Kavey

I have two rental car bookings to make for my upcoming trip to Japan.

I was thinking to book via ToCoo! again - we used them for our 2013 Kyushu car rental and that was fine. They have also sent an email in late November advising previous customers how to take advantage of a special distributor's rate.

But I'm struggling to navigate their website to work out my options.
I've also tried Hertz and Nippon Car and struggling with those too.

1st booking:
4th April 8 am car pick up - from Hikone station
5th April approx 5 pm drop off - Either by our hotel (APA Hotel Kyoto, at east end of Shijo Dori) OR we can drop off in Northern Kyoto and bus down to APA.

I can't even work out how to locate nearest rental car offices, let alone get further along to see car types and prices!

2nd booking:
16th April 8 am pick up - somewhere in Kanazawa (checking out of Hotel Trusty)
22nd or 24th April -- details depend on whether we should return it in Nikko on arrival, return it in Nikko when ready to leave, or return it somewhere en route back to Tokyo on departure?

Can anyone help? I'm really really struggling here!

mrwunrfl

I think I can help walk you thru a booking at Toocoo.

Go here: http://www2.tocoo.jp/en

See the map with buttons for regions. Hikone is in Kinki region so click on the Kinki button.

Now you see a map of prefectures in Kinki. Hikone is in Shiga-ken, so click the Shiga button.

Choose your pick-up and return date/times.

Under pickup location you see Shiga is selected and under that "All areas". Click on that All areas dropdown and choose the opotion Hikone City, ...

Under Return Location, choose Search by Area (radio button) and choose Kyoto. Next to that is an All area dropdown with several Kyoto dropoff locations.

You would want to now identify the ward (ku) that is best for dropoff, but the first option is Kyoto station, so choose that one for now.

Now under Choose Rental Car Brand, check the box for all three options.

Click Search.

mrwunrfl

For your dates, I see only one result and it is at Time Car Rental Maibara Ekimae.

Scroll back to the top and, next to the return date/time, check the Undecided box and do another search.

That shows that there is a Nippon Rental Car Hikone Ekimae location.

Kavey

Thanks MrWunrfl,
I'll try it that way tonight and see if I can book.
Is it possible that rental cars are already fully booked for April at this stage?

mrwunrfl

IDK

Kavey

No worries! I know April is the busiest season, so that's my worry. I need to try again following your kind guidance, I haven't had a chance since I posted.

Kavey

Thanks so much, I made the first rental car booking yesterday, using ToCoo! Suddenly all the sites (Nissan, Nippon, Orix, Hertz etc. all had availability for April, so perhaps they operate like hotels and don't bother loading more than 3 months ahead?

It was a bit of a struggle finding the best options in terms of pick up and drop off depot, but I think I've gone for logical choice.

Waiting on an answer on some questions about Nikko before I work out return date on the second rental and go ahead and book that.

Thanks again!
Kavey