Rental cars: Be sure to compare prices extensively!

Rental car providers are now a dime a dozen! This is mainly due to the fact that, as in Germany, there are only a certain number of direct rental companies, but more and more so-called rental car brokers who simply broker cars and are, so to speak, an intermediary. Commission constellations and a number of booking systems result in some good savings opportunities for the customer.

So we have a mass of rental companies and rental car brokers. Now it is a question of finding the cheapest provider to book. There are a number of comparison sites, including Verivox, for example. A portal on which prices for DSL or electricity connections have also been able to be compared for many years. Last year, we presented billiger-mietwagen.de, a so-called rental car broker who does not rent out cars itself, on motoreport.de.

How do I choose the best rental car?

There are some basic rules for choosing a rental car. Depending on the route, nat. the size can be taken into account, but in each one should remember:

• A diesel is more efficient and therefore sometimes much cheaper to fill up than a petrol engine. You should state that as a wish.
• Even if you book a small category, you regularly get upgrades to higher classes
• Extremely important: Fully comprehensive insurance should definitely be included! In the case of minimal scratches or damage, the landlords sometimes charge heavily
• For the sake of simplicity, only book rental cars that are directly “available”. Bookings “on request” are cumbersome and often do not work
• Renting from the big companies (Hertz, Sixt, Europcar, Avis,…) is often better than from small local rental companies. Mini private rental companies often have older vehicles in their fleet
• Always rent every 24 hours! Billing is almost always done in this way, ie even with a rental of only 6 hours you pay for a full day
• Don’t choose “Take over full, return empty” tank rules! The car should always be taken over with a full tank and returned with a full tank
• In countries with a sometimes poorer asphalt surface like Spain, it is worth taking out additional insurance, such as for “damage to glass and tyres”. In Germany, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.
• Attention at home and abroad: Second drivers under 25 sometimes cost hefty surcharges. This varies from landlord to landlord
• In addition to a minimum age, you also need a credit card to rent vehicles above a certain category

Is the station really “at the airport”?

Rental car comparison sites such as Verivox often also show ratings in the form of stars for the individual providers. You should not trust these exclusively, but they are a very good guideline. For the best offer it comes nat. It also depends on a few other factors, such as the actual location of the rental station: Those who rent holiday cars at the airport are actually not actually at the airport, you have to take a shuttle bus to them first. So it’s always worth googling unknown landlords in advance.