Top Ten Deals Now On Oodles
February 7, 2010 by Car Hire Insider · Leave a Comment
Oodles is one of our top two recommended car rental comparison sites for the Big Boys of Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty. In our Oodles review, we highlighted the site’s unique ability to plug in discount codes (or coupons) from Avis, Budget and/or Hertz when doing a search but had lamented the fact you need to seek out these discount codes in the first place.
Now, they’ve added a new section in their homepage featuring ‘today’s top ten deals’. Clicking on a coupon code will automatically enter it as part of your search criteria. You can enter one code each for Avis, Budget and Hertz to be searched in tandem. We like this as another step in the right direction to simplify, simplify, simplify. Now if only they’ll let us plug in discount codes from Europcar and Thrifty too!
Oodles: A Snapshot
September 18, 2009 by Car Hire Insider · 1 Comment
Oodles is a successful newcomer to car hire comparison scene offering up some differentiating features.
Our Verdict: If you are a frequent renter with Car Rental, Qantas Frequent Flyer or Velocity Rewards memberships, or you have Discount Codes from Avis, Hertz or Thrifty, there’s no more convenient place to compare and book your car hire.
Founded: 2007
Based: Melbourne
Companies searched: Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty
Prices: Will not be higher than if you went to each of the rental companies’ sites. No extra mark ups, booking or agent fees. ‘Best Rate Guarantee’ will match a lower price on an equivalent car found within 8 hours of booking and add a further 10% discount
Of interest: Allows you to enter car rental membership, frequent flyer details or discount codes so you can automatically collect points or be shown discounted prices in the search results. Where the express pickup service is available, regular travellers can jump the queue
Frequent renters will appreciate the convenience of storing all their information for faster future bookings by registering with Oodles.
While the discount code section is a good feature, Oodles does not display the current deals available meaning you’ll have to check for codes yourself on each of the companies’ individual sites.
(Car Hire Insider note: We are aiming to collect and display all the latest deals from Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty in one place in the near future, so check back!)
Their unique tabbed search results is well presented and highlights the cheapest available but if you want to see details of other results, you’ll have to click around. You can almost always find the cheapest price for each size category on Oodles, but our other recommended comparison site VroomVroomVroom tends to offer up more search results (e.g. green / hybrid cars).
Selecting a car will reveal all the necessary information from pickup and drop-off details and cost breakdown. Prices are final (but of course, excluding any further add-ons you may request). The booking form requires basic information but no credit card details are required and your reservation will be held for you at no obligation.
Best Comparison Site for the Major Car Hire Companies
June 1, 2008 by Car Hire Insider · 3 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.
- 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
- Provider’s terms and conditions not provided
- 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
- 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.
