Car Hire Brokers vs. Car Hire Companies

MerlinM

Hello all!

So the situation is like this: I’m going on holiday soon to Bodrum, Turkey and I’m planning to hire a car there. I heard bad things about Turkish public transportation and I want to have the ease of mobility. Now, I’m actively researching about car hire.

Never hired a car before but I see that there is a lot of bull**** going on in this business. People complaining that they got screwed by rental companies and broker companies. I’m not even sure which is which now. Ok, I know the big players like Avis, Budget, Sixt etc. these are rental companies, but they are lot more expensive than the rest. Found some car hire compare websites (the net is full with them and it seems that they all are connected to each other or what not and I’m guessing those sites are also bull****), so I don’t trust them either.
I don’t understand how those brokers can provide cars cheaper than the big dogs like Avis or Budget. They are still only mediators.

Any thoughts on this? I’m paranoid? Should I just take the bus?

Regards
Merlin :beer:

MerlinM

Great, 18 views and no replay.

eslick

brokers can be cheaper but not always, however after having issues on a couple of occasions and finding the hire company not even willing to respond to emails or letters I have been grateful for the broker stepping in and getting refunds. A lot of brokers are linked by the way the get the booking but not all. We have used fifteen02.com for the last few years and they have been excellent even getting a refund for us when we were given the wrong size car even when the hire company told us it was the right one. Have found cheaper recently but googled their customer service and saw lots of issues so would probably stick with fifteen02 sinceI know they will fix issues if things go wrong.

will-in-estoril

I use either Holiday Autos or Auto Europe, in total 10 times a year. Never a problem.

MerlinM

fifteen02.com huh? When I try to select Turkey from their “need a quote” bar the webpage just f**** up. Thank you for sharing the info about the refunding, will keep that in mind.
Holiday Autos look good, but I found a cheaper offer at decodecarhire.co.uk. The prices here are the same as Holiday Autos, but Decode show EUR and Holiday shows GBP! So I can save myself some money with them. Their website looks ok... Should I check them out? Anyone heard about them? Reading mixed reviews on the net.
:beer:MerlinM:beer:

eslick

by merlin you are a happy sole try and watch the language , just checked out fifteen02, just put in some random dates and chose the airport and got

Bodrum Milas Airport
A 11-day rate is shown below. (18 Mar 2010 @ 12:00 - 29 Mar 2010 @ 12:00). Renault Clio 2dr with ac
Manual
Economy (ECMR)
2 Doors, A/C [URL="javascript:openWindow('carzoom.cfm?service=car&img=RenaultClio&trans=Manual&carname=Renault%20Clio&category=Economy&pax=4&doors=2&sipp=ECMR&sim_to=&ac=1&pucode=TR', 'carzoom');"]
[/URL] 277.15 GBP Inclusive
discounted rate of the day!
original rate: 307.94 GBP

Nordictat2

The only 2 i have had problems with are Gold Car and Carhire3000. these days I prefer to use Dollar car hire as i have never had an issue with them but whichever you company you go for always read the fineeeeeeeeeeee print!!!

pinkfoot_2

I believe that the brokers have a flat discounted rate so when the car rental market is struggling the likes of Europcar, Sixt and National are likely to be heavily discounting rates to attract buyers and therefore cheaper than the their brokers.

Alternately, at busy times of the year when they do not need to offer discounts for business then the brokers maybe cheaper as they fight for business.

There are alot of partnerships in the car hire world but the big players always have modern cars and vans (generally under 6 months old) which are clean, serviced and reliable.