always booked with them and have never had any trouble. The whole insurance thing really confuses us and we're scared to book with any other rental company incase they miss something out or we turn up at the airport and they ask for $300 for insurance or something (we've heard horror stories!).

Now, looking at Hertz, they want nearly £500 for their smallest economy car this year. We're arriving at Sanford on 30th August and leave 13th September. This is slightly earlier than previous trips (we usually go middle-end September) so this could possibly explain the high price. Also, as this is around Labor Day, im guessing prices will be higher?

So now we're panicking! I could spend all day looking for discount codes for Hertz, but i doubt it'll take the £500 price tag down much!

So - what other rental companies would you recommend? Is there any 'hidden charges' or 'hidden insurance' we should be looking out for? We have been very lucky and have never had an accident whilst driving in Florida (touch wood!), but you never know what will happen and we want the peace of mind knowing we're covered if anything was to happen.

My OH will be the only driver and he is over 24. There is only 2 of us so the smallest economy car will do us nicely!

Any tips, recommendations or advice is greatly appreciated!

GG x

[JuniorMickey]

the magic rental age is 25 here in the States.

Other large companies are Alamo, Enterprise, Thrifty and Budget

[kiltedwarrior]

We’ve used holidayautos.co.uk in the past, never had a problem with them and all insurance costs are factored in to the price.
I signed up to the Avis preffered service last year (free to do), gives you discount if you book online and you’re fast tracked at pick-up. No sales pitch, just straight up, collect your keys and off you go. Avis are on site at MCO too.

[JuniorMickey]

Oh yeah, forgot Avis. I'm sure I forgot other biggies too

[TimonAndPumba]

We got a good deal with Dollar this year - try them for a quote... unfortunately I think it's the age, as JM says, that might drive prices up.

[GlitterGirl]

the magic rental age is 25 here in the States.

Other large companies are Alamo, Enterprise, Thrifty and Budget

Sorry - i said he was "over 24" as i thought that was the age in Florida - he's actually 29 so we're definitely covered lol :)

[jarretth]

Marie (Dzneeprincss) has just sorted my car hire out for me so it might be worth dropping her a line.

Failing that, if you look in the Brits guide then there is a 10% discount code in there for Alamo which may help you.

[Midnight Storm]

www.floridacarhire.net

We just returned (Saturday) a Toyota Highlander 4x4 which we had had for 2 weeks and paid £306 for the only extra being the first tank of fuel at $46

It was an Alamo car although they let you choose from 4 hire companies and price each one so you can choose

For your small car, age and dates they show £227 including all the insurance you need, picking the car up at the airport from Alamo again.

I have various memberships and can never get US cars even close to their prices, certainly not direct from the companies. We like Alamo because they give you a row of cars to pick one from.


Colin

[GlitterGirl]

Thanks everyone! Alamo certainly seems to be the cheapest by far - £233, or £223 with a "10% discount code" lol

Also getting the same prices going via waltdisneyworld.co.uk (they use Alamo aswell).

Think we're going to go with that :) Can't believe Hertz wants nearly £500 this year!!

GG x

[TimonAndPumba]

Sorry GlitterGirl, I missed the "over" part! I'm glad you found something much cheaper :yes:

[PaulaK]

Cheapest we found for this trip was booking Dollar via the Virgin Atlantic website. We usually use usrentacar though. If you book direct with a US company, check the small print very carefully!

[elsbells]

Hey

We are also going to Florida 29th August to 12th September.
We have hired our car through Avis and my partner is only 24. As a warning we have payed for the car in full but have been told that we need to pay $25 per day when we get there as an extra premium for the insurance.
I don't think the time of year is affecting it as we were getting really reasonable quotes, maybe it's just because Hertz are almost fully booked???
We are having a convertable and it cost £300 plus then the extra insurances.
I hope this helps!
x

[Daveann]

we have booked ours with national and it was so much cheaper than the rest we had quotes coming out of our ears :)

[GlitterGirl]

To put it into perspective, we went to Orlando last year from September 8th until September 29th (3 weeks) and we only paid £239 for our car for those 3 weeks with Hertz.

This year we're paying £223 with Alamo for only 2 weeks, same class of car (the smallest/cheapest) and this is the cheapest we could find.

What a difference!

GG x