car hire Archives - Page 2 of 5

Do You Really Need Additional Extras, Part 3 – Child Seats

June 4, 2014 Robert Gillespie Car Hire Tips Comments Off

Part 3 of our money saving tips is all about child seats. What are your options when hiring a car in the UK.

On the roads in the UK if you have a child in your vehicle then you may be required by law to make them sit in a baby or child seat for their safety. Below you will find the legal requirements in regards to having a child/baby seat in your car.

Rear-facing baby seats are suitable for babies up to 13kg
Forward or rear facing baby seats are suitable for children up to 18kg
After your child has surpassed these you need to look at having a child car seat which is law until the child is 135cm tall or 12 years old.
Only EU approved child seats can be used in the UK, they have the capital E in a circle on the label.
You must deactivate any front airbags when using a rear facing baby seat in the front.

This gives car hire companies the upper hand as they can charge you a high daily price, some times up to £20 per day for a baby seat as it is required by law and your options are limited. You do however have an alternative of purchasing one yourself, although it may not be ideal it could save you a significant amount of money, here are some of the baby seats regularly available at shops across the UK to give you a general idea.

Fisher-Price Safe Voyage Infant Carrier Moonlight – £51.99
Perfect for carrying infants in the car who are up to 13kg, the seat also has built in impact protection in the sides for extra safety. Also within the seat is a body support cushion that is suitable for new borns.

Pampero Plus Cosisafe Baby Car Seat – £31.49
This baby car seat is suitable for new borns up to 12 months old, it offers extreme comfort with deeply padded fabric and ensures that every journey is comfortable. It’s also very lightweight with a comfy carrying handle and several safety features.

Britax Baby – Safe Car Seat Chili Pepper – £69.99
Ensuring comfort and security is the main aspects of this Britax baby car seat model, it has soft padded wings and is also compatible with Britax Push chairs with a click and go feature. Safety is a main priority in this baby seat and its evident with the collision padding and head support.

Topo Plus Booster Seat – £10.00
The Topo Comfort Plus is a forward-facing child booster car seat suitable from 15-36kg. Provides an improved view for a more enjoyable trip. Lightweight and easy to transfer from car to car.

If you cannot purchase one and need to hire a child seat then please see here, we have a supplier that can offer them at a much lower price than we have come to expect.

If you are interested in hiring a car and need some guidance in terms of baby seats then our reservation agents will be happy to assist you. Contact us directly by calling +44 (0)113 880 0748 or emailing us at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk and we will get right back to you.

Types of GPS’s Currently Available

June 3, 2014 Robert Gillespie Car Hire Tips Comments Off

Are you travelling to a country that you don’t know and have decided to hire a car as your mode of transport to get around? It may seem easy just to get a GPS added as an additional extra on top of your hired vehicle, but don’t always go straight for that option as majority of the time it’s not the most cost effective!

To add satellite navigation to your hired car can cost you up to £18.00 per day in some cases with most of which not having a cap you will be charged this for the duration of your rental. Although it may not seem like a massive amount it sure does add up, so why not look into buying a GPS instead?

Here are some of the most common Sat Nav’s that you can find in hundreds of shops across the UK…

Navman F610 5” Screen – £33.32

The built in easy quick start menu contained within the modern and lightweight design is more than adequate to get you from A to B through your holiday. This Sat Nav also warns you of camera locations and gives instructions of correct lane manoeuvres and all for a very reasonable price.

Binatone R435 UK & ROI 4.3” Screen – £24.99

Also equipped with a speed camera alert system the Binatone R435 has a super bright, anti-reflection touch screen so the picture is crystal clear at all times, with clear voice guidance and millions of pre-installed points of interest to find you’ll never get lost again!

TomTom XL IQ – £76.95

The most popular name amongst Sat Navs TomTom always produce the best. This GPS offers a 3 hour battery life, 24 languages and speedy arrival times with pre-installed alerts to help you drive more safely and responsibly. As part of this package you also get free lifetime maps, an Easyport Mount, USB car charger and cable as well as the GPS of course.

If you are interested in finding out more about hiring a car and buying a GPS then just come straight to our reservation agents and they will give you some tips and guide you through the whole process, they may even help you buy the most suitable Sat Nav! To contact them please call +44 (0)113 880 0748 or email us directly at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk and we will get right back to you.

Holidays In South West England

May 29, 2014 Robert Gillespie Travel News, UK Comments Off

Superb beaches, charming coast resorts, pretty fishing villages, excellent family attractions and the mildest weather in the UK make the West Country a top UK holiday choice.

The countryside of South West England is among the most picturesque in the UK. Away from the coast you will find the dramatic national parks of Dartmoor and Exmoor and top UK holiday cottages in picture-postcard villages.

For relaxing UK short break head for the Cotswolds: a quintessentially English region of gorgeous honey-coloured limestone villages, charming market towns and rolling farmland.

Diverse scenery and varied attractions make Somerset a deservedly popular UK holiday destination. Unspoilt Somerset countryside is complemented by the charming seaside resorts like Minehead and Watchett and the many attractions of Wells and Glastonbury.

Dorset boasts a glorious rolling coastline, the lively resort of Bournemouth, and elegant seaside towns like Swanage and Lyme Regis. The entire West Country holiday region is a delight for walkers, with splendid coast paths in Cornwall and Devon and superb routes like the Two Moors Way and the Coleridge Way.

Last but not least there are the top UK weekend break destinations of Bath, Exeter and Bristol.

We offer fantastic deals on car hire in the south west of England which will enable you to see more of this beautiful part of the world. Speak to us about the available deals, including:

You can call us on +44 (0)113 880 0748, chat with our experts online or email us on sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk, we look forward to hearing from you.

Taking A Hire Car Overseas

May 28, 2014 Robert Gillespie Car Hire Tips Comments Off

With the cost of international travel increasing and actual ‘low cost’ flights being almost non existent these days more and more people are deciding on self drive holidays and Taking A Hire Car Overseas. We have covered in the past that we have suppliers who will allow there vehicles to be taken abroad providing they are returned to the same location.

But, how do you go about arranging international travel in a hire car?

I recently booked the ferry from Dover to Calais and the first problem I encountered is the field asking me for a vehicle registration number… Stumped, you dont know the reg number until you pick the car up. I called the sales hotline and they said I could just add ‘HIRE CAR’ in that field and it will allow me to complete the booking.

When I returned from my trip I decided to investigate further, I looked at all kinds of sites for the ferries and the Eurostar and they are all prety much the same, some do have a tick box asking if the car is a rental which is helpful.

Another problem you may come across is the size of the vehicle slot you have booked, the cost to take a small car on the ferry or Eurostar is less than if you are driving a large family car or 4×4. Rental companies are renowned for selling out of the popular vehicles and providing larger vehicles as replacements, for example I once booked a small city car for a couple of days and ended up with a large estate car.

This will cause you problems, always ensure that you inform your broker or the supplier direct that you intend on taking the vehicle on the ferry/Eurostar, this will prompt them to try harder to provide the right vehicle for you.

Infact, you should always advise them when booking that you intend to take the vehicle out of the country as the supplier will need to arrange additional insurance and breakdown cover for you. This sometimes comes with an additional cost.

If you would like more information about this then please dont hesitate to contact us direct, you can call +44 (0)113 880 0748, chat with us online or email us on sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk.

Package Deals

May 20, 2014 Robert Gillespie Car Hire Tips Comments Off

I have just had to book some flights with a well known operator based in Leeds for a jolly boys outing in February next year. There are 12 of us travelling and it struck me as to how much this particular operator would stand to make if none of us actually read the terms of the Package Deals before we clicked next, next, next…

The flights cost £135 per person with a 10kg allowance for hand luggage, here are a list of the extras i was offered and had to click NO to:

22kg suitcase allowance £15 each way, so if i want to take clothes with me it costs an extra £30
Airport check in £20 each way, stand in a queue for an hour and get a piece of paper telling me which seat to sit in an extra £40
Horrible in flight meal £6.50-£11.50 each way
Pre booked seat £10 each way, so an extra £20 to pick where i sit on the flight even though every seat is the same (extra leg room seats excluded)
Single trip insurance £10, which if you read the fine print means you are no better off than travelling with no insurance. I do recommend travel insurance but you can find much better cover for a better price if you look around.

So, an extra £123 per person, thats £1,476 of pointless expense just from our group alone.

The one that really took the biscuit was the offer of discounted car hire, at the end of the process I was offered a 20% discount on car hire for my trip with their preferred supplier, a supplier that we at Indigo also use. I was intrigued to see what kind of deal was on offer so I followed the instructions.

For our 3 day trip to Budapest I was offered a small city car for £85.92 including my discount for being a customer of this particular airline, a tad expensive I thought.

I did exactly the same quote on the Indigo website and was offered the same car with the same terms with the same supplier for £51.93.

Why are airlines allowed to get away with this? Someone who doesn’t travel regularly or know a bit about the industry like I do would have been taken for a ride here.

My advice, when booking Package Deals like flights, car hire or holiday insurance speak to someone who knows more about the subject than you may do. Dont get suckered in by flashing images offering you discounts if you ‘Book Now’ and read everything before clicking ‘Next’.

Double Deal At Florence Airport

May 14, 2014 Robert Gillespie Italy Comments Off

As you may have already noticed hiring a car anywhere in the world including within Italy can be a tricky task as majority of companies require you to possess a credit card. Here at Indigo Car Hire we are well known for arranging great deals specifically deals to do with alternative payment options and one of our recent tasks had been to arrange this deal at Florence Airport, a popular Italian airport that gets around 2 million passenger through its gate from locations all over the world.

Being a busy airport in terms of passenger traffic that also correlates with car hire so we felt it appropriate to try and arrange some offers here for our customers. After some time we managed to contact a company at the airport willing to take debit cards given that you meet the criteria. To find out if your card will be accepted, please contact us.

That’s not all however, along with being able to supply car hire without a credit card we also managed to arrange a low deposit deal with the supplier. Typically when you hire a car the deposit is between 500-1000 EU in Italy, however we have managed to get this supplier down to a 300 EUR deposit, far lower than the standard.

If you are interested in hiring a car at Florence airport but don’t have a credit card and are looking for the bonus of a low deposit then don’t hesitate to get in contact with our reservation agents. You can contact them by calling +44 (0)113 880 0748 or emailing sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk.

Debit Cards Now Accepted At Tunis Airport

May 13, 2014 Robert Gillespie Car Hire Offers Comments Off

Tunis Carthage Airport often referred to as simply Tunis Airport is located in the largest city of Tunisia, Tunis. Named after the historic city of Carthage the airport gets around 4 million passengers travelling through it each and every year. The ever growing destinations with new routes being added like Erbil, Montreal-Trudeau mixed with the popular standard flights like Paris Charles de Gaulle, Zurich and Barcelona makes this airport an increasingly busier location year on year.

Keeping that in mind that also has a direct effect on car hire, and we have seen an increase in the amount of customers asking to hire at Tunis Airport, but like several other places there was one main hurdle that we wanted to overcome. The companies within the airport weren’t allowing for our customers to hire with anything other than a credit card, eventually however we managed to strike a deal with one of the major suppliers that we work with on a world wide scale and can happily announce that at Tunis Carthage Airport we can now accept debit cards.

In order for your debit card to be accepted however it needs to meet some restrictions. The best way to find out if your card will be accepted is to contact our team directly.

If you want to find out more about hiring a car at Tunis Carthage Airport without a credit card then please contact our knowledgeable and experienced advisors who will always find you the best priced rental possible. You can contact them on +44 (0)113 880 0748 or alternatively email at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk.

Paying With A Business Debit Card

May 12, 2014 Robert Gillespie Car Hire Offers, Spain, UK Comments Off

There are many locations across the globe where we have managed to arrange a deal that will allow us to take a debit card given that it meets certain restrictions. We have announced this several times before but one of the major difficulties when it comes to debit card car hire the card typically has to be in your name which means the name that is printed on your card must match your identification when you produce it at the counter.

One problem presented by this is that travel is often for businesses purposes and many will want to use a business debit card to pay for their expenses. Usually you would be rejected straight away but we tried to look further into this as we felt there should be some form of exception when it comes to business travel.

This is also a similar issue to many Canadian and Malaysian bank accounts which occasionally don’t have a name on the card.

We have managed to arrange deal which means you are allowed to pay with a business debit card in some circumstances as long as you have proof that the card does in fact belong to you and you are authorised to use it, this can be proved by a letter from the bank.

Most of the locations that we can arrange this for are in Spain but its hit and miss, which is why we ask you to contact us well in advance so we can contact the specific branch you are looking to hire from and inform them of your situation to check whether your card will be accepted.

If you are looking to hire and only have business card or your card doesn’t have a name on it then please contact us on +44 (0)113 880 0748 or alternatively you can email us at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk.

Overseas Visitors Looking To Hire A Minibus

May 9, 2014 Robert Gillespie Car Hire Offers, UK Comments Off

Are you an overseas customer looking for 12, 15 or even 17 seater minibus within the United Kingdom? Then don’t worry because Indigo Car Hire can help you find the best available deal. We have managed to get one of our suppliers to offer our customers a few fantastic deals on Minibuses.

Minibuses are a great choice of rental when you are travelling with a large group of people. Instead of having to drive around in several cars and each pay the rental cost then why not just have one vehicle that can fit everyone? It makes your holiday so much easier to organise and getting from place to place is far quicker.

We can also happily announce that our minibuses can now be rented out without the use of a credit card needing to be involved. We can accept debit cards given that they meet the requirements that are in place. Also another thing we have managed for our customers is the fact that we can supply minibuses with a low deposit, which is significant as the larger the vehicle often the same can be said for the deposit, but not in this case as the deposit is only around £500!

Some of the popular locations that people opt to hire minibuses from that we can service include…

Heathrow Airport
Gatwick Airport
Edinburgh Airport
Manchester Airport

Along with this we have also managed to get two US locations on board which include..

Orlando Airport
Miami Airport

If you are interested in renting a minibus you first need to find out if your licence is eligible whether that be a UK, EU, US or any other licence. Our reservation agents are well versed in this and can answer any questions you may have and book you a minibus without an issue. To find out further information then please contact us on +44 (0)113 880 0748 or email us at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk and we will be happy to help you find the best option.

Why is the deposit so high on rental cars in Spain?

May 8, 2014 Robert Gillespie Spain Comments Off

This is a question that pops up quite regularly from potential customers that have used other providers in the past.

Most car hire suppliers take a deposit before you drive away in their vehicle and for good reason, they are trusting the hirer with a car worth tens of thousands of pounds so they need some reassurance, i think we can all understand that.

Deposits can come in different forms, some suppliers will ask for a credit card and take an amount of money to be refunded when the vehicle is returned, some will only hold or freeze an amount on the card a bit like a hotel, others will not take a deposit at all providing you take out the full insurance coverage.

As for the amount of the deposit, this can vary massively for multiple reasons: The supplier, the type of vehicle, the type of insurance coverage, the payment type you are using or simply how long you are hiring for..

Here are some examples:

We use 1 supplier that will take a depsoit from your card for the full amount of the excess liability, so the bigger or better the car the higher the deposit – up to €2000 Euros. So, if you reduce your excess for the additional daily fee you may not have to leave a deposit at all.

Another supplier we use holds a standard €600 Euros on your card until the vehicle is returned no matter which vehicle you hire.

Our most popular offering is with a major name in the business who only take a deposit for fuel, so the amount depends on the size of the tank but would typically be between €60 and €100 Euros.

So in answer to the the question, Why is the deposit so high on rental cars in Spain? It doesn’t have to be, you just need to be paired with the supplier that suits your needs which is exactly what Indigo do with every customer, just bear in mind that the cheapest price at the top of the comparison list isnt necessarily the best option for you as most comparison sites do not compare anything but the rental cost and there are many other things to consider.

If you have any questions about deposits or car hire in general then speak to one of our experts, you can call us on +44 (0)113 880 0748, chat with us online or email us at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk.

Do You Really Need Additional Extras, Part 3 – Child Seats

Types of GPS’s Currently Available

Navman F610 5” Screen – £33.32

Binatone R435 UK & ROI 4.3” Screen – £24.99

TomTom XL IQ – £76.95

Holidays In South West England

Taking A Hire Car Overseas

Package Deals

Double Deal At Florence Airport

Debit Cards Now Accepted At Tunis Airport

Paying With A Business Debit Card

Overseas Visitors Looking To Hire A Minibus

Why is the deposit so high on rental cars in Spain?

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