8 Tips to Book Cheap Car Rentals for Your Road Trip

Considering the foreign policies and rules of rental companies in a bid to rent a vehicle, hiring a car can be a pain, especially for your sanity. It can also be a pain to your purse, especially when the rental is more expensive than you planned to pay.

In the process of planning a road trip, your accommodation may be the big-ticket thing. However, it does not mean you should just go for anything the first rental vehicle agency throws at you in order to have some wheels for your journey.

Sequel to that, there are certain fantastic tricks and tips you can utilize to ensure you are booking a luxury car rental at a rate that is as cheap as you can get, as well as having the perfect car for your trip. Let us discuss those tricks and tips in this article.

8 Tips to Book Cheap Car Rentals for Your Road Trip

Visit Aggregator Sites

Hiring a vehicle can admittedly be daunting. But as a starting point, it is advisable to start with car rental aggregator sites. The aggregator sites search for all the major vehicle rental companies at once.

There are so many aggregator sites that you can check. However, there is a considerable level of overlap between them. Hence, you should stick with your favorites or the most helpful ones.

The car rental aggregator sites are helpful in giving you a great ballpark figure for the amount you are expected to pay. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t just stop at this stage and go ahead to book your rental. There are other factors to consider.

Always Visit the Vehicle Rental Sites

Although aggregator sites are undoubtedly fantastic in presenting cheap vehicle rental options to you, before you book through one of those sites, you should always compare their quotes to the rates on the real vehicle rental site.

This is because sometimes, the car rental company could deem it fit to provide a better deal for you for booking directly through their site.

Even though there is no assurance that you will always get a better deal by using this strategy, it is worth a look to confirm

Skip the Insurance

After carrying out diligent research and you get the best car rental rate, that is awesome, as you will be able to go on then to rent your desired vehicle. However, one of the ways you can easily waste money is through insurance. Although rental organizations could utilize various types of fear tactics to make you get the insurance, you probably do not need it.

If you already have car insurance covering your personal vehicle, then that insurance will most likely cover you when you hire a vehicle. You can always place a call to your insurance agent to be certain.

If you do not have car insurance covering your personal car, then you can obtain it whenever you book your car rental with the appropriate credit card. The majority of travel credit cards indeed provide insurance on rental cars at no additional cost to you.

Do Not Give Room For Upgrades or Optional Extras

Apart from insurance, rental vehicle industries will attempt to sell a pack of upgrades and additional items you will likely not need. Meanwhile, a lot of rental industries have expensive markups on optional additionals like breakdown coverage and GPS. Some of the upgrades you need to always pass by and the reason for not opting for them include:

• Satellite Radio: You can always use your phone to play music
• GPS: Your phone must already have great excellent navigation applications installed in it. Therefore, you could always use it instead.
• Toll Passes: These are also barely worth paying for. But you can hold a small amount of cash if it happens that you need to pay a toll that does not allow credit cards.

Have Only One Driver

Understandably, it can be stressful to drive alone on a long journey. So, it is okay if you would like to add another driver to your rental to break the miles up to share. Nevertheless, be informed of the cost required to do so. Including a driver in your rental expenses can cost you more, depending on the rate.

Furthermore, if you must have an additional driver, check if you can have the rental industry waive the fee. Some companies automatically waive the payment if the extra driver is your domestic partner or spouse.

Obtain a Preferable Deal on Gas

Apart from the expenses involved in hiring a vehicle, gas is the most costly aspect of any car rental. However, in order to get the most cost-effective gas, you could do your necessary research. There are various sites and websites where you can get the most incredible deals.

Check If You are Qualified for a Discount

There is a numerous list of vehicle rental discounts that you can have. Some of them include:

• Corporate discounts
• Hotel loyalty program discounts
• Government employee discounts
• Veteran discounts
• Military discounts

The above list is not exhaustive, but if you wish to be in any organization, see if you can obtain a vehicle rental discount for being a member. You will be shocked when you realize how much you can save.

Make Use of Peer to Peer Vehicle Rental Service

Peer-to-peer car rental used to be the only way to hire a vehicle, but not until recently. Now, several peer-to-peer car rental industries have stepped out to be an amazing alternative to traditional vehicle rental.

Peer-to-peer car rental describes when you rent the vehicle from an individual instead of hiring from a company. You have the option to pick up your order from the owner and return it to them (the owners) when you are done with the vehicle.

Apart from the process being cheaper on many occasions, it is also more convenient than a regular car rental.

Rent Cars

Rental vehicles may be an essential aspect of your journey, particularly if you desire the freedom to explore a place independently. While it could also appear hard to obtain fantastic deals on rental vehicles, it is completely possible to save on this aspect of your journey.