Insider Look Into Car Rental Prices

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 11, 2011 -- If you have ever tried to rent a car online, you know how much hassle and time it takes to surf through dozens of car rental websites entering your desired dates and location. Not to mention time spent going through rental terms and conditions.

Nowadays you have several opportunities when renting a car:

1. Online research through comparison websites
2. Checking big brands for special deals
3. Checking reviews online

There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these options. Let's take a closer look to each one.

According to Cartrawler (an Irish car rental aggregation system) 70% of car rental seekers rely solely on price when making their decision between service suppliers. This gives an advantage to car rental comparisons websites who negotiate lower prices and display offers from various companies within one search result. There are two main differences between these websites: some will show car rental supplier and some will not. During the past few years the whole industry has been moving towards being more transparent to consumer that is why more and more companies have decided to clearly state product and it's supplier before booking. Since late 2009 US and Canada citizens are always offered to choose between service providers on all comparison websites.

There are two main reasons behind not providing customers with full information pre-booking:

1. Car rental supplier doesn't want to be associated with that particular price

2. Car rental comparison website is afraid of losing customers who will go to car rental suppliers website directly.

If you want to know who you are going to rent with and what car group you are going to get, stick with a comparison website, such as Expedia or [GET] Rental Car where you can see everything up front.

If you belong to a loyalty program, such as Hertz Gold Plus, it may be best to deal with that car rental business directly. When visiting their website you can enter in your loyalty number and see if you have any points to redeem or see if you have special pricing available. Sometimes, big brands will offer special pricing but only to individuals who book directly through their site. Also, if you go through the car rental business directly, you know that you are receiving the best quality service and cars from that company. You will know that they are quoting you a price directly and you don't have to worry about other fees by booking through a different website. You can either use that car rental company's direct websites or call them directly to make a reservation.

Another way to find car rental prices is to read reviews online from other customers. This will give you a general idea about what the service quality is for each car rental company. Remember that you cannot depend solely on this method. It's best to use this method in combination with researching on the comparison websites. In order to get the price down, you can always search for coupons online. Some big brand car companies will provide coupons; you just have to look for them. This might lower the cost of your car rental or give you some additional extras such as GPS or additional driver for free.
Unfortunately, as prices typically do, prices on car rentals will fluctuate based on day of the week, holidays, demand, location, etc. These things have to be taken into consideration when looking at the prices and deciding when to travel. That's why using a comparison website is good; you can see what each car rental business is doing with their prices at that particular time.

There are a few places to research to find car rental prices online. You may use car rental comparison websites such as http://www.getrentalcar.com or Expedia, check big brands like Avis, Alamo, and Budget or read customer reviews. All methods are good and some can be combined to get the best possible result.

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