We have had a number of enquiries recently concerning young drivers and hire cars, the ages involved, licence requirements, and so on. So here are a few guidelines:

1. Young drivers are generally considered to be aged between 21 and 24 years inclusive. It is rare that a rental company will consider drivers under the age of 21. Other ages may apply in some cases.  

2. Young drivers are usually subject to a supplement. This varies considerably and can be expensive. For instance, in the USA it is usually $20 - $25 dollars per day, in France about 20 euros per day. This is per young driver, not per rental, so if you have more than one young driver you need to multiply these rates accordingly. Rates for other countries vary. Also bear in mind that these charges can be subject to local tax in addition.

3. Normal licence requirements apply. A young driver must have held a FULL driving licence for the period required, normally between 1 and 3 years, and usual rules concerning any motoring bans, points or other convictions apply. Under no circumstances will a rental company consider a driver who has only a provisional licence.

4. All young drivers must hold a valid major credit card if they are the lead driver on a booking.

5. There are often restrictions on the type of car a young driver may be allowed to drive. This especially applies to people-carriers, premium and luxury cars, sports cars and convertibles but can apply to other types as well. 

5. The easiest place for a young driver to rent a car is probably Spain - the Costas and the Balearic and Canary islands. Mimimum age is usually only 21, there are no young driver supplements in most cases, often no restrictions on the type of car that can be rented, plus probably a free additional driver and no excess included in the rate. 

These are guidelines only and there will be exceptions and variations between different rental companies and in different countries. Full details and rules are available with the rates at our on-line booking sites - www.carhirewarehouse.com and www.acarinthesun.com. Please do not hesitate to contact us at 01233 500464 or -e-mail info@carhirewarehouse.com for more information.

Our sister brand, www.acarinthesun.com, has been running a Summer Sale for some time. This great offer was scheduled to expire on 31st August. However the response has been so good that we have decided to extend the deal. These special rates now apply to all cars booked on or before 30 September. All available cars, all available dates, all 9.000+ locations worldwide. Summer 2009 are now becoming available so next years car can be booked at this years Special Offer rates!!

Instant quotes, e-mail quotes and secure on-line booking at www.acarinthesun.com

‘Mark - I thought you would appreciate a little feedback on our recent car hire transaction brokered by yourself. We had a good holiday and the car arrangements worked as described and planned….Thankfully the boot was large enough for our luggage and the car did everything we wanted from it. The air-conditioning coped well with the day time temperatures of around 35. I am not sure I would have been as happy with a larger car considering the narrowness of some of the streets in the villages we visited (on the Portugese Algarve). I will certainly give you the opportunity to source a hire car for any future requirements and recommend you to others.’   New client referred by a regular client about their car at Faro airport.

‘As ever, thanks for the prompt reply. Can we book the…’  regular clients booking a car for Seville.

‘Hi Mark. Great that you now have an instant booking service! I would like to book via this method…’  regular client looking for a one-way in the UK

Finally we had a call from someone who had previously spoken to us two years ago when we had been unable to help. However he thought that we were extremely helpful as we explained why he couldn’t get the car that was wanted on that occasion so preferred to call us again rather than book on-line for a car in Tenerife. If we can’t help we will always try and explain why so that the same situation can be avoided in future.

Under our www.acarinSpain.com brand, we have sponsored the SPAA, Spanish Property Agents Association, since its formation over a year ago. The SPAA are so pleased with this arrangement that they have asked us to continue our sponsorship for a further 12 months. Membership of the SPAA is for professional and established property agents across Spain. At a time when agents are closing down in record numbers, it is more important than ever to be able to identify those who are established and can survive the difficulties. After all, finding that your agent has ceased trading halfway through your purchase or sale would be very stressful.  

For full details visit their web-site at www.spaa.es

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The new on-line booking service at www.carhirewarehouse.com, see post 04 Aug, has been a huge hit. Almost three-quarters of all visitors to the site have been getting quotes and bookings started from the first day. A Citroen Berlingo at Carcassonne in France was the first booking. Spain, Cyprus and Florida have also been very popular but there are over 7,000 destinations to choose from.

Instant quotes, FREE e-mail quotes and quick, secure on-line booking at www.carhirewarehouse.com

An unusual enquiry this week concerned a Spain to England international one-way routing. Ideally the car would be collected at Alicante on the Costa Blanca and returned in Yorkshire, probably at Leeds. This is possible, but as always, the international one-way fees (sometimes referred to as ‘inter-city’ fees) would be high. However as the clients were intending to use the journey as part of their holiday there would be time for other options if they were cheaper.

We checked the cost of the full journey first. The cost of hiring a Ford Focus (or similar) was sensible but the one-way charge was 2,625 euros - plus tax! The next option was to return the car in Paris and use the Eurostar and other trains for the remainder of the journey. This would reduce the one-way charge to 840 euros plus tax. Much better but are there other options? A third possibility was to collect the car in Alicante and return it in Bilbao, then catch the ferry to Portsmouth and collect another car there for the journey to Leeds. This is a cheaper option again as there may not be any one-way charges for the Spanish car, and in the UK one-way charges are only £35 plus tax. However it would mean not being able to tour Switzerland as had been hoped. So a fourth option. Collect car in Alicante and return it in Gerona - therefore unlikely to be any one-way charges. Catch train or bus to Perpignan in France and collect another car there. Tour France and Switzerland, return the car back in France, probably in Paris for Eurostar back to UK. No one-way charges on French rental car. This option seems to be our clients preference as it is much cheaper than using the same car all the way whilst also allowing them to tour Switzerland.

www.carhirewarehouse.com for personal service or on-line booking as you prefer.

The late bookings continue to flood in and we confirm as many as we can. The Spanish Costas continue to be almost completely sold out for much of the August, even for economy and family cars. People-carriers, automatics and convertibles are sold out pretty much everywhere except the USA. However there is now a noticeable trend to early booking for the autukmn, and even the winter. In fact we already have an enquiry for next April - not as daft as it may seem if you want to guarantee the car of your choice.

Successful late bookings included economy cars throughout Spain plus the Dordogne and Paris also and compact cars at Poitiers, Perpignan, La Rochelle, Montpellier rail station and Barcelona. Also in Europe mini-MPVs (Renault Scenic, Opel Zafira and similar) in France and the UK and, very surprisingly, a compact automatic on the Costa Calida. In the USA a 7-seater Minivan at Boston for a tour of New England in the early fall, a family car for a one-way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (without any one-way charges) and an intermediate car at Salt Lake City. Unfortunately there were also some unsuccessful requests, either due to there being no suitable cars available or due to the high rates for the few remaining available cars. If you want the cheapest you have to book earliest.

Late summer enquiries and autumn/winter enquiries included Fiestas/Clios for Valencia, Bologna, Bergamo (Milan), Bordeaux, Annecy and a one-way from Nantes to Angers in the Loire Valley. Focus/Golf or similar at Rennes, Lisbon and Valencia and a Mondeo at Seville. People-carriers are in demand for Brussels, Murcia or Los Alcazares, Normandy, Provence, Ancona (Le Marche in Italy), Malaga and a one-way from Alicante to Barcelona. Route 66 is still hugely popular with requests for compact and full-size cars. Elsewhere in the States a 7-seater SUV or Minivan in Orlando and a Minivan for Boston to JFK. The BBC are still finalising their filming and asked about 12/15-seaters for Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Diego and Gallup (New Mexico).  

Finally a late booking where car availability wasn’t the reason for it being unsuccessful. A couple where arriving at Agen rail station at 1900hrs on a Saturday. As we have advised before, rail station offices in France do not open extended hours as airports do - many don’t even be open to meet the last train of the day. And that was the problem. Most rental companies closed their offices at lunch-time. The latest that anyone was open was 1800hrs, an hour and a half before this train arrived. If you are travelling by train, and more and more people are, then we strongly advise that you check whether the car hire offices will be open BEFORE confirming your train.

Get your quotes at www.carhirewarehouse.com

In a major break with tradition, www.carhirewarehouse.com has launched an on-line booking facility. This new service is an addition to the web-sites services, it is not to replace the famous personal service on which the brand has been so successfully built. The new on-line booking service is provided in conjunction with carhire3000, one of the biggest car rental brokers in the UK. This ensures market-leading rates on a huge choice of cars at 1,000s of locations across the world. Mark Harrison, Managing Director of Endless Leisure Ltd, the owners of carhirewarehouse.com, said ‘this move is in response to market demand. Whilst we have many loyal clients, both private and corporate, it has become clear that more and more people are searching the net as well as using our personal service. By adding an on-line booking engine, we can provide the on-line search facility alongside our traditional service. Clients and visitors can choose the service that they prefer, or use both and compare the results’.

www.carhirwarehouse.com - for personal service and now on-line booking as well!!  Â

Regular clients of ours recently booked their car for Spain, this year travelling to Alicante on the Costa Blanca. They chose a VW Polo 5 door with air-conditioning from a new rental company, Dickmanns. Dickmanns have offices at Valencia, Murcia and Almeria airports as well as Alicante and also some resort offices. Feedback from our clients is as follows ‘Greetings from sunny Spain. Thought you might like to know that we were very impressed with Dickmanns car hire. The car was in mint condition and the man at the check-in was very helpful and efficient’.

For more information and quotes, please call us on 01233 500464 or e-mail info@carhirewarehouse.com.

A client recently returned from a holiday touring Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. On his return he advised that, much to his surprise, he had been fined in Slovenia for not having a vignette. This is a pre-paid motorway pass that is displayed in the windscreen. Similar schemes already operate in a number of European countries including Austria and Switzerland. The Slovenia vignette system apparently came into force on 01 July 2008. At no point whilst we were obtaining quotes and booking this car were informed that such a system would apply in Slovenia, nor has the rental company informed us of this new requirement since the car was confirmed. The client was not informed by the rental company when collecting his car. In fairness to the company involved, no other rental company or their UK agents have advised us of this new system either. Naturally we have forwarded the complaint to the company involved and await hearing their response. But in the meantime if you are visiting Slovenia, or driving through the country, you will need a vignette. Failure to do obtain and display one will lead to quite hefty fines in addition to the cost of the vignette itself.