I’ve generally used Auto Europe for car rentals in Italy, especially liking the all-inclusive rates and customer service. For this year’s trip, in September, I have found higher rates than usual; part of it may be that this quote is for 20 days; on previous trips, even if the whole trip was three weeks, the car rental was around two weeks.
On this trip, I decided to get a quote through Autoslash, which has worked well for me for U.S. rentals: they find discount codes that may be out there. They quoted a good rate redirecting to Priceline for a Hertz rental. It seemed to be an inclusive rate with a high deductible Collision Damage Waiver, but Priceline had a link to get separate coverage bringing it to zero deductible.
I’m holding that as a booking to be paid at the time of rental. I also got a quote from Auto Europe that was notably higher, and wrote to them for a possible price match or to see if they could tell me that something was missing from Priceline’s quote. What they sent me was slightly higher and they gave me some false premises: while the Priceline Hertz rate for the rental is in euros, the supplemental insurance rate is in U.S. dollars, and AE wrote as if it were in euros. Differently from past AE rentals, where there’s been no one-way drop-off charge even from Venice and Genoa to Rome, this has a charge to be paid locally (just around €11) for a one-way from central Rome to Fiumicino Airport. Priceline also quotes it as a line item, but includes it in their estimated total, which AE doesn’t acknowledge.
Leaving those price differences aside, AE says they can match the rate for “better insurance - the zero deductible they are quoting does not state that it also insures tires, glass, undercarriage and roof as well.” I can’t tell if they’ve really determined what’s covered; if anyone cares to look through the brochure from Allianz that shows on Priceline for the full coverage, see if there’s anything about excluding these parts.
I haven’t gotten valid replies to the follow-up questions I’ve asked, so I’m having trouble seeing if there’s a point to using AE and prepaying, which I’d rather not do, for a main purpose of getting good customer service in case of problems during and after the rental; the last time I had problems with charges that came up at the end of a rental booked through them, their responses were not too good.
On this trip, I decided to get a quote through Autoslash, which has worked well for me for U.S. rentals: they find discount codes that may be out there. They quoted a good rate redirecting to Priceline for a Hertz rental. It seemed to be an inclusive rate with a high deductible Collision Damage Waiver, but Priceline had a link to get separate coverage bringing it to zero deductible.
I’m holding that as a booking to be paid at the time of rental. I also got a quote from Auto Europe that was notably higher, and wrote to them for a possible price match or to see if they could tell me that something was missing from Priceline’s quote. What they sent me was slightly higher and they gave me some false premises: while the Priceline Hertz rate for the rental is in euros, the supplemental insurance rate is in U.S. dollars, and AE wrote as if it were in euros. Differently from past AE rentals, where there’s been no one-way drop-off charge even from Venice and Genoa to Rome, this has a charge to be paid locally (just around €11) for a one-way from central Rome to Fiumicino Airport. Priceline also quotes it as a line item, but includes it in their estimated total, which AE doesn’t acknowledge.
Leaving those price differences aside, AE says they can match the rate for “better insurance - the zero deductible they are quoting does not state that it also insures tires, glass, undercarriage and roof as well.” I can’t tell if they’ve really determined what’s covered; if anyone cares to look through the brochure from Allianz that shows on Priceline for the full coverage, see if there’s anything about excluding these parts.
I haven’t gotten valid replies to the follow-up questions I’ve asked, so I’m having trouble seeing if there’s a point to using AE and prepaying, which I’d rather not do, for a main purpose of getting good customer service in case of problems during and after the rental; the last time I had problems with charges that came up at the end of a rental booked through them, their responses were not too good.
