Monday, February 28, 2011

Think About Different Car Rental Choices

By Adam Surizuo


Car rental companies are all doing tremendous business across the United States and around the world. Consumers have never had many options in the past, but both national and chain rentals are currently available and both have strong points, so you, of course, must make the decision that is best for you.

Some of the most well-known U.S. car rental chain companies include Hertz, Avis, Budget, and Enterprise. The online travel companies like Orbitz and Travelocity often contract with them their sites. The benefit to the consumer in this case is convenience at a discounted rate. Online travel sites and rental companies also offer specials on last-minute reservations or cancellations.

National car rental chains have many advantages over local, privately-owned ones. For one thing, they have better, safer contracts for themselves and for you as the consumer. Besides having larger selection of vehicles and being accessible online, national car rental companies also offer customer incentives. The rental car industry is highly competitive. Incentives include allowing online car rental reservations to be made with hotel, flight and other travel arrangements at a discounted rate; notifying repeat customers or members of specials in advance; and giving coupons to repeat customers for subsequent rentals.

Some larger private rental car companies have their advantages as well, such as providing a wider range of vehicles, and providing more luxurious cars and more expensive cars. Car rental companies in some larger cities, like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have things like Jeeps and Hummers, and very expensive sports cars. Perhaps Las Vegas tops them all though. They offer very high end sports cars from the Dodge Viper, to BMW's, to Mercedes Benz, to Porches. These rental cars have features available in them such as GPS systems and satellite radio.

So both the national chains and private rentals have their good points. The national rental companies might meet all your travel needs, but if you'd like to add a little sparkle to your vacation, you can choose a personalized private rental too.

Most of the national car rental companies offer quality vehicles and similar incentives, so one is not necessarily better than another. All attempt to make car rental convenient for the consumer. All offer quality, reliable insurance and roadside assistance. The largest also offer memberships and give members advantages such as discounted rates and advance notification of specials. The larger chains also offer discounts to state and federal employees, large corporations, and service personnel. In general, local car rental companies can be a bit cheaper or vastly more expensive for those in larger cities, but you must make sure the smaller as well as the glitzier companies have adequate insurance, a good record, and good road side assistance.




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