Car Hire Luggage Space is an important aspect people take in consideration when hire a car. When it comes to hiring a car one thing we find is that people are often unsure of the type of car suitable for them. This is largely down to the amount of luggage that you have, your hired car may be unfamiliar to you especially if you aren’t a keen follower of cars. We are here to help advice you and below you can find some information on what cars would be suitable for the amount of luggage that you have.

2 Suitcases –
Ford Ka or similar: Anything in this range will be fine for around 2 suitcases possibly more if you don’t have the full passenger capacity however the boots on these MINI group cars tend to be very small so if you want to have a comfortable time, no more than 2.

3 Suitcases –
Vauxhall Corsa or similar: The economy group cars are slightly larger than the mini with an average estimated space enough for 3 suitcases, the boots are larger than that of a mini but they are still below average size.

4-5 Suitcases –
Skoda Octavia or similar: Even larger is the standard/intermediate vehicle which can carry between 4 and 5 suitcases as they have an average sized boot. It’s suggested for 4-5 suitcases however I think you could fit 6 in at a push without much of an issue.

5-7 Suitcase –
Volkswagen Passat Estate or similar: Estates are specifically designed to in order to fit a large amount of suitcases with a large boot being the edition to a standard car. Estates are great for family of 5s with a large amount of luggage.

7 + Suitcase –
There are a variety of different vehicles which you would benefit from depending, there are 5+2 seaters available which are slightly smaller in space than your standard 7 seaters and after that if required there are vans and even 14-17 seater vehicles which fit a very large amount of luggage.

When you book a car you are likely to hear the words preauthorisation, but we get many that question what this means, therefore we would like to clear this topic up a bit and make it crystal clear for our customers. When we navigate our way through the booking process explaining everything to you, that’s well you will hear us say that your card will have a preauthorisation of around £250-1250 depending on what company that we have chosen for you to hire with, don’t worry if we can we will always aim for the lowest!

A pre-auth is somewhat of an “insurance policy” for the car hire companies, they don’t take any of your money off of your account they are basically just given permission too. For an example say you are hiring a car off of a company that have a preauthorisation of £500, which is pretty standard in the rental industry, that £500 will not be taken off your card when you pick the car up but if you return the car damaged then then up to £500 will be taken depending on the cost of the repairs, however this is just an example! The issue with this is that you need to have the funds available including the cost of the car hire which in all can be quite the amount.

We can actually do car hire with no preauthorisation at all, which is much more convenient however this is only available in certain locations across the world.

Want more information on preauthorisation? Then our experienced reservation agents will be happy to help you with this, call us on +44 (0)113 880 0748 or email us at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk and we will answer any questions that you have about the car hire process.

People often worry that when it comes to hiring a car what cards they can and can’t use, typically this is in regards to not having a credit card as many companies won’t accept anything that isn’t a credit card, however you can find out more on that by clicking this link. Another card that people often worry about is Barclaycards, which are credit cards provided by the company Barclays.
Surprisingly there are a few companies out there that don’t accept these cards despite them being credit cards. (more…)

We got a very interesting question the other day from one of our American customers, it was about Auto Insurance coverage and what it included. Many American customers opt to take extra insurance through their credit card company which often isn’t the best idea, you will find if you read the fine print that it does not cover damage to other vehicles it only covers damage to your own hired vehicle and nothing else. (more…)

No one likes the full to empty policy that is commonly seen in places such as Spain, it’s when you pick up the car with a full tank of petrol and have to bring it back as close to empty as possible. However the Channel Islands are different in this respect and have a reason for operating in this manor, they have also done what they can to try and ensure that you don’t have to spend any extra money. (more…)