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

I have mentioned before about booking early yet many people still think they’ll get a better deal if they make a last minute booking, how wrong they will be!

All the major companies are cutting back on their fleets and some of the smaller companies are not only cutting back, they’re keeping the cars much longer than the usual 6 months.

This means that especially at busy times (July and August) hire cars are in very short supply. The Independent had an article online about the shortages that happened last year, especially in Spain, where prices for these two months doubled when people were trying to book a car near their time of departure.

There are three basic ways to book car hire, wait until you get there and hope for the best, imagine the horror though when you turn up with kids and mother-in-law in tow, all tired and uncomfortable from the flight. Especially when instead of a car you get told there are none available and you must take a taxi to your final destination!

Secondly you can pre-book, this where you say you’re going to arrive and pay for the car but don’t pay any money,  you can still turn up only to find that mysteriously no car is forthcoming.  You’re then back to the first scenario where either you will have to pay well over the normal rate to actually get a car or take a taxi.

The best way then is to not only pre-book but to also pre-pay by credit card for your hire car, this is by far the safest way to ensure you actually get a car on arrival.

The earlier you book the car the better rate you will get because there are a finite number of cars in each location and they’ll make more money from late bookings, it doesn’t work like flights where the plane is going to be flying anyway!