[FaroFlyer]

Has anybody ever tried booking CCCC class with Sixt? They call it Sixt Roulette and the Lucky Dip car info says:

“Be a risk taker and you will get a vehicle from the Economy to the Full size group. You will be pleasantly surprised what the local station has in store for you.”

I am thinking of one way rentals in Italy and also in Portugal.

[Switzerlanding]

I take this option and it always works out (i.e. I get a better car than I would have got if i’d payed for a certain gradeyou). The last lucky dip I got a BMW330 and the one before a c-class. Of course it helps if you take full insurance at the desk as the guys will earn commission so tend to look a little further down the list of available cars. Hope this helps.

[LuganoPirate]

Funnily just looking at this now for an upcoming trip to Portugal and have decided to try it out. It’s another 2 months to go but I’ll report back then.

Another pointer, if booking from Switzerland (and perhaps elsewhere), go to the Portuguese site, I found them to be about 25% cheaper than booking through the Swiss (default here) site. Lucky dip is just under EUR 15 a day.

[SwissExPat]

@ LP

I have experienced differential pricing on Car Hire depending on your country of origin. The Swiss are often most affected by this from my experience.

I have an inkling that the EU were going to be banning this type of differential pricing activity (IMHO they should)

I rented from SIXT last week. I had no problem and they were nearly half the cost of my usual AVIS.

[GivingupBA]

[quote quote=871393]@ LP

I have experienced differential pricing on Car Hire depending on your country of origin. The Swiss are often most affected by this from my experience.[/quote]

I have experienced that, though in a slightly different way. In Hong Kong a few years ago I started booking a car to collect at Heathrow using the XXXXX HK website. Then I tried the XXXXX UK website (from the same computer) and the price was quite a bit higher. So I went back to the HK website and booked/confirmed at the lower price, and later got the car at LHR. I did the same thing again months later with the same result. My guess is that the HK site assumed I was HK Chinese (I am not) and therefore a lower risk than UK drivers renting at LHR – it doesn’t make much sense, I know, but that was all I could think of to explain it.

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=871393]I have experienced differential pricing on Car Hire depending on your country of origin. The Swiss are often most affected by this from my experience.

I have an inkling that the EU were going to be banning this type of differential pricing activity (IMHO they should)[/quote]

I agree SwissExPat, this activity should be banned, but Switzerland is seen as a wealthy country so almost everything if bought through Swiss websites costs more as they base their offers on local market prices.

Having said that, car rental in Italy tends to be more expensive the Switzerland, Portugal and Spain definitely cheaper. And while on the subject, I’ve found booking through airline websites with the offer of “500 miles per booking” – wow, is a lot more expensive than using the rental agencies own website.

[capetonianm]

Although it’s not always worth the trouble, I have often found that the best method of getting the best car rental and hotel rates is to use a comparison website, then go direct to the website of the appropriate provider, check the rate there, and then call them and get an even better rate.

A couple of weeks ago I did this with a UK hotel where I wanted to spend a few night. The rate went from £110 on a consolidation (I forget which one, probably hotels.com) to £105 on the hotel’s own website, and then to £80 when I called the hotel direct. Not just that, but when I arrived, I was upgraded FoC to a beautiful ‘deluxe’ room.

Exactly the same in Ireland last week, hotel near Dublin, only the upgrade was to an enormous suite with the most fantastic views.

The point is that even if you book on a hotel’s ‘own’ website, they invariably have to pay fees to the switch company, as very few hotels have their own system but tap into a central system. If you book direct, they have a bit more leeway since there are no costs involved. Another advantage is that by talking to someone you can get a feel for the hotel’s attitude towards customers, which may help in influencing a decision.

P.S Edit :I am not an ‘upgrade tart’! I never ask for a free upgrade, I obviously appreciate being given one, but if I want an upgrade I always make it clear that I expect to pay for it.

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