When you go on trips and travel for vacations, it is a general practice to find the best airfares and get the most affordable hotel rooms. You check prices beforehand, make your bookings through platforms that provide the best deals and offers and try to make sure that your trip is at least a little bit easier on the wallet.
However, we often overlook doing the same for car rentals and pay the rental rate at face value. You may not realize this, but sometimes the car rental rates vary by quite a significant margin between the companies and destinations. Many factors can inflate the advertised price, here are a few tips for hiring a local taxi service that will make your trip more affordable:
Look out for hidden fares and extras
Taxes, extras, and hidden fares can slyly increase the advertised price of your rental car. Make sure to discuss everything clearly and compare before you rent a car. Along with the standard sales tax, car rental in Delhi may also add on energy surcharge, battery and tire recovery fees, and even vehicle licensing fees. Read the rental documents carefully so that you can avoid extra charges for GPS navigation, satellite radio, insurance for theft of your belongings, gas charges, and sometimes cleaning charges as well.
Refrain going for airport rentals
Although getting a car at the airport is pretty convenient, do not forget that this convenience comes with more expenditure. Outside of the generally higher prices, they will also extract something called a “concession recovery fee”. This is to reimburse the fee for any airport charges of a local taxi service to do business there. A better and cheaper alternative is finding a stay and car rental service that is near the airport and each other.
It is not necessary to agree to the insurance
When hiring a car rental in Delhi, you will get a lot of pressure to conform to the insurance because a local taxi company earns a lot from insurance fees. They might tell you stories and generate some worry in you if you are trying to say no to the insurance. The chances of you needing that insurance are slim. Therefore you don’t need to agree with it. Make sure that you also check with your credit card company beforehand to see if they give automatic collision coverage or do they benefit if you pay for a car rental with their card. The fine print in any agreement is important for you to know.
Rent the smaller cars
Most catalogs available in a car rental in Delhi may have mid-sized to larger cars so that you choose just from that roster. The truth is that you have an option to select a smaller car if that suits your needs; you just have to search for it in the right rental company. Sometimes you can upgrade to a larger car, free of charge or with very little extra pay as compared to renting a bigger car from the starting.
Check out different types of deals
Did you know that sometimes renting a car for a week can be cheaper than renting cars separately for the days when you need it? That is why you should search for a lot of deals and see if you can work out the most affordable combination of deals for the time duration that you need a rental car for. You may also get better deals from any consumer membership that you have.
Look for special occasion offers
Like many other e-commerce sites that provide special offers and deals of the day, you may find similar pages on the websites of individual car rental in Delhi. Check the pages of car rentals in the local area and check out the local taxi service to see what kind of offers they provide the customers with.
Mind the fuel level
Checking the fuel level of the car at the time of renting it and returning it is a good way to save yourself from some extra expenditure. Make sure that the car you rented comes with a full tank or note down the fuel level it comes with. When returning the car, have the fuel at the same level you started with. Otherwise, you will have to pay a premium to the company.
Return your rental car on time
The simplest way to make your trip more affordable is to return your rented car on time. It is one of the most common mistakes people make on trips and often overlook their extra vigilance. Make sure that you don’t exceed the time duration for which rented the car for, leave some margin in your trip so that you can return the rental car on time and end your break without hassles of late fee.
Other than the tips mentioned above for making car renting more affordable for a trip, some common practices help as well. Drive safely without any overspending or getting any accidents, handling the car with care will prevent any damages to it and traffic rule violation fines. Another thing to keep in mind is to park the car in safe areas so that nobody can steal or damage the car. Keeping the rental car clean and in good condition is not just a matter of curtsy if the opposite can cost you. So the next time that you look for a car rental in Delhi follow these tips and have fun driving around in your affordable rental car!