News 11 february 2025 Michael
Car Rental Mistakes

Avoid These Car Rental Mistakes: Save Money and Hassle

Before looking for a car rental, decide on the goals and details of your trip. This will help you make the right choice, prevent unnecessary expenses. Bimbarent, a vehicle rental service from owners, tells you how to avoid the most common mistakes & choose the best deal.

Simple questions to ask before renting

  • What is the purpose of the trip? Business, tourism.
  • Number of passengers
  • The amount of luggage you are taking with you? Station wagons have a larger trunk than SUVs.
  • Do you need a car for all days of the trip or for the day of arrival and departure? Sometimes it’s easier to take a taxi.

These answers will bring you closer to the right choice.

What type and size of car to choose

Different types of trips require different solutions. There are no universal [cars] for all occasions. Compact models (classes B / C) are ideal for narrow European streets (after all, no one has canceled the search for a parking space), while SUVs are often chosen not for the sake of cross-country ability, but to create an authoritative image on the road (you don’t rent an SUV for fishing or hunting). Luxury vehicles are chosen when the priority is comfort in the back row (like minivans, but they are even more expensive).

All modern rental aggregators, such as Rentalcars or Booking, have filters by type, size, price. Once you have decided on these parameters, you can move on to the second stage.

By the way, the most budgetary and passable SUV is the Fiat Panda. Sometimes it is available for rent for just 10 euros per day. This is the best offer when your task is to get from the airport to the mountains quickly and on a budget.

Compare offers

To find the best rental deals, we recommend using online aggregators. Sometimes, during the high season, branded rental agency websites may have better price offers than services like Rentalcars, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

So, the first lines in search results are often occupied by promotional offers. You shouldn’t scroll through them – there are usually no traps here. An attractive price can be a promotion from a manufacturer or a rental company. But sometimes the best price is still associated with restrictions in the rental conditions.

Pitfalls before renting

Large rental companies such as Budget, Hertz, Goldcar, Sixt, Avis, Europcar (and others) work to similar standards, but it is always important to pay attention to the specifics of the offer. Our 15 years of experience in renting will help you avoid unpleasant surprises and additional costs when returning your vehicle.

  • Place of delivery and return. The most popular option is to pickup & drop-off right at or near the airport. That is, with a transfer to the rental point (shuttle bus). If you plan to return the car in another city, be prepared for additional costs. In such cases, it is sometimes more profitable to reconsider the place of arrival / departure so that it coincides with the point of automobile pickup & return.
  • Mileage restrictions. For long trips, carefully calculate the mileage or choose an offer with unlimited mileage.
  • Insurance. We recommend buying insurance directly on the website of an online aggregator. Its cost for a budget car class will be about 70 euros. At the rental desk, they will offer more expensive options (three hundred euros), and they may block the amount on the card as a security deposit (800-1600 euros, depending on the company). By the way, sometimes premium cards, such as Mastercard World Elite, Visa Infinite, already include rental vehicle insurance. You can find out this point through the concierge.

Important: only a personalized debit card with a photo is suitable for renting a car. No exceptions are made on the spot.

Car pickup & return

  • Fuel: If you are given a car with an incomplete tank, take a photo and show it to the employee – they will note it in the documents. The fact is that you usually need to return the automobile with a full tank.
  • The condition of the car: carefully inspect the car for damage / missing elements (for example, mats) and record it in the documents. For example, we once received a fine of 70 euros for missing mats. The card was automatically charged.
  • Documentation: keep all documents, photos, receipts until you receive confirmation from the rental company that the vehicle has been returned successfully.

Following these simple rules will help you avoid unreasonable fines after renting a car, while maintaining a pleasant experience of the entire trip.

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