Hi Everyone,

am looking for some special offers from rental car companies - for 1 week sometime between 22.12.2008 and 31.12.2008.

So far have looked at Europcar, Hertz, Sixt, Avis. The best price I have seen online is from Europcar (Herrenberg, Germany) for CHF 355 from 24.12 to 31.12 (7 days) and if prepaid online. Is this a good price, or can I get a better deal?

Could you please let me know if you know of some fantastic offers from rental car companies around this time? Or any tips on getting the best deals at this time of the year?

(It's also possible for us to pick up the car from some place along the German-Swiss border, as some people say it would be cheaper to hire the car from a German Filiale.)

Thanks very much!
penny

I would recommend checking www.holidayautos.co.uk pay in pounds because the exchange rate it good.

Also as its a broker, they have rates from many different companies.

I have found that booking through a U.S. Web site such as travelocity.com sometimes yields much lower quotes, and I never had a problem getting the (Switzerland-based) rental car company to honor the deal and bill me in CHF.

You might want to try this website. They are the Internet company associated with Sixt. They sometimes can be less expensive than the regular options.

They typically have only two sizes of cars available (you can see which models are available by country).

http://www.sixti.com/cgi-perl/rental/el?language=en

They have a location at the Zurich airport. They have locations in Germany as well (just not sure which one is closest to you).

www.avis.com

Avis is my preferred rental. For me the clincher is always UNLIMITED milage. You could make up the difference in a jiffy from cheaper rentals not offering the same plan.

Try easyjet, they normally come up with good prices.

Have to agree with this one check Avis, Budget, National, Hertz, Europcar, If they have unlimited mileage that is usually the best if you intend to do quite a bit of driving. If your not doing to much driving check how much mileage they allow before you start paying for it.

I use easycar.com - obviously they buy volumes from all renown providers like sixt, avis, hertz, europecar, etc. and always gave me the best price.

I always use a British site called Travel Supermarket which not only compares different car hire companies, but also different car hire brokers.

For your particular dates you can get a car from Zurich for 155 UK pounds (280 CHF), so it looks like Easycar.com are the cheapest.

Here

???

I just tried a book a small car for 3 days over this weekend on Avis USA site.

Give UK residence 230 francs
Swiss residence 357 francs
USA residence 162 francs
Netherlands 255 francs

Same car, same times, same pickup and drop.
Anyone explain ?

Yes this is normal with Avis and I suspect with the other BIG companies. US market is most competetive and rates are lowest for them. However the applicant should be a tourist from the USA. Having said that sometimes if you are lucky you can get by even if you are a local.

I would stay away from using them. Once flew to Nuremberg, the office was closed, and no car. I did get a refund from holidayautos rather promtly but had to arrange a car with another company directly - at the price I could haggle on the Christamas eve with no reservation...
I use companies which actually provide cars rather them hot air since then.

Yours was simply bad luck. Avis is far too big a company to close their offices without notice. At the time of booking you have to pay special attention to location and their working hours. It is possible that you over looked this information. Avis for one has never failed me, always had a car available and if not would upgrade immediately.