One of the biggest problems when booking anything relating to travel is, when is the best time to book? With airlines publishing Summer prices at low rates in Winter and then in Summer ‘last minute deals’ arrive in your inbox, it can be hard to know when to book that flight. Hotels are just the same. But what about how you’ll get around when your flight lands? When is the best time to book car hire? Is there a best time? Here is our best advice.
Car hire prices
Market prices for car hire fluctuate continuously. This can be difficult as you don’t want to miss out on a great car hire deal. On the flip-side, no one wants to pay more than they should or more than someone else booking the same vehicle. As a general rule, the closer you book to you collection date, the higher your car rental will cost you. For example, if you were booking your Nissan Juke in January to collect in Summer in the Balearic Islands, it would cost around £72. However if you booked the same car with only a couple of weeks to spare, the cost would be around £330. On top of this, you’d also run the risk of no cars being available. Sometimes prices can decrease when the pickup date gets closer, however this is less common than prices increasing.
Availability
The other element to be aware of when booking car hire is availability. Naturally the closer you get to pickup, less cars will be available to hire as they’ve all been booked! If you’re not bothered about which car rental category to book, then at shorter notice is not too much of a problem (be prepared to pay more though). However, if you need to hire a certain size car such as a family estate or SUV this can become more difficult as car rental companies’ fleets will usually have less of these available to hire. You may have to pay more than expected or not be able to book altogether!
Our advice
We want customers to have the best possible experience when booking car hire with us. With this in mind, we want you to pay the best price for the perfect car for your holiday. Booking early for car hire ensures this 9 times out of 10. When we say early, we mean 4 or more months in advance. Or as soon as you’ve booked your flights and accommodation. This not only means you get the best price, but also the peace of mind that your car hire booking is secured and you’ve got the type of vehicle you need. We’ve now made this even easier for you with our new Book Now, Pay Later option. If your booking is over £150 and over 10 weeks before pickup, you can secure you hire car from just £29. You’ll see if this is available to you on your quote results, simply head through the process and choose the Book Now, Pay Later option when it gets to the payment stage.
Final thoughts
For many reasons, we understand it’s not always easy to book car hire months in advance. Sometimes plan change or we leave booking the whole holiday until the last minute. We’ve tried to make it easier by introducing our Book Now, Pay Later option. This way you can secure your booking and give you peace of mind that the car hire is sorted.
Succinct and simple advice. Thank you.