Renting a car for a vacation just makes sense. It saves you the money you would spend on cab rides and keeps you from having to rely on the schedule (or unpredictable schedule) of public transportation. But the whole process involved in renting a car can be daunting for both first-time and seasoned travelers.
Find out about car insurance
You can purchase insurance for your rental car from the agency, but car rental insurance is extremely high and should only be used if you have exhausted all other options. Take a look at your personal automobile insurance policy, which may cover rental vehicles. You should also call your credit card company, as many of them offer some type of rental car insurance as a card benefit. Many are quite good and would allow you to forgo insurance worry-free as long as you reserve the car with that particular credit card (this last point is a must if you plan to use this card benefit for the duration of your rental). Don’t forget to look for car rental discounts as well!
Don’t try to rent a car at the airport.
When you’re thinking about how to rent a car, where you rent a car is just as important. We know it’s easy to pick up a car at the airport, but what you may not know is that you pay a premium for the right to pick up the car shortly after you get off the plane. Airport Car rental companies are required to charge and pay fees to the airport where they operate, so they pass those fees on to the customer. You can get around this by simply calling a cab to take you to the car rental company that is not on airport property. If you rent a car through Haririi rent a car, you can even see where the rental location is by clicking “View Location” on the search results page.
Stay on paved roads
This probably sounds pretty obvious, but hear us out. There aren’t many car rental companies that are okay with you taking rental cars off-roading. And off-roading doesn’t have to be a mud fight. Let’s say you’re in Hawaii and want to visit a scenic stretch of beach with no road leading to it. The same goes for a trip to a patch of grassland. Both are technically off-roading, and both would be a violation of your rental agreement. If you get your rental car stuck in the mud in a place where you should not have been driving, you will be responsible for the cost of removing the mud and cleaning the car.
Fill up the tank before returning the car.
Your vacation was a complete success, but now it’s time to drop off the car and head home. The only problem is that you returned the car with an empty tank. Can you get the tank filled up at the car rental agency? Sure, but you could end up paying two, three, or four times the usual price per gallon. We can all spare 10 minutes and fill up the tank before returning the car. Even if you’re already pulling into the airport, it’s worth turning around and finding a local gas station where you can fill up.
