Aspect Car Rental BlogNews and views about car hire and rental world wide.

So Spanish workers are going to strike and disrupt airlines and passengers. Are you protected that’s the question isn’t it?

If you booked a flight the airlines themselves should offer you alternatives but what happens if you also booked a Spanish rental car? Unless you have made sure your travel insurance covers you, you could be in trouble!

After the ‘volcanic ash’ problem travelers suffered earlier in the year, I would hope that everyone who travels learned the lesson and took out good travel insurance.

The problem still seems to be that so many people get travel insurance as part of their bank account options or credit card ‘extras’ and don’t bother to check the terms of the policy.

It’s so much easier to think ‘I’m covered’ than it is to actually read through the fine print, but just as you should read the fine print on your car hire contract before you sign, so you should read your travel insurance policy before you rely on it.

If you have booked a rental car in Spain and are one of the unlucky people hit by the strike disruption then the best thing you can do is call the company that issued the car hire voucher. If you booked through a broker don’t call them first, call the company that issued the voucher because they’re the ones who have contact with the end supplier.

If for whatever reason you can’t do that call the company supplying the car direct! they should be able to reassure you that your car will be available of you have to turn up a day late, you probably won’t get any refund if you now only need the car for four days instead of five but that’s better than having no car or paying a premium because cars will now be in short supply.

If you’re unlucky enough to be due to finish your hire on the day of the strike and so can’t get home, you need to talk to the rental company that owns the cars and try and work out a deal. Always talk to them first as they’re the ones with the cars and yes, you’ll probably have to pay an extra days rental but if you have good travel insurance you’ll be covered.

So remember, always check the small print!

On occasion we like to compare our car hire rates with the major suppliers, today we’re looking at Europcar for 1 weeks rental starting on the 1st October 2010 and for the mini group with Europcar you have two options, pay now £141 or pay on arrival £162.15.

An additional driver will cost an extra £34.96 and of course if you’re a young driver (21 -23) will cost you considerably more. If you’re a young driver of under 25 but older than 23 (so I’d guess that makes you 24!) you’ll still pay more but not as much as the 21 -23 age group.

So what would you pay for the same group from Aspect? You’d pay an amazing £118, this is from Heathrow Airport and is correct today 24th Sept 2010.  Now for just £22.75 you can include Damage Excess Waiver Refund and the price comes to £140.75, this cover is not included in the Europcar offer.

Let’s now look at Alamo (because Alamo is the supplier you would be with if you booked with Aspect) for the exact same car you would pay £120 if you went direct.

An extra driver would cost £4.25 +vat per day to a maximum of 42.50 + vat and  young driver (21-24) would cost an extra £11.06 + vat per day.

But here’s another reason to book with a broker like Aspect, the Excess Waiver, book direct with Alamo and for this booking (Oct 1st – Oct 8th 2010) and it will cost you £7 – 10 per day!

Book with Aspect and you pay £22.75 there is a difference in how the two work and that is this, book direct with Alamo and you’ll pay between £49 and £70 on top of your rental and your excess (deductible) will be zero.

Book with Aspect and you’ll pay £22.75 but you will get any excess refunded, just fill in the form and send it in. Now ask yourself this, how many times have you had an accident in a hire car? Not every time I’m sure so do the math and you’ll see why it’s better to book with a car hire broker like Aspect than direct.

We’re cheaper than if you go direct AND we compare the suppliers for you so you’ll always get the best rate!

Well now that a University Professor has tested it, it’s become official, driving in congested traffic is stressful! Did you need an academic to tell you that? No neither did I but here’s the kicker and something I for one would not have believed, using buses is far less stressful and may improve your health and lengthen your life! Well unless you’re driving the bus I guess.

It seems that because we can relax on a bus and read, talk on the phone, watch a movie on an iPod or Smart Phone we are more relaxed and therefore less stressed. There is also another factor that Dr Lewis thinks helps and that is handing over control to someone else which means we don’t feel the responsibility to keep everyone safe either.

It seems that traffic jams and congestion really do damage our health but in ways we may not realise, after all we tend not to think that raised blood pressure (when we don’t have a blood pressure problem) is a health risk but it is.

The raise in blood pressure is linked to higher degrees of cortisol in the blood and cortisol is a ’stress’ hormone. One that silently damages the adrenal glands and causes a cascade of other harmful chemicals.

So maybe it’s time to start catching the bus and if that’s not possible why not try carpooling, if you can get four of you to car pool, you know that for three weeks out of four, you’re increasing you health not detracting from it!

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, at least for the car rental companies! Christmas is high season everywhere, whether it’s for the two weeks spanning Christmas and New Year, or for a whole month from the 15th December.

Be warned! This is one period when you really do need to book early, not just to get the car you want but to get a car at all, especially if you’re going anywhere popular.

Spain is always very popular and although you may be lucky to get a car locally when you fly in, you can be very sure you will greatly over the usual rates for it.

Even if you’re just renting a car for the week before or after Christmas or New Year, you still need to book your car hire early. I know it sounds repetitive, but it’s so important, even now, people are booking for Christmas and every day you leave it, there are less cars available for you!

Go to a car rental broker as they have cars from most suppliers, whereas going direct means there are fewer hire cars for you in the first place. This means that you have a much larger pool of vehicles to choose from, it saves time and hassle and will generally cost you less!

So don’t let the car rental goose get too fat! Above all, enjoy the holiday and remember that drinking and driving do not mix!

Strange question maybe but hey! It’s a fairly short trip, you can go from Folkestone to Dunkerque on the Norfolk line ferries very cheaply (if you travel overnight) and Lille is not that far.

So what do you do when you get there? Well you could visit the Wazemmes Market (Marche de Wazemmes) a vast and sprawling market held every Sunday. This is not a market primarily for tourists so you’ll experience Lille as the locals do.

There are many different things being sold, African artifacts and clothes, local food and fresh vegetables as well as kitchen items, shoes, belts bags and just about anything else you’d expect to find in a large local market.

If you decide to go for a weekend you’ll need somewhere to stay so you could try the Hotel Des Tours, 27 rue de Tours, 59000. Tel: 03 59 57 47 00.

This hotel is situated in the old city centre close to many restaurants and has garage parking (for a fee). It has 64 rooms which are modern and attractive with the public rooms have bright contemporary paintings, it’s handy for most tourist attractions around the Lille area.

If you don’t want to drive your car there, then you can always get there then hire a car, cost will depend on when you go and you will need to weigh the cost of taking the ferry with your car and passengers against the cost of trains/ferries/planes and car hire.

Some ferries will take foot passengers which can be a very economical way to travel, then the cost of a hire car in France is very reasonable too so you get the best of both worlds. Cheap crossing and a car built to drive on the other side of the road!

The Queen has returned to Wimbledon for the first time since 1977 and many hope that it’s a signal that Andy Murray will be the winner this year. Why do they hope that? because the last time the Queen was at Wimbledon was the year Virginia Wade stopped being the bridesmaid at Wimbledon and became the bride winning the women’s cup.

Do we think that Murray will this year beat Federer who knows he certainly seems to have the hunger to win which is always a good trait to have but only time will tell and time is on his side, every year older the reining champion gets will slow him down. True we don’t see that much slowing down but unless he’s an alien hybrid even Roger Federer will be subject to the aging process!

Does this have anything to do with car hire? Not directly no but with Wimbledon and the world cup on at the same time, those canny folk who took my advice and booked their south African or London car hire early probably got the car they wanted. On the other hand those that didn’t probably had to settle for what was left and indeed in South Africa many probably didn’t get anything at all unless they paid in gold!

So remember, if there’s a major event coming up that you want to attend, and you want to hire a car, then you do need to book early!

Did you know that many car hire companies offer special rates for car hire at weekends? Depending on the area, time of year and supplier you can some real bargains for weekend auto rental.

Imagine you are a car rental company in say – Malaga – your high season is spring, especially around Easter and summer in particular June and July. During those periods you can charge high rates and still be sure of renting out your entire fleet, even though you may keep some back to rent to ‘walk ins’ (people who walk in off the street or airport without a prior booking).

You keep some back because you know that when a potential customer turns up in high season without a booking you can charge even more than your published rate (the law of supply and demand).

There is no incentive for you as a car hire company to actually lower your rates. Now think about the low months, November, January, February and the beginning of March, how do you maximise your turnover/profits?

You offer deals and one of the deals you may offer is a cheaper weekend rate, during these times people may take advantage of cheaper airfares to visit for a weekend. they may want a weekend city break but want to organise their own instead of going with generic trips on offer.

Perhaps they have family and just want to ‘pop’ over for a quick visit, as a car hire company it makes sense for you to offer a price incentive to have the car for the weekend doesn’t it?

So check around and see what’s on offer, even in your own country if you want a weekend break and want to ‘up-grade’ your own car for example, you may find that renting a car for the weekend puts a different slant on the question “something for the weekend?”

With all the doom and gloom forecasts for the UK tourist industry this year, will the car hire companies lose out? Probably not, because they have also downsized their fleets due to the economic downturn.

But what exactly does this mean for those of us wanting to hire a car in the UK this summer? The ‘book your car hire early’ advice still stands because with smaller fleets, a reduced demand won’t necessarily mean that cars will be available to hire if you wait to book.

This is particularly true of high profile locations like the major UK airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham to name just a few.

Although many of the travel companies like Thomson are reporting a huge boost in sales for overseas trips from the UK, it doesn’t mean that demand for car hire in the UK will see a related drop.

For those who are staying in the UK, hiring a car is often the way they travel to their destination, especially if they have a small car but want to take a lot of luggage.

People also choose to book a hire car if they want something a little more powerful, if for example they want to tour the mountains of Scotland or Wales where an 1100cc engine carrying a full load would strain to get up the hills!

So check car hire prices as early as you can and get the car you want not the one that’s left!

Ash cloud continues to cause problems

It seems  that whilst Iceland’s problematic volcano continues to throw out ash and smoke, airlines are feeling the pinch whilst car hire companies are picking up extra bookings. Euromonitor a market research company has warned that some low cost airlines and even some flag carriers are likely to be hit badly, some failing altogether. As a consequence other forms of travel are picking up extra business and car hire is one of them.

What with people being stranded and unable to get home they’re looking at alternatives, trains and coaches as well as ferries are also seeing an upsurge in business.

What does this mean for the car renting public? It means more than ever you’ll need to book early, car hire companies are not expanding their fleets so cars will be in short supply and if more people decide to rent a car to avoid using an airline, then shortages will occur and prices will rise.

If you are going to Europe from the UK you can hire a car to drive but, it will cost a lot in surcharges and extra insurances, so the best way is to go by train or ferry (as a foot passenger) and pick up your hire car at your destination. If you’re in Europe of course there’s no problem as most car rental companies allow you to cross borders as long as you return the car to the original pick up location.

So don’t get caught out by this boost to the car rental industry and remember to book early!

Sounds quite dramatic doesn’t it? It’s not really as draconic as it sounds, more and more airports are aggregating the car rental companies in an off airport center to save space at the airports. Car hire desks will still be in the arrivals hall at many airports, but the cars themselves will be held off airport and shuttle buses will be provided. San Antonio airport is the latest to announce ‘greener’ policies, in this insatnace the car rental companies themselves have decided to amalgamate their shuttle buses so one bus collects all clients for all airport car hire companies.

How does this affect you the renter? In many ways it doesn’t really, the smaller airports still have their cars on site and the desks are in the arrivals hall, where you fill out the contract and then walk to the parking lot to pick up your car. The downside to this is that if when you get to your car and check it (you do check it don’t you?) if you find damage on the car that is not marked on the contract, for your own protection you must walk back to the arrivals hall and the car hire desk and get the clerk to amend their part of the contract too.

If you don’t do this, you may find yourself stuck with a credit card charge for repairs! Other than that it’s still the preferred method of getting your hire car, in the parking lot at the airport!

Still for many people arriving in major airports like Miami, JFK. Heathrow etc, life will remain unchanged as they go to the rental desk and then take a shuttle bus to the cars. Will this drop the price of airport car hire? I suspect not, it’s a captive audience after all and those who travel and need to get from the airport to hotels, friends homes, self catering accommodation or to a business meeting are still going to need a car at the airport!