Let's negotiate with the Car Hire Firms

[Danglar]

Has anyone  thought of  setting up a club of  established home owners to negotiate  discounts (real!) on car hire rates in exchange for a  fixed, prepaid number of car hires a year ?

At present some rates look attractive only  to find out,  during the booking process , that there is a minimum of 3 days hire and that insurance premiums also have  to be added on  for  safeguard.

So,  how about being able to do without these restrictions in exchange for , let’s say, a group (size to be defined yet) contract of 12/18 or 24  week ends (or longer) hires  a year per member ? Or even  use the commission upfront  , by reinvesting it in the scheme and  lower the cost.

We ‘d then be free to chose whether to travel by air, by ferry or train to any destination that offers the cheapest foot passenger fare  and then jump in a “economy” category vehicle for the final section of the journey ? 

Let’s diminish the worrying about the  ferries vehicle “absurd” prices !

Anyone in the car hire business ?Let me hear of your ideas, knowledge, experiences  etc. either on this  forum or by emailing me directly (not the forum mailbox, pls. I always forget  to check it !).

It is  of course a scheme that would appeal only to the established house owners who  no longer have to arrange transportation of goods to/from France.

 

Nino Danglar

www.maison-rene.co.uk/maisonrene.htm

danglar@maison-rene.co.uk

 

[Owens88]

I would be interested.

 

By the way I have a problem that somebody might help with. We have a party of 7 or 8 going skiing. Staying at my place (plus overflow) therefore need to drive. 4 adults 2 cars is what we are doing.

 

For flexibility it would be good if any of the adults could drive any of the cars (we cannot pre-plan when somebody might want to do a non-skiing day or who would be in that party). However we effectively have to pay the extra driver premiums as though there are 8 drivers. I cannot tget the hire companies to accept that the risk is not doubled. Any thoughts ?

[Quillan]

Have you considered short period leasing. Many of our clients who are traveling round Europe for more than 2 weeks go this route. You don't even have to return the car back to the same country.