Terms & Conditions: Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty
August 10, 2009 by Car Hire Insider · 4 Comments
Choose from the dropdown below for the Terms and Conditions of the Big Boy car rental companies (Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty). These are proper legal documents so be prepared for some wordy mumbo jumbo.
All are in PDF-format except for Hertz where you will be redirected to their website for online viewing of their Terms and Conditions.
Note: For easy and reliable price checks/bookings for these Big Boy companies, do have a look at the best sites for comparing car hire that we’ve carefully researched and handpicked.
| Extra Information on the Big Boys | |||||
| Avis | Budget | Europcar | Hertz | Thrifty | |
| Included km’s | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Standard Waiver | $2,915 | $2,750 | $3,850* | $3,300 | $3,300 |
| Additional Single Vehicle Accident Excess** | None | None | None | $2,200 | $2,200 (except in metro locations) |
| Excess Reduction | $26.40/day reduces to $330 |
$25/day reduces to $330 |
$26/day reduces to $385 (max. $313.50) |
$27/day reduces to $400 (excludes SVA) |
$27/day reduces to $385 (excludes SVA) |
| Additional Driver | Included | Included | $3.30/day (max. $23.10) |
$5.50/day (max. $27.50)*** |
Included |
| 21-24 Age Surcharge | $27.50/day | $16.50/day | $28.50/day | $27.50/day | $22/day |
| Baby Seats | $5.50/day (max. $55) |
$5.50/day (max. $33) |
$7.70/day (max. $77) |
$8.80/day (max. $61.60) |
$6/day (max. $55) |
| GPS | $10.95/day or $55/week | $10.95/day or $55/week | $10.95/day (max. $109.45) |
$11/day | $11/day (max. $110) |
| Updated April 2011. Best options are highlighted for your convenience. * Applicable regardless of who is at fault for the accident ** Single Vehicle Accidents (SVA) are where an accident doesn’t involve another vehicle, unless it is a parked vehicle *** Additional drivers with the same residential address as the primary driver are exempt This information is for standard cars and are indicative only. Terms for specialty cars, 4WDs, luxury cars, actual prices, as well as their availability could vary. Age and rental location may also cause costs to differ. Always double check them with your chosen company before committing. |
|||||
Best Comparison Site for the Major Car Hire Companies
June 1, 2008 by Car Hire Insider · 4 Comments
After thoroughly reviewing over 20+ popular car hire comparison sites as ranked on Google and Yahoo, we’ve uncovered the Top 2 Sites for comparing the live prices of Australia’s major car hire companies – Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, and Thrifty.
The smaller independent companies can be cheaper (especially for airport car rentals) but either way, you should get the best price offered by Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, and Thrifty to use as a benchmark.
After finding the lowest prices here, remember to check all the car hire coupons we’ve compiled to see if you can bag yourself further bonuses and discounts. Then after booking, be sure to apply our tips for saving $100s on car hire insurance by bypassing the car hire companies.
Update: To make life easier for you, we’ve now incorporated our top picks’ search engines directly onto this page.
- Clean, easy-to-use site
- Easy price comparison at a glance
- Most complete listing
- Modify or cancel your booking online
- Prices given for GPS, baby seats, excess reduction
- Summary terms and conditions displayed
- Price matching promise + $10 further discount within 3 days of booking
- No Rewards or Preferred Program membership input
- No Discount Codes input
- Call needed to reserve child seats
- Presentable site design
- Rewards (Qantas, Velocity) and Preferred Program (Avis, Budget, Hertz, Thrifty) membership input
- Discount Codes input
- Able to book child seats
- Vehicle details (e.g. luggage space, engine) shown with search results
- Modify or cancel booking online
- ‘Best Rate Guarantee’ matches lower price + further 10% discount within 8 hours of booking
- Tabbed comparison table looks good but not intuitive for first-time user and requires clicking around
- No ‘Green’ Hybrid cars or Station Wagons
- Prices for Europcar are 4-5% higher than VroomVroomVroom
- Lowest prices / Best value – prices should not be more than if you checked each of the Big Boys’ sites individually (unless they themselves have special offers)
- Ability to view and easily compare live rental rates on one screen
- Ease of site navigation, car search and booking
- No hidden fees – the quoted price is final
- No credit card details or deposit required to place a booking
- Ease and ability to modify / cancel bookings at no extra cost – lock in the price today and if you find something better, just cancel it!
- Value-added features
- 1-3 day rental: Cost/day remains similar
- 4-6 day rental: Cost/day starts decreasing, more so for larger full-sized cars (e.g. Toyota Camry)
- 7+ day rental: Cost/day is usually at its lowest (possibly cheaper by $5/day for cheapest car, $20/day for full-sized)
This is a pretty reliable rule of thumb but actual prices may vary. Prices fluctuate from day to day depending on demand and supply and generally it’s better to book earlier rather than later. The Big Boys all have large networks so they serve pretty much every location you’ll need across Australia and carry a wide variety of car models and sizes.
