Auto Europe Florence rental?
 

Based on advice in another question, I am renting a car at the Florence airport on a Sunday in October. We have an early morning flight 4 days later and need to return the car before the rental place officially opens, but early morning drop off is available. Auto Europe seems to have the best price and offers 0 deductible through Hertz. Any concerns about renting through Auto Europe? Seems OK based upon other forum questions. I thought the zero deductible would be good since we are returning the car before hours and wouldn't have any documentation of damage, etc.

AE is great, as is their sister company,Kemwel, which often has better prices for full coverage with zero deductible.
Do not confuse the coverages.

Thank you, Bob. Kemwel does have a lower price and lets me choose Hertz. Haven't read as much about Kemwel yet. I assume the zero deductible is full coverage, correct?

Yes. I always prefer to book by phone rather than online and try to negotiate the best price or try to get GPS thrown in.

I have done more than 15 rentals through AutoEurope/Kemwel and have no complaints. They are essentially the same company. I do phone them, always. I think it's folly to use only a website to book a car.

If you're returning before an office opens, make sure you know where the dropbox is. Be sure to place the green insurance packet as well as the keys in it. Take pictures of the interior and exterior of the car upon dropoff. Also keep the receipt you get for filling the car up before dropoff.

I recently booked the same thing - one way from Florence picking up on a Sunday, but we drop the car in Venice. My first reservation was made through Gemut.com. They were very helpful. Upon receipt of my confirmation email, I printed it out and lo and behold! it was really a reservation - for a Hertz car - but through AutoEurope. So then I went over to autoeurope's website and found the same car for substantially less. So booked the SAME deal with AutoEurope directly. I then cancelled with Gemut, and they refunded my money within one day. Very weird...gemut, while so helpful over the phone, was not interested in price matching.

By the way, I spoke on the phone with gemut several times regarding the zero deductible. I was prepared to purchase this additional insurance, but was assured by gemut that my Visa card would cover the deductible in the event of a claim (while being warned that much paperwork will be involved, which would be the case either way I suppose). This is only the case in Italy, because Italy requires purchase of CDW so you cannot decline, therefore Visa will step in even though you did not decline. So I am not purchasing the zero deductible, but rather CDW and theft with 1300 and 2000 euro deductibles...

Not that it makes any difference, but I left off a zero. I've done more than 150 rentals with AutoEurope/Kemwel.

Without commenting on the competing auto rental companies, the rental area outside the Florence airport is hidden in a tangle of access roads and can be cramped and crowded at busy times of the day. Hertz appeared to have the longest line-up on my visit in mid-June. There is a shuttle from the airport but it can be crowded too. Allow time and patience.

Thank you all for your replies. The Italy forum has been incredibly helpful planning this trip.