Category Archives: Car Rental

How To Find The Best Travel Deals

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Even though the idea of a vacation is suppose to be something we all look forward to, the planning stage of it can sometimes give us a big headache and can also be stressful. This is especially true if we are planning our holidays to some place unfamiliar or even out of the country. A lot of times when you are planning you are also wanting to try and save some money in the process. If you happen to know where to look you can actually find some great deals to help lower the overall cost of your vacation.

There are websites that can help with your searches for airfares, for your hotels, your car rental and even cruises. There are even some sites like kayak.com or sidestep.com that will do the Internet search for you by searching more than one website at a time so you don’t have to do all the work yourself. Although these sites won’t always show the lowest prices, they will give you an idea of what the average price might be on a particular travel site.

Another site you might want to use for some research would be Travelzoo. The staff of this site will hand pick deals that are exceptionally good with a rare exception that they are not. They will list travel deals they feel the average person would be interested in and list them. You can go through the list and see if there are any deals that could be of interest and benefit for you and your budget.

Other extremely helpful sites are Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline and other sites that are similar can help you also get deals you might not be able to find on your own. Remember though on Priceline you are able to bid for a deal but once that bid is given and you don’t win it, they downgrade your status to a lower star unless you happen to immediately have another credit card on hand.

If you want to do more of this on your own and find deals, remember that you can look for those last minute type of deals. You can find them on airline tickets, hotel rooms and even last minute deals on your car rentals. But you need to be willing to be taking a chance on booking your vacation right down to the wire. The reason you can find these deals is because there have been last minute cancellations and the hotel or car rental company would rather get less money than no money at all.

When you are doing your own search on hotels, it’s always better if you just call them and see if they have something better to offer than what their website might be offering. As for airlines, go to their websites and see if they have any exclusive offers that you can only get by using their website to book your flight.

If it’s a cruise you are considering going on it’s probably in your best interest to contact a travel agent that has an independent company that handles cruises. A lot of times these independents will give you more perks and discounts because they are in more need of making a sale than larger travel agent companies.

Driving Licence Requirements When Hiring a Car in the UK

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You need to bring your driving licence with you when you are hiring a car. This may sound obvious but you would be surprised to know that this is most common mistake made by persons hiring cars.

In the UK in particular there is a new style driving licence which comes in two parts. The first part has your photograph on it. The second part has information about any endorsements or disqualification you may have had in the past. Persons with the new style driving licence often will only take with them the part with the photograph on it. They believe that this will be sufficient to prove that they have a driving licence. However the car rental companies will not accept this part of the driving licence on its own. They need to see the second part of the licence also. They need to establish that you are qualified to drive the vehicle that you are hiring and that you have not been disqualified from driving in the past. If you have for example been convicted in court of driving whilst under the influence of alcohol, they will not normally hire a car to you until a period of 10 years has elapsed without further disqualification.

If you find yourself in the position where you have forgotten either part of your driving licence or you cannot find it, there may be a still a way round that problem. The car rental companies have a facility that allows them to contact the D.V.L.A (Department of Vehicle Licensing Authority). They will phone the D.V.L.A on your behalf and confirm your driving licence is in order. They will charge you a fee for this service normally about GBP 5.00 plus vat.

There can be a problem with using the D.V.L.A option however. The D.V.L.A are only open certain hours on certain days, so the car rental company will not be able to contact them outside these hours. If that is the position then there is no way round it.

If however you know in advance that you will not have your driving licence when you attend to collect your car and that the D.V.L.A will be closed at that time, you can arrange with the car rental company to have the D.V.L.A check carried out prior to your arrival at a time the D.V.L.A is open. The D.V.L.A will not give your personal details to the car rental company without your permission so you would have to phone them in advance and explain the position, giving them your permission to give your information to the car hire company.