Book Well in Advance for Holiday Car Hire

5/8/2009

Holiday makers who want to use car hire this summer should book well in advance as there will a shortage of vehicles.

Over the Easter holidays car hire options dried up in the holiday hotspots of Malaga and Alicante.
Among the companies experiencing difficulties were Travelsupermarket, which deals with 40 brokers and suppliers, yet was unable to find some customers cars in those locations.

Other car hire providers in mainland Europe, including Italy and Switzerland, are also likely to find vehicles hard to come by.

One travel company which recently found itself getting caught short was Headwater Holidays.
The company had arranged a hotel and a flight for one customer, but when they went to the usual booking agent to get a car as well, Headwater Holidays was informed that they had all sold out.
Catherine Crone, managing director of Headwater Holidays has worked with the company for almost 20 years but said: "It is the first time I have ever known this,"

"We tried every car hire company at the airport, asking for any type of car, and they had all sold out.”
The problem has occurred because car hire companies such as Holiday Autos have cut fleets in order to tighten their belts in the credit crunch. Furthermore, less replacement cars are being bought to use as backup in car hire fleets.

However the lack of available cars does not seem to have forced prices up significantly yet.
Prices quoted by Rhino car hire, Avis, Car rentals and Holiday Autos currently remain similar to what they were at this time in 2008. This is because most of the prices for 2009 were agreed last November before the sharp fall of the pound against the Euro.

To find the best deals, industry experts have advised car hire customers to use price comparison websites such as Rhinocarhire.com.

Rhino has a particularly good service because you have the option of reducing your excess to zero which can save you a large amount of money if you have an accident. Renting one of our diesel vehicles could also save you money as they are more fuel efficient.

In other car rental news Hertz car rental is due to open a Middle Eastern office in the United Arab Emirate of Dubai.

President of Hertz Europe Ltd and Executive Vice President of the Hertz Corporation, Michel Taride, said: “We will be taking steps to set up the Dubai office over the next few months and it will officially open on 1st January 2010.”