Autoeurope rates difference
 

Has anybody ever noticed how Autoeurope car rental rates vary based on the country/language you select on the website? When you select the country via the flag icon, you are re-directed to another version of the web site. The rates vary quite a bit depending on what country you select.

I am renting a car in Italy and I got 4 different quotes depending on what flag/country I selected on the autoeurope.com web site. The most economical rate was the Italian version of the site (www.autoeurope.it). The difference in prices range from $150- $200 cheaper.

I called the customer service for the american version to inquire about this and try to get them to match the cheapest price and this is what they told me. In a "vague" kind of way they said that customers from different countries have different expectations and so the rates vary based on that. So there are some other subtle differences in the terms and conditions. For example, they told me that with an american reservation you can cancel up to 48 hours and if you cancel after that they only charge you $75. With one of other countries I tried (Italy, Spain), it's 72 hours and the cancellation fee ranges from 2-3 days of rental to the entire rental period (so a week if you are renting for a week). I am not sure on the insurance coverage because on one site, it gives me details and on the other site, it omits all details and it just says "zero deductible, extended cover". I tried to select exactly the same car, pickup and dropoff locations, etc.


They said that there is nothing preventing customers from making a reservation using the website of another country, even though they don't live there but that the rental place would probably be expecting the driver to have a license for the country's web site they used to make the reservation. The word "probably" makes me think that it may or may not be the case.

Has anyone who lives in the USA ever tried to make the reservation via a non-american autoeurope web site even though they live in the USA? If so, did you have any problems doing so? And if the savings are worth the risk of any problems I might run into when I pick up my rental car.

Please do share any experiences you've had with this situation.

I have had a similar experience with Ryanair with prices notably cheaper on the Italian site rather than the UK or Irish site.

All car rental companies do this. It is perfectly normal.
Airlines do it too.

As do websites like Eurostar -- different fares depending on which version of the website one uses.

Totally normal . . .

<i>Has anyone who lives in the USA ever tried to make the reservation via a non-american autoeurope web site even though they live in the USA?</i>

I looked into it but in my experience, where the CDW can be carried by my US credit card, there is no advantage to the foreign rental--Italy may be an exception because the US credit cards will not insure cars rented in Italy. Moreover, some contracts have mileage limitations that the U.S. contracts do not.

We have been told here that you can, in fact, use the various "foreign" sites and that you can do the rental without difficulty.

For an upcoming Nice to Lyon one week rental, I checked a couple of the Autoeurope sites, and the US one actually gave me the best deal, so I booked it. Then I got a surprise of a notice that they'd also include a free GPS. They actually mail it to us at home in the US before we go, and we mail it back in a pre-addressed mailer after we get home. I suspect that was a nice bonus I wouldn't have if I had booked it on one of the "foreign" sites.