CAR HIRE

Hi All,

I have just had a look at care hire from Almeria airpot.  I cant believe how expensive they are,not only that but most of the small economy cars are sold out!!!  I've never paid this much before !!!

Hi

I think its the same all over Spain - if you have a look on the 'driving in Spain' thread you will find a few things about this there.  The rental companies have not got as many cars as usual apparantly!

friend of mine tried carjet  x almeria for 1st 2 weeks july  webb site says  no cars of any size for hire

Try doyouspain i recommend them to my clients

I could'nt belive the prices either so we have opted for public transport instead.

At Easter we paid £350 for a weeks car hire (although it was a nice car). In addition, on arrival we had to pay £58 PER DAY for insurance PLUS 300 euros deposit.......it was the best deal we could find through an American website as they were the only one with any cars left. Wont do that again so next week we are driving my daughters small car down for the summer whilst she is working abroad. Will probably buy a car in Spain next year when we hope the exchange rate might have improved.

Regards, Poppyseed

Try Hertz online usually whatever airline you fly with have a special rate for airline customers. A bit less than EURO 400 for 2 weeks last time I checked.

Or why not buy a 50cc moped if youre not going to travel too far you can get them in Carafour for about EURO 500 new and use it every time youre over. Or about EURO 900 I think for 100cc

These prices are now getting ridiculous.  Either no cars available or stupid, stupid prices.  Robayl, cheapest car from Hertz is 496 euros for 2 weeks in August if you pay up front, 699 euros if you pay on collection and thats for a Peugot 107.  The prices are exactly the same with an airline promotional code (BMI) and 457 euros if you have a Ryanair promotional code landing at Murcia.

Look at any other site and you'll be lucky to even get a car in August, Econorent (who we normally use) have unavailable for all car grades.  Doyouspain does have cars but the cheapest for 2 weeks is 450 euros.  Cheapest I can find is Carjet at 405 euros.  Oh, these prices are for 13 days, not the full 14 by the way.

Just what is going on?  Same time last year there was plenty of choice at well less than 250 euros for a fortnight.  Due to grandkids we needed a bigger car (Zafira or VW Wagon) and got it for 325 euros last year.  This year (same company) the price is coming up as over 1000 euros.  Don't think a 50 cc scooter with me, the better half, daughter and 3 grandkids plus hand luggage will be viable.  Buying a car and leaving it there means having to get to and from the airport which adds about 150 euros in my case. 

Seems silly to me if these companies are pricing themselves out of business.

And also silly that the car hire cost is more than the cost of flights for 6 of us.

Hi All

It''s a joke, I cant believe that not only are they expensive but most as you say are all sold out.

The moped idea would really suit us as we are flying into Alicante this time and have to travel to Albox,it'll take all week to get there  I'd be cream crackered !!

I will continue to search and will have tobook something soon. Do you think that waiting untill we arrive at the airport will be a better solution?

Hi Sterling

i had the same problem a week or so ago.......no cars

I then went via Expedia and they found us two cars via Alamo at Alicante

But via Alamo, there were none available.

Give it a go............

Will do,

Thanks Fibby

My Local Car Hire agent told me that the majority of big Companies had reduced drastically the numbers of cars they hold in response to all the negative publicity that Spain was going to have greatly reduced numbers of tourists this year.

This has not happened as badly as predicted and has left them with a severe shortage  of available cars. The £pound is getting stronger and so the numbers of tourists will increase even more making the situation more difficult.

Of course in true tradition they are cashing in now by charging top and sometimes OTT prices.

Malvina

Hi

Dear all

I tried do you spain they have cars but they are very expensive!!!!!

Astelle

We went to Spain last week (17th - 24th June) and not expecting any problems with the car-hire left it until 10th June before contacting carjet ( who we always use). Their prices seemed expensive but not excessive. However - whatever we tried to book the email came back 'Unavailable/SOld out'.

Like Steve we made a shortlist of other companies and prices - but again there was very little choice. Whatever we tried to book was 'sold out'.

We ended up going with doyouspain and Atesa, paying a helluva lot more than what we expected.

We landed at Alicante and 21.30, hot, tired and desperate to get on our way - but at the Atesa desk we were met with  an angry miserable and bad-tempered situation. This is what happened.

We were the 6th in the queue - with only one harrassed and very slow Atesa employee behind the desk.

Out of the 5 in front 2 lots were told there was no car for them .Both had young families.....(and one lot had paid Expedia in advance). They contacted all other car-hire companies in the  airport from Avis to Hertz - there were no cars available at all. Both lots came back to argue their point - but no deal - if your name was not on Atesa's list...you did not get a car.

Also most of us had in our contracts that we could have an extra driver at no extra cost ...NO WAY! any extra driver cost 7 euros a day.

Therefore there were lots of arguments and shouting etc and it took 90 mins to get our car, luckily our name was on 'the list'...at this point we were grateful for small mercies.

Never again will I book via a broker - I will only book direct with the car-hire companies. It may cost more but at least if you turn up at a hertz/solmar/goldcar desk with a hertz/solmar/goldcar confirmation they cannot claim your booking does not exist.

Any one who had seen the state of those poor families left stranded late evening would do the same...

JO

Just returned to the UK from Ibiza.

Booked the holiday in March and organised a hire car through Do You Spain. Incredibly cheap, 9 days for 75 Euros!!!

We were due to fly out on June 16th and on the 13th I received an email from DYS saying that Auriga could not honour my rental so DYS had organsied a hire car through BK Car Hire at 375Euros for the 9 days!! DYS said that I should pay the full amount on arrival but if I gave them my bank details when I got back to the UK, they would refund the difference. This sounded like a scam to me, so I called DYS and proposed that they pay BK Hire the difference and I would pay what they originally quoted me. I pushed this as much as I could with the lady at DYS and in the end she referred it to her boss who said that they would not agree to my proposal. At that point I cancelled the hire and used taxis. I still wonder if DYS would have refunded me the money, somehow I doubt it.

Has anyone else had this experience with Do You Spain?

GM

Hi there Glen, welcome.

Claire Davis of DoYouSpain posts on EOS (see her posts in Auriga Crown/Alicante- No new Fleet! )

Maybe if you posted in that thread she would answer as she would be alerted to a new post by email.

Her answer would be very interesting.