Booking

How does car rental work?

So you have already agreed to rent a car. You may want to go on a long road trip with your family, touch down town for a short business trip, or just pick up a car to move some furniture. No matter your reason for renting a car, it's good to get acquainted with the operation, so you can get a lot of it. At the very least, you should be able to answer how long it takes to rent a car, how to get a cheap car rental, how bookings and payments work, how various forms of insurance work, and how pick-ups and returns work.

How to rent a car on a website?

Rent a car websites scans hundreds of car rental companies at once so that you can filter and compare all the results for your destination and dates. You can shop around for car rentals and compare prices on one site without opening a dozen tabs and browsing for hours. Here's how to locate cheap car rental on the website of the car rental company:

1. Select your dates

The first thing you need to do is to choose your pick-up and drop-off dates. This one is fairly self-explanatory, but try to be precise about the times you plan to pick up and drop off since it affects the price and availability of rental cars. You can also pick between the same drop off point and different drop off point so that you can rent a car for a road trip and drop it off at your final destination.

2. Apply filters

Car type

Car type filter whether you already know whether you want a compact car, a full-size sedan, an SUV, a luxury car, etc. Car rental web sites have simpilified the terms of the filter to just mini, medium, big, SUV, luxury and pick-up trucks to prevent any overlap with the terms of the industry. However, if you want to know more about the types of rental cars check out our other posts.

Capacity

Filter with either passenger capacity of bag capacity if you're not sure if the type of car you're thinking of fits the amount of passengers of bags you're travelling with. This narrows the search through several types of vehicles.

Car Rental Agency

Filter by car rental agency if you have a current membership with one that includes incentives, or you just choose one over the other because you've had good experiences in the past.

Policies

Filter policies including unlimited mileage, free cancellation, fair fuel policy,and improved cleaning. Check out our article about how far you should drive a rental car to help determine if you're going to need unlimited mileage, or if you're going to be fine with a mileage cap.

Total Price

Filter by total price (including taxes) if you have a strict price range in mind.

Pick-up

If you search for a specific city, you can filter by airport pick-upor non-airport pick-up. Both are advantageous, and costs are typically similar across locations. However, it is often easier to pick up and drop off at the same place.

"At terminal" or "Shuttle"

If you're searching for an airport, you can filter between cars thatyou can pick up directly at the terminal, or cars that you need to take a shuttle to pick up. These shuttles are generally free and conveniently placed so you can get to your car from the airport.

"Pay now" or Pay at counter"

If you want to pay now, enter your card payment details online and complete the transaction. If you want to pay at the counter, you can complete your online booking and pay in person when you pick up your rental car.

3. View deal

When you are ready to book a specific itinerary, click "view deal" to proceed. Depending on the contract, you can complete your booking on the car rental website or go to the car rental company's website. The price is going to be the same in either direction, but sometimes you might have to take that little extra measure.

4. Complete booking

When it's time to complete your booking, you'll be able to revisit the specifics of your offer and add bonuses if you're interested. One last thing to bear in mind is that you book a form of vehicle, but the exact model you pick up depends on availability.