I have heard about differences in rates before but that one is certainly striking. So I take it you are from the US but were able to book on the UK site? Did you use a US credit card and address?

I booked on the italian site which had the lowest rate for our trip to Italy this past fall. There is also an eu site that has lower rates. It definitely pays to check them all out. Used my US address and US credit card and had no problems with the booking online or picking the car up.

There have been several threads on this board about booking with AE from other country sites and paying lower rates.

I could be wrong but the UK site rate just looks wrong. Rates rarely fall below £100 a week including insurance.

There have always been huge differences between UK and US sites for same location rentals, mainly due to the differing insurance structures of each deal.

The drinking water is perfectly safe in France, just remember to pack some soap as it isn't on generally sale outside tourist areas.

Sorry wrong thread

When you check the different country sites for AE, be sure to see what is included and not included in the rental insurance coverage. If rented through the Italian or Portuguese sites you are not able to waive the CDW regardless of the credit card you use, which means that your USA based credit card will not cover any damages to the car. EU residents have to show proof of insurance when picking up the car, Americans do not, when booking through the AE USA site as the credit card company covers the CDW requirement.

I just checked the cost of renting an Audi A4 in Portugal using the AE USA, Italy and Portugal websites and there was very little difference in the rental rate, a couple of Euros, but the major differences were the CDW coverage, liability coverage and fees. These rates are based on the different country agreements each rental agency has.

It's also interesting to note that the list of cars offered on the AE USA website, and those on the Italian and Portuguese sites are not the same. You cannot rent any FIAT on the American site, only the SEAT. And you can't rent a Volkswagen Passat on the Italian or Portuguese websites, only the Volkswagen Polo, VW’s smallest car.

After I saw such an incredibly low rate on the UK site I called AE in Maine, spoke to a very helpful employee. I had a question regarding a daily road tax one year we are slapped with just as we returned the car to the Lisbon airport (Avis rental) and hurrying to get into the terminal to check in. The woman told me to go ahead and book the rental, she was aware of the UK site and I had told her the price that came up. She told me to go ahead and book the rental on the UK site then call her so she could use the voucher number I would be given to confirm that there would be no daily road tax to be paid at the end of the rental. In used my US issued cc. As this offer came through a special email offer I am not sure if I would get the same price by going directly to the UK site.....which I will do tonight.

After many years of travel to Portugal and other European countries I have found that the cars one encounters on different sites is representative of what you will rent. You only are assured number of doors, fuel type, AC.....not the exact make and model.....only a class of car. No matter which site we use twice a year and whatever car they show as representative of the rental we usually never get that make and model but whatever is on hand that fits the class, doors etc. Once in Italy it was explained as to why this was the system....too difficuly to control each and every make/model request that they would get for each rental.

Robert...your reply got me a bit nervous so I just went of the UK site, put in my rental dates got the same rate of 232 £ for 29 ays including VAT,liability , fire, CDW with excess, theft and unlimited miles. Am I missing something?