Carhirewarehouse.com

I am spending Christmas with my in-laws who live on the northern Costa Blanca. Christmas in Spain has noticeable cultural differences to the UK which makes an interesting change. For instance, the Spanish do not celebrate Boxing Day but instead have Three Kings on 5/6 January.

After arriving at Valencia airport we collected our rental car, a very nice Mercedes A-class. Service from the Europa staff was efficient and very friendly. Photos of the car will be posted in due course. In the meantime our best wishes to all readers of this Blog for a Merry Christmas and a Happy and … Continue Reading

Following on from the entry on this subject a few days ago,we have had notification that the availability of 2006 rates for cars to be collected on or after 01 April 2007 is about to end. In line with the market in general, this supplier will be charging much higher rates for rental cars in France this summer, with effect for all cars booked on or after 29 December. We are continuing to look for the best rates and to talk to more rental companies in the hope of finding better but it does not look promising. Rates for rental … Continue Reading

Yes, we got the 7-seater people-carrier at Alicante for 27 December. Most companies had sold out of all car groups for the holiday period but by using all our contacts we found a major company with an available car.

Another late booking was for a Citroen Berlingo at Murcia, also for 27 December. It had to be a Berlingo as the clients needed to transport two pushbikes at low-cost. We had confirmation of an available car from one of our major Spanish partners within an hour.

Despite these successes, we do not recommend late bookings, especially at peak holiday … Continue Reading

Despite Christmas being almost upon us, we have had a number of bookings for the summer this week. Many of these are taking advantage of us being able to book for France at 2006 rates therefore avoiding the big rate increases that we have already mentioned. A regular client booked two Renault Clios for May at Toulouse. Also at Toulouse a Citroen Picasso for July. My cousin and his wife booked their Clio, this time at Lyons for 18 days in September to tour France, Italy and Switzerland. And there was an April car collecting at Chambery on a one-way … Continue Reading

Less urgent enquiries have included a regular client needing a small car for a week on the Costa Blanca in January, a group of skiers flying into Lyons in February and a party of golfers at Faro in March. The small car is no problem as there is an excellent choice of cars and rental companies at either Alicante or Valencia. The skiers are deciding between a Renault Scenic mini-MPV, a 4×4 SUV or a 4×4 estate plus various winter equipment options such as snow chains and ski-racks. The golfers preference is a large estate but these are hard to … Continue Reading

There is a nasty shock in store for visitors to France in 2007. Rental companies are increasing rates for cars collected on or after 01 April by roughly 30%. The actual increase varies depending on the class of car and the rental company. For instance there is no significant increase at present on compact estate cars (Golf, Focus, etc) with Europcar. Also, for the time being, we are able make bookings for collections after 01 April at about 2006 rates. This is likely to be a short-term offer so please get in touch quickly if you want to make a … Continue Reading

As always at this time of year, almost all cars are sold out everywhere for the next couple of weeks. However we have managed to book a Mercedes at Heathrow for 23 December and are working on a people-carrier at Alicante for 27 December – no joy so far on this one but we are working our way through a long list of companies at this location and remain hopeful.

Following the recent contact from the rental company in New Zealand, we have also had a similar approach from a company in Malta. This is a worldwide company and they are requesting that their UK office get in touch to discuss bookings on a global basis. We look forward to hearing from them. Our new web-site has obviously caught the attention of the car rental industry.

We had an e-mail from a car rental company in New Zealand recently. Apparently they had seen our new web-site and were so impressed that they have asked to work with us. As a national company this fits in very well with our principle of having a wide choice of companies to offer to our clients. Previously we have mainly used the major worldwide suppliers for New Zealand. However, we checked back through our records and it turns out that we have worked with this company before. They helped us a few years ago with cars and people-carriers for a … Continue Reading

The demand for cars over the holiday period is already taking its toll on availability. Stop-sell and sold-out notices are now coming through daily from more and more locations. If you haven’t already booked your car you should do so without further delay.