Crete car hire in July

Geranium44

It’s no surprise that in 2 yrs, car hire rental in Greece with Avis or Hertz has doubled. Guessing they’re trying to recoup on missed tourism perfectly understandable. But I’m preferring to still book with one of the bigger rental companies for a week’s holiday and wonder if anyone has any tips - MSE tips around booking on the Avis Greece website is clunky and loses English translation. There are 10% Amazon gift cards from Avis for completed rental and quidco of course. Just checking in case I’ve missed anything. 

Thanks all!

bagand96

Not sure if it's the same in Greece but car hire availability in Spain the last year has been seriously reduced and therefore prices have increased. Reason being a lot of companies sold most of their fleets. Without any tourists there was no point having nearly new cars sat around gathering dust. 

It's the old supply/demand issue. Will likely balance itself but might take a year or two of consistent tourist trade and fleet replenishment. 

zagfles

We tend not to bother booking car hire in advance, and use a local firm in the resort, they're usually a lot cheaper and probably use older cars so not so much affected by the price hikes. There are usually loads in tourist resorts. Got a good deal in Greece last Autumn, can't remember exactly but probably about 50EUR for 3 days. We always pay in cash, no credit card, to avoid nasty surprises when we get home, most local firms allow you to pay in cash.

If you need to get from/to the airport, you might find it cheaper to pay for a transfer if on a package or get a taxi/PT if not, since you won't then need as big a car (for luggage) plus you probably won't need it for the entire holiday as some days you'll probably do stuff locally or get the bus to towns etc where driving is a pain. Small cars are also a lot easier to drive on narrow roads you often get on Greek islands.

bagand96

zagfles said:

We tend not to bother booking car hire in advance, and use a local firm in the resort, they're usually a lot cheaper and probably use older cars so not so much affected by the price hikes. There are usually loads in tourist resorts. Got a good deal in Greece last Autumn, can't remember exactly but probably about 50EUR for 3 days. We always pay in cash, no credit card, to avoid nasty surprises when we get home, most local firms allow you to pay in cash.

If you need to get from/to the airport, you might find it cheaper to pay for a transfer if on a package or get a taxi/PT if not, since you won't then need as big a car (for luggage) plus you probably won't need it for the entire holiday as some days you'll probably do stuff locally or get the bus to towns etc where driving is a pain. Small cars are also a lot easier to drive on narrow roads you often get on Greek islands.

It's usually how I do it too.  But it failed miserably for me in the Canaries in September where none of the local companies in resort could get me a car due to the shortages. Didn't really affect the holiday too much as I only wanted one for a day or two, and local buses substituted fine after some plan changes.

Geranium44

Thanks all. It looks like Greece will be like other European resorts with higher rental. We use the hire car most days of the holiday so we’ll have to suck it up and pay. At least there’s free cancellations with a few providers of better deals arise beforehand.  Thanks for the really helpful comments.