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Car Rental

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  • 09-07-2014 10:48pm
    #1
    spideog7
    Registered Users Posts: 1,230 ✭✭✭


    A good few threads on here about car rental but here's a new one to me anyway.

    I recently had a family member booking a rental car for the the exact same dates that I had already booked one over here. Turns out that going through any of the Irish sites give a price that's about 2/3 of what I can get on a US site. So the same dates, same everything on expedia.com vs expedia.ie is about $250 cheaper.

    In addition the Irish sites include the CDW insurance coverage.

    Anyone else ever experience this? I'm considering cancelling my US booking and doing a new one through the Irish site and just using my Irish driver's licence when I show up to pick it up.


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    #2
    athtrasna
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,420 ✭✭✭✭athtrasna


    For the US I've always found the best value to be on Arguscarhire.com It depends on what company they find for you but I've always had full insurance and a full tank of fuel included in the price and it comes in way cheaper than booking direct with the companies. Never had a problem. Some of the companies they use let you choose your car on arrival, you book the category and then choose from a line of cars on the day. That's really handy if you have large suitcases, you can try out the boot space and figure out what car suits you best.


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    #3
    spideog7
    Registered Users Posts: 1,230 ✭✭✭spideog7


    They're actually more expensive than any I've seen so far, but aside from that my whole point is the whole US vs Irish sites, hertz.com and hertz.ie are giving me the same thing, price on hertz.ie is about $300 cheaper for the exact same itinerary.


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    #4
    whitey1
    Registered Users Posts: 358 ✭✭whitey1


    spideog7 wrote: »
    They're actually more expensive than any I've seen so far, but aside from that my whole point is the whole US vs Irish sites, hertz.com and hertz.ie are giving me the same thing, price on hertz.ie is about $300 cheaper for the exact same itinerary.


    WOW......there's a significantly lower price booking on Hertz.ie

    Thanks


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    #5
    spideog7
    Registered Users Posts: 1,230 ✭✭✭spideog7


    Yea I made a second booking with Hertz.ie, now I just have to figure out if I need to use my Irish driver's licence to make sure I get that rate! Hopefully it works out


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    #6
    InTheTrees
    Registered Users Posts: 9,900 ✭✭✭InTheTrees


    I must try this next time I need to rent a car here in Seattle.


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    #7
    dirkmeister
    Registered Users Posts: 2,662 ✭✭✭dirkmeister


    I was quoted a price of e868 for 10 days car rental with hertz.

    I rang trailfinders (I booked my flights with them) and they are after quoting me a higher class of car for e535.


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    #8
    woodster
    Registered Users Posts: 7 ✭woodster


    If you google this topic, you will see that there are thousands of forum comments about car rental being more expensive based on your ip address and cookies on your computer. Most of the hire companies have just been warned (July) to stop this by the EU. Here's what I found. I'm in Ireland and also a Hertz gold card five star customer. Most if not all the hire car co's (inc hertz/avis etc) track you based on where you are surfing from. So if your IP address is Ireland you will see different prices for the exact same period of rental from the same hire car company, than someone who lives in switzerland or france. They do this by tracking our ip address and cookies set from when you first visit.

    I then did an experiment based on what I learned:

    0 visited hertz.ie and got a quote for a car for my upcoming trip, in the normal way

    1 downloaded hola VPN extension onto my chrome browser. VPN enables you to look like you are surfing from another country. Hola is free but there are loads of different VPN's you can use...zenmate is another I have tried, but its limited to five countries which is great for hulu and bbc iplayer access but not for car hire (see below)

    2 delete all your cookie history from your browser settings otherwise it will reload you last visit history

    3 canada is one of the best (read cheaper) countries to book from, so I clicked on the hola vpn icon in the chrome browser (top right toolbar) and you will see two countries listed and "more". Click on more and choose canada

    4 check that you are now looking like you are surfing from canada with a search on google for wheres my ip address, there are multiple choices. Be aware that it sometimes takes a few seconds for the ip address to change from ireland to canada

    5 once you are confirmed as now being in canada, then navigate to your favourite car rental site, get a quote and voila 60% cheaper!! Now be aware that some car rental companies insist you have proof of address or a credit card for that country, but not many in my experience...... Happy hunting folks!!


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