Insanely Cheap or just Insane?
 

I am planning a 10 day excursion from Paris to either Normandy or Provence in March and I am looking at car rental prices.

I have come across www.interrent.com ( a partner of Etap hotels) that has "insanely cheap" prices, but I can find absolutely no information or reviews of them. Anybody know anything about them? My guess is that they just started up from the looks of their website.

Any other cheap car hires that aren't like playing Russian roulette with my vacation (Easycar?)

Rick
Deltona, FL

Hi rs,

Have you looked at www.autoeurope.com, www.novacarhire.com and www.gemut.com?

When renting a car, you have to consider what backup you will get from the agency.

For example, if the car breaks down, will someone come get you and give you another car?

((I))

PS,

I compared their prices to AE for Germany and France. Interrent is much cheaper.

I suggest calling AE and seeing if they will meet the price.

((I))

PPS,

The "terms and conditions" says that all of the vehicles come with a sticker showing their logo.

See their Home page for what the car will look like.

You might not want to be advertising that you are driving a rental.

((I))

Ira-

According to their website, you can delete the advertising for an additional charge. You can also purchase additional kms cheaply up front.

All I know is what I read. I am looking for someone's experience.

I did check Nova. They look pretty good, but I have not found anything approaching Interent, especially for what is apparently a diesel in Paris.

Rick

I used Interrent a few times several years ago, and they are totally reliable. They used to have a partnership with Dollar Rent-a-Car which divorced them, I think, for Sixt.

In France, rental cars are immediately recognizable, even without a sticker on them, so I wouldn't worry about that. I can spot one half a dozen cars ahead of me at a stoplight, and I am not even a thief.

I dug a little deeper and it appears that InterRent is now a low cost brand owned by Europcar. It's all part of the Accor group, owner of Etap Hotels (along with Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, Motel 6, Red Roof Inns, Ibis, etc. etc.) -- they also operate the Carlson Wagonlit travel agency group. Definitely not a fly-by-night operation.

Hi rs,

I would call AE at 1-888-223-5555 and see if they will meet Interrent's price.

Worst that can happen is they will say, "no".

((I))

kerouac-

That's somewhat comforting, but who knows what their customer service is like after all the merging and reorganizing? They want to charge for car cleaning, so I would expect some hassles and hidden fees. But I can put up with some of that if I knew I could get help if I had an emergency.

Rick

They are clearly applying the same cost cutting techniques that made Easycar look cheap before it went under. But I would assume that they fall back on the Europcar network in case of problems. That's how I found out that Budget France is owned and operated by Avis France -- I was told to just contact Avis in case of problems and to park in the Avis lot when I returned the car. (Of course, I had rented through AutoEurope anyway, as I nearly always do.)