I was searching for car rental rates for a Paris trip recently and was weighing my options as to whether I would use the shuttle from Paris’ Beauvis airport (serviced by low cost carriers like Ryanair) or rent a car. I am usually the type that likes to get a car since I like to go where I want/when I want without worrying about public transportation. While I was searching for cars to rent, I stumbled on the cheapest car rental rate I had ever seen – and I still turned it down!
The Cheapest Car Rental Rate I Have Seen
With airlines, it is not uncommon to have an airline rate that is under $1 for an international fare – with a ton of taxes, fees, and surcharges tacked on to get it up to what is more normal for that route. This could mean a total price at the end of around $600 or more – up from a $1 base rate!
I do not typically see that with car rental rates, however. Of course, they put extra taxes and fees on the rental car rates, like if the city is paying for a stadium or something and they want to pass the cost along to visitors to their city (looking at you, Kansas City), but the actual car rental rate is not usually as low as this.
When searching, I found that the car rental rate was only 56 cents per day! After the taxes and fees got done with it, it went up to $55.32. I checked with other car rental providers and that amount of taxes and fees was legitimate in that it was on top of rates that were even $20 for the day (so, that $20 was the base rate and then the $27 in taxes and fees). I couldn’t believe that car rental company was actually only charging that little, especially for summer travel in Paris!
I wonder if the car rental company(s) gets some kind of help from the airport to actually offer cars at this more remote, smaller airport location and that is why they charge such low rates? I am not seeing rates like this on all dates so it may have been some fluke. In the end, I passed because even though it was so cheap, I would have still had to pay for parking and dealt with Paris traffic. 🙂 The better option for us, that time, ended up being the shuttle to and from the airport (more on that in a future post).
For those wondering, this was from and through Avis.
What was the cheapest car rental rate you had ever seen?
Erm, you probably then not too savvy in the car rental field. Check on for instance Goldcar, mallorca, off season with it’s 4€ / week, bare prices.
Haha! Yes, I am a bit experienced in the area of car rentals and just because I have not searched for a car rental off peak in Mallorca (because I have never gone there off peak – I went there during the summer) does not mean I am not “savvy” with car rentals. Also, I know enough to avoid certain rental agencies around Europe, including in Mallorca, for their bait and switch policies with full/empty policies and refusals to refund. This was a well-known, international service – Avis. Big difference.
Also, Goldcar is notorious for giving high pressure to get the insurance added on and do not include or recognize easily credit card insurances. One more reason I personally avoid them.
Rates looked like this in Cancun when I was checking
Really? Off peak or just anytime?
Good topical post. My guess is that it is still off season for rental cars in Paris. Although tourist love Summer there most don’t rent cars. Business people rent cars and since this is basically off season for business travel to Paris (roughly). All just speculation.
I prefer to take the Roisse Bus to Opera and use public transport in Paris. Then when it’s time to leave either pick up the car on the way out or take a train to another region and rent a car locally there from a cheaper neighbor Avis, Hertz, etc. office. I just avoid Eurocar as they like to rip off tourist on the dynamic currency conversion even if they ask to pay in Euros (long story).
Oh and Kansas City. Blame KC Missouri not the Kansas side for that typical local fee. The airport is on the Missouri side and the city of KCMO is run but political hacks that all want to tax everything so they can control more money. The latest boondoggle is the proposed new single terminal airport they want to sink money into on a single bidder contract. Guess who will get to pay for much of that???
Can you give some advice on car rental in Costa Rica pertaining to government required insurance and credit card coverage.