This is not really Switzerland-related but I'm hoping someone will be able to offer car rental advice. We are heading back to Canada this summer for a visit. We're up to three kids since January, and since Canada is NOT equipped with a Swiss-style public transportation network, I am looking to book a rental car and 2 or 3 car seats for 2.5 weeks without bankrupting us.
Does anyone have experience with this? Where can we get the best car rental rates? I've checked Expedia but the big cars are all really expensive.
Is there any way to get a deal on car seat rentals? The costs for these with the major car rental companies are always exhorbitant. I can probably bring along our infant carseat but I'll need ones for my 3 and 5 year olds.
Also, can our Swiss car insurance cover rentals? I've always thought not since in Switzerland we insure the car and not the driver, but if someone has managed to add a rental car to their Swiss insurance I'd be happy to know.
When I am in Toronto I use www.Iversta.com They are local and have the best rates I've found. Not sure about baby seats. Your Swiss insurance doesn't cover CD, although you might be able to add it to your policy for the duration of the vacation.
Where in Canada are you going to? The car seat regulations differ from Switzerland so you really should check exactly what the requirements are depending on the province. For 3 and 5 year old you may just need a booster seat. If you are visiting family and have relatives who can meet you at the airport, I would recommend that you ask them to purchase the car seats for you. Some vans have integrated child seats.
I had clients who purchased knapsacks for their children with integrated booster seats so I did not need to provide them with booster seats. This might be an option. I will look for a link to the product and post it later.
For the infant I think you may find it easier to bring your own carrier.
Some credit cards in Switzerland offer loss damage waiver insurance for car rentals. You have to check the conditions to see the coverage and if the deductible is covered. You can also reduce the deductible. The liability insurance is generally provided with the car.
Some credit cards all offer travel insurance if you pay for the airline tickets with the card. Otherwise it is a good idea to buy travel insurance through the TCS.
I generally fly to Toronto (Pearson) and I have never found suitable public ground transportation from the airport.
When I go back to the states (or Canada this time) I just bring the boosters with us. Normally the airlines let you bring car seats free of charge, you just need to put your name on it somewhere.
For the car, I had a hard time finding a 7 place this year (and I'm returning it in the states so that was even harder). I rented through Enterprise. If you're a member of the TCS, they have discounts with Hertz, Avis and Budget.
If you are a Mobility member, you also sometimes get great deals with Hertz, thought not always.
I usually book rental for North America through Auto Europe's UK site, www.autoeurope.co.uk . This usually brings up rates which are inclusive of insurance, sometimes also with zero excess, and is generally not more expensive than renting direct through the car rental company where you never really know what the cover is like. This way you know what you get, and you can just say no to everything when they try to scare you at the rental counter by upselling you insurance.
But you are right, a minivan or so is pretty expensive, and booking anything smaller you risk not being able to fit the car seats.
We've had awful experiences renting car seats from the car rental company (in the UK, never tried it in North America): they can be in very poor condition. Better to check if the airline allows you to bring your own for free.
We rented cars in Canada last summer at 4 different places, Avis and Alamo. Avis was slightly better in service and car quality.
1. I ended up using expedia.co.uk, because the insurance inclusions are better from all UK websites than e.g. expedia.ch or expedia.com. I suspect something to do with regulations of renting from UK registered companies.
2. Car seats always better to take boosters with you or quick dash to a Walmart equivalent. Car company rates are ridiculous.
3. If you need GPS, rental rates are unreasonably higher. Use your phone GPS or better download Sygic and subscribe. It works without data connection. We used it a lot in Canada.
4. Our credit cards here covered the CDW internationally. So we booked and paid generally on those cards, even though it was not mandatory.
5. Stay clear of all the unnecessary, doubled up insurance that rental companies will offer. Check at the counter as well before signing, because their systems are very persistent and will charge on top of what expedia.co.uk agreed for example.
on the few occasions i have visited Canadia then i have used dollar www.dollar.com as they have seemed to offer decent prices, with the flexibility of different pick up and drop off points
Thank you all so much, this is all wonderful advice! I had not thought about booster seats but will look into the weight and height requirements. If we could bring one booster and the infant car seat we'd already be well on our way.
We're flying into Toronto so at least we'll have lots of options. I will probably be spending my weekend look into all of these tips
We usually rent 2 midsize cars for much less than the cost of a minivan or large SUV. Not optimal if you are planning a family road trip but it is nice if you will be staying in one place.
Assuming you can get the car seats on as luggage (no extra cost), you should probably buy the car seats here in CH for only CHF 49.90 from Aldi this Saturday (be very early to get them - they will sell out in the first minutes). You might want to ask friends to get one each from another Aldi as there will probably be limited stock in each store.
The car seats use the car seat belt so nothing extra to worry about. Then, I would use them for the time you are in CAN and leave them. I had a look at Walmart.ca and you will find nothing at these prices.
Here is the link for more details - good for 9kg to 36kg.
We have one of these Nania seats (or one very similar to it) and are happy with it: it gets a medium safety rating by TCS, but these are the narrowest seats around and therefore the most flexible in terms of fitting into unknown rental cars.
Our strategy is to use these cheap seats when we go on holiday, because it is possible that car seats get damaged by baggage handling systems and we do not want to put our expensive seats that we use every day through that risk.
If you do not manage to get one from Aldi, you can order similar seats from Amazon.de for around the same price.
Which airline are you flying with? Most do allow you to take car seats for free, but not all.
One more comment about Auto Europe. Since they have a policy that you can cancel up to a short time before rental without penalty, it might be a good idea to book whatever you can find now. That way, if prices go up, you're locked in, and if they go down you can always cancel and rebook.
Do not rent car seats - you never know the quality you will get, if they've been in an accident or if they're expired.
You can buy car seats from Costco or Amazon for $50. That's what we're doing when we go to Canada in a month, buying all online and sending to my folks who will collect us at the airport. If you're not having someone get you upon arrival, ship it to the rental car company - call them in advance to organize (I did that 2 years ago).
I find this too with uk version of rentcars.com or easycar.com. Very often they will include the basic insurance whereas if you book directly with the rental company you have to pay extra. Actually last time I booked through arguscarhire and it was 150 GBP ~ 220CHF for 7 days 'standard' size from AVIS. I never take the extra insurances.
I posted this topic last summer, and several people suggested using a UK company such as autoeurope.co.uk, easycar.com or the British expedia, as legislation in the UK makes insurance rates on rental cars more affordable. I ended up booking a van for 2.5 weeks through easycar.com for a very reasonable rate. The rental price included insurance which would cover all damage costs minus a $500 deductible. I generally don't take the additional insurance that covers the deductible, as the cost is so high that it almost reaches the cost of the deductible anyway, so for $100 or $200 difference I'm willing to take the risk. With easycar the cost was low enough that I took out additional insurance for the first time in my life (and I've rented a lot of cars).
Well as you have it, on the second day of our holiday I managed to back into a giant truck in a parking lot. (We have sensors on the back of our car at home, so I now realize that I wasn't even really looking behind me anymore!) There was no dammage on the truck (which was in pretty rough shape already), but a huge dent on the back of my rental van. This was last July, and in January Hertz started harassing to pay the $500 charge. I paid Hertz and expected it to be a huge hassle getting reimbursement from easycar -- but no! The staff was very reactive and helpful and the money was deposited on my credit card very quickly.
At any rate, this has turned into a very long-winded post just to say that I had an excellent experience with easycar.com and highly recommend the,.