If you are planning a trip abroad this year and have not decided whether to hire a car or not, it may be worth deciding on car hire and booking a rental car before you go.

Here’s why.

1. Cost
2. Availability
3. Simplicity

Cost

Booking in advance is often cheaper – the hire company gets some or all of your money in advance and has guaranteed demand for its cars. This means that they can let you have the car for a little less than if you walk in off the street to book a car (not always true, but often).

Availability

This summer has seen unprecedented demand for hire cars in popular holiday locations such as Spain. The reason for this is that the global economic downturn has resulted in many car rental companies reducing the size of their fleets – meaning less slack in low season but extremely high demand for available cars in high season.

There have been plenty of car hire companies that have been fully booked this summer – if you leave booking a hire car until you arrive, you may be disappointed.

Simplicity

While foreign car hire offices are usually pretty helpful and many speak English, this is not always true and booking a rental car in a foreign language can be difficult.

Booking in advance means that you can complete the booking online, in English, and know that your chosen car will be waiting for you when you arrive – all you will have to do is sign a few forms and take the keys. It’s much simpler than trying to arrange a hire car from scratch.

Click here for an instant online car hire quote

I have always needed glasses for driving, but until last year had never purchased a pair of prescription sunglasses. This meant that driving in bright conditions sometimes resulted in hours of squinting against the glare. Last summer, I finally decided to do something about this and buy a pair of prescription sunglasses.

The results were amazing. Driving with sunglasses on is so much more relaxing and comfortable than managing without. I chose a pair of sunglasses with a light-grey tint to the lenses. The results are perfect:

• A grey tint keeps colours looking natural and accurate
• Having only a light tint means that I can still see well in shadows, short tunnels and when the sun goes behind a cloud
• I chose a fairly wide, wraparound design of frame – so I don’t get any glare from the sides and have a wide field of vision without turning my head.

I can’t recommend it highly enough – even on the brightest of days, my sunglasses remove all of the glare and just leave me with a clear, neutral view of the road ahead – without distorting colours or being too dark.

My prescription sunglasses for driving are without a doubt one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Taking a hire car abroad (cross-border car hire or international car hire) may not be something you have done before, but it is a surprisingly common requirement. Whether you are crossing a continental European border or crossing The Channel to and from the UK, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

1. Ask first. Don’t travel outside a hire car’s country of registration without getting prior approval from the car rental company. You will probably have to pay an additional insurance and/or breakdown assistance fee and failure to do this may well mean you are driving illegally – resulting a raft of potential problems.
2. Know where you are going. If you are crossing to and from the UK, be prepared to drive on the opposite side of the road when you get off the ferry. Whether your hire car is left-hand drive or right-hand drive, at some point you will be on the ‘wrong’ side of the road for you car. Take care.
3. Make sure you are familiar with the rules of the road (e.g. speed limits) in the countries you are visiting. The AA’s website has an excellent guide on driving requirements in different countries – check it out before you go.
4. Make sure you will be able to pay for fuel – ideally have a combination of cash and cards on you so that you will be able to buy fuel at unattended, automated fuel stations with your card and pay cash if your card is declined at manned stations – not all cards are universally accepted around Europe.
5. Remember that in virtually all cases, you can only hire cars for international use if they will be returned to the country in which you hired them – one-way international hires are not generally available, although there are a few exceptions.

Choosing the correct size of hire car is not always easy – especially if you are booking a car for a trip abroad in a country where you are not familiar with the car models and may have more luggage with you than usual. However, it is important to get it right – the last thing you want is to pickup you car at the airport and not be able to fit your luggage into it…

Car rental companies know this and do make some effort to help. The booking system we use on CarHirePlace.com provides details on the luggage and passenger capacity of each car.

When you use our booking system to get a quote, along with the price for each car is listed its passenger capacity, luggage capacity and the number of doors it has. For example, here is a screenshot from a quote for car hire in a European location (details may vary for different locations):

Car hire luggage capacity - examples

The Volkswagen Golf is a reasonable size but has a much smaller boot than the 207 Stationwagon (basically a small estate car). This difference in boot size is reflected in the cars’ luggage capacities – the Golf can take 4 pieces of luggage but the 207 SW can take 6 pieces of luggage.

Both cars can take five people, have five doors, air conditioning and a manual gear box (reading the symbols from left to right).

These indicators are useful but they are not perfect. For example:

• All but the smallest cars can take five people but in many cars it is cramped for longer journeys
• The luggage capacity is a useful comparative indicator but you do not know how big the pieces of luggage used to calculate it are!

Despite these limitations, you should take note of  the information provided in the quote for each rental car and use them to compare the different vehicles on offer. It could save you a very uncomfortable journey!

As I discussed recently, car hire companies sometimes get a bad press for charging customers unexpected costs after they have returned their hire car.

Although this does happen, it is not very common and can usually be explained – and often prevented by you, the hirer, taking a few basic precautions. Here are a few ideas based on my own experience:

1. Make sure you return the car with the correct amount of fuel in it – normally, this means as it was when you collected it. Failure to do this will mean that the rental company will charge you an inflated rate for refuelling.
2. Check the car carefully for damage yourself when you pick it up. Make sure the rental company agent marks down all the existing damage on the check sheet – otherwise they can blame it on you when you return the vehicle.
3. Consider taking additional insurance to reduce your excess. That way, if you do cause any damage, your maximum payout will be considerably reduced.
4. Don’t be late. Late returns mess up the rental company’s bookings – they will penalise you for being late.
5. Don’t leave any litter in the inside of the car and clean up any spilled drinks, excessive mud, etc.. Although these things do happen, unusual levels of dirt may mean that the car hire company levies an additional cleaning charge on you. Don’t worry about the outside of the vehicle too much – normal road dirt is fine, although excessive mud from off-road use may arouse suspicion…
6. Pay any tolls, charges or fines you have incurred. These include parking fines, congestion charges, road tolls and speeding fines. You are liable for anything incurred while you are driving the car – don’t try and avoid them as they will come back to you and often increase with late payment. The rental company may also charge you an administration fee if they have to chase you for the money.
7. If you rent any additional accessories – such as a GPS unit – then make sure that these are returned complete, undamaged and together with the car.
8. Finally, if you have had a puncture and changed the wheel yourself, ring the hire company and notify them as soon as possible during the hire. Do not fail to mention it when you return the vehicle. Although technically you may be liable for tyre damage, I don’t think this always applies to honest, unavoidable punctures – the one time I had a puncture in a hire car (in Madeira), I did not have to pay anything extra for the damaged tyre.
9. If you are collecting your hire car from the airport, always provide your flight numbers when booking – here’s why.
10. If you have had an accident or breakdown, make sure you report it to the police and/or the hire company’s emergency assistance number, as per the instructions you are given by the hire company. Do not try to sweep it under the carpet.

So there you have it – just like most things in life, the risk of problems can be reduced by taking a few simple precautions.

The official end of summer has brought with it some fantastic weather in the UK and a great bag of new car hire deals from car rental broker Holiday Autos.

Take a look at this great new offer on car hire in France:

• Up to 25% off France car hire at all locations (based on 7 day rentals). Valid for new bookings made before 30 September 09 for rentals between 1 Oct 09 & 17 December 09. Offer excludes 24 October 09 – 15 November 09.

These great current offers are still running, too:

• Up to 30% off Greece car hire at selected destinations across Crete and Rhodes (Based on 7 day rentals). Valid for new bookings made before 31 Oct 09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 31/10/09.
• Up to 25% off Germany car hire at selected locations (based on 7 day rentals). Valid for new bookings made before 30 Sept 09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 30/09/09.
• 15% off Qatar car hire at all locations (based on 7 day rentals). Valid for new bookings made before 30 Sept 09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 30/09/09.
• 10% off Israel car hire at all locations (based on 7 day rentals). Valid for new bookings made before 30 Sept 09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 30/09/09.

Heading for the Caribbean? Check out these great deals:

• Up to 50% off all Puerto Rico locations on selected vehicles. Valid for bookings between 19/08/09 & 31/10/09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 31/10/09.
• Up to 20% off all Martinique locations on selected vehicles. Valid for bookings from 19/08/09 to 31/10/09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 31/10/09.
• Up to 20% off all Guadeloupe locations on selected vehicles. Valid for bookings from 14/08/09 to 10/10/09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 31/10/09.
• Up to 15% off all Jamaica locations on selected vehicles. Valid for bookings from  14/08/09 to 31/10/09 with pick-ups from 01/09/09 to 31/10/09.

One of the most common problems that car rental firms and their customers experience is disputes over damage.

The rental firm claims – often after the car has been returned – that certain damage has been caused by the renter. The renter disputes this but is unable to provide evidence to back his or her claim up – apart from the notes from the walkaround inspection at the beginning and end of each rental.

The problem with a walkaround inspection is that it is not always very accurate or comprehensive. The last two times I hired a car (from a major international car rental firm), the pickup walkaround inspections were flawed:

• One the first occasion, the car I was collecting was black and was still wet from being washed after its last rental. On top of this, it was dark outside. You try finding minor paintwork damage or small dents on a wet, black car in the dark. I just had to take a chance that all was okay.
• On the second occasion, the agent from the rental company did not notice that both of the car’s wing mirrors had been badly scraped and then touched up (also badly!) by a previous customer. I pointed this out and it was recorded – but otherwise I might have been held responsible.

Hertz’s solution is to start taking high resolution ‘before and after’ photographs of each car. The scheme has been trialled for the last month at a US car rental location and Hertz is positive about the impact it has had.

Hertz hopes that the scheme will help reduce customer disputes and lower its repair bills, which run to $170m a year at present.

I can see the benefits of this system. Hertz will be able to produce before and after photos to prove that a car was damaged during the rental period. However, in the cases I mentioned above, photographs would only really have helped in the second instance. A wet car photographed in the dark will still not show up damage like a dry one in daylight.

Has anyone had any experience of this system in practice, yet? If so, leave a comment below, I’d be very interested to know more about how it works in reality.

Car rental firm Sixt has just opened two new car hire offices in Brussels South station and Maastricht Central station.

This follows the highly successful opening of a rental office directly opposite Amsterdam Central Station last year. It seems that long-distance railway travellers want to hire cars at their destinations! According to Sixt’s Thomas Walters, the “opening of the Sixt branch at Amsterdam Central Station proved to be an enormous success”.

Sixt expects this trend to continue, especially as Brussels South is one of the key international interchanges for rail travel in Europe.

Click here to visit Sixt’s website for a quote or to book a hire car.

Well-known car rental firm Sixt is offering some attractive car hire deals at the moment, including:

Sweden Car Hire

• Rent a BMW 1-Series in from just £325 per week

Argentina Car Hire

• Hire a Chevrolet Corsa from just £205 per week

UK Car Hire

• Hire a VW Polo from just £17 per day (based on 21-day hire)
• Hire a Ford Mondeo from just £52 per day

Click here to visit Sixt Rent-A-Car

Leading car hire broker Holiday Autos is running some cracking special offers this July, including car hire offers in Cypris, the UAE, Romania, Poland, Egypt and the USA.

Remember, booking with Holiday Autos offers big benefits:

• Great Low Rates
• Fully Inclusive Pricing
• More than 5,000 locations
• 24 hour helpline

Here are the best of July’s offers – for full details of all current Holiday Autos offers, click here.

Up to 40% off Cyprus car hire - this offer is back! Applies to bookings before 31 July for pick ups between 16 July and 31 October 09. Click here for more details!

New: 20% off Cyprus car hire this WINTER – this offer applies to all cars and locations and rental durations for bookings by 10 August and rentals between 1 Nov 09 and 31 March 2010

Up to 40% off UAE car hire - applies to bookings before 31 August for pick ups until 30 September 09. Click here for more details!

Up to 10% off car hire in Romania - applies to bookings before 31 July for pick ups until 31 October 09. Click here for more details!

Up to 10% off car hire in Poland - applies to bookings before 31 July and for pick ups until 31 October 09. Click here for more details!

Up to 10% off car hire in Egypt – applies to bookings before 31 July and for pick ups until 31 October 09. Click here for more details!

Up to 5% off car hire in Florida & California - applies to bookings before 14 August and for pick-ups until 31 August and includes Boston and Las Vegas. Click here for more details!