Notes from Portugal: Hertz Hurts

by Iva Skoch on

There are some things to plan when you travel and some things that are best left unplanned if you want to really experience a place.

I don’t usually reserve a hotel, unless I’m arriving at night. I can always find one, and the searching makes for more interesting travel.

However, if you need a car once your flight lands, securing a reservation ahead of time is definitely the way to go. That not to say you can’t ultimately find a car somewhere, for some price, if you look really hard. (If you’re really out of sorts, you can almost always find car rentals off-airport, from hotel car desks, or rentals from smaller, local companies, if you keep looking. But, it can take time and effort, some riding around on buses or taxis, and can eat into your holiday time.)

But what if you’ve done your car-rental homework and you still get screwed? Welcome to Madrid airport and welcome to Hertz.

We secured our auto rental several months ago, confirmed the reservation recently, and printed out all the paperwork off the internet. When we got to the rental desk, they told us: sorry, your reservation has been canceled. By whom, we asked. We don’t know, we were told, the reservations center canceled it. Why, we asked. We don’t know, we were told. Ok, what are we going to do about a car, we asked. Please can we see the manager. Your reservation was canceled. (You can see where this is going.) Sir, we’re heading to Portugal. Tonight. We’ve got a 7.5 hour drive…which we’ll need a car to accomplish.

No apologies, no assistance, no explanation, no cars. Nothing.

All other airport rental agencies said: ‘no cars.’ (A variation: ‘no cars without reservation.’ The distinction became important.)

But perseverance paid off: we found an internet kiosk near a bank of phones, logged into the internet, and found that Europcar still had cars. We pulled out the credit card, made the reservation on the kiosk, went back down one flight of stairs to the counter.

Ah, a sea change had occurred. Sure, your car is ready. Right outside. Right now. Have fun.

My new rule upon landing at an airport: keep an eye out for internet access and keep tabs on where it is. You might need it.

Oh, and avoid Hertz Rent-a-car. In Madrid, at least.

Hybrids for Rent

by Iva Skoch on

The big auto rental companies are catching on to the hybrid craze. Toyota Priuses are coming to rental car fleets near you.

Hertz has a “Green Collection” of low-emissions and/or fuel efficient cars, such as the Subaru Outback and Ford Fusion. And coming very soon: 3,400 new Priuses. New York City is getting 100 of them. Rental rates start at $50 for these cars.

Plus, Hertz is donating $1 from the rentals to the National Park Foundation (up to a max of $1m).

Avis starts this week with their own fleet of 1,000 Priuses, in locations along the West Coast. (Ask for car group “XG.”)

Dirt Cheap Rental Cars in Europe

by Iva Skoch on

It is sad, but true. The cheapest rental cars in Europe typically come equipped with stickers advertising the rental car company. And, no, we are not talking subtle advertising here. The car companies, Alimex in the Czech Republic, and others, such as Sixti (renting similarly “stickered” Smart cars for as little as $6/day, as well as other cars, all over Europe) do it.

The car in the picture is a Skoda I rented in Prague to drive to Switzerland, not realizing that it would look like this. Needless to say, the circus-car made quite a few heads turn around the upscale Lake Geneva. BUT, it did cost less than a dinner for two in Lausanne. In fact, if you drive this thing in Switzerland, it is quite likely people will just pick up dinner for you out of pity.

One thing about it is practical. When someone asks you how much you paid for the rental, you can just point at the door, which prominently displays: 450Kc/day. (That would be some $20/day, even given the sad state of the dollar these days.) Of course, it only works if they didn’t notice the price from a mile away…

Rental Car Help

by Erik Olsen on

We posted a
nice feature recently about what to do with your frequent flier miles Truth be told, there are all sorts of interesting
ways you can spend your miles without flying, like getting magazine subscriptions, wine, food, even other trip deals. In
the spirit of being as helpful as we can be, we’d also recommend you take a look at this useful piece
published over at the Washington Post that guides you through the process of renting a car, and seeks to take some
of the economic sting out of the experience.

They recommend (fairly obvious) that you spend a good deal of
time looking around at places like Expedia, Orbitz and Kayak for your rental car needs. And then they suggest you also
try a travel agent…the old fashioned way to do it. These are fairly obvious suggestions, but they do add some value.
For example, they recommend you check your current car insurance policy to find out for sure whether a rental car is
already covered under your current plan. Also, they tell you to make sure and ask for a discount, as some agencies have
discounts for companies or promotions that, for some reason, they might not tell you about. Asking might jog their
memory or get you some dollars off. Take a look.