AP6380

My question is, has anyone ever "bit the bullet" and tried a hotel, car rental co., etc., that hasn't received praise on travel boards?

Rent.it's price for an automatic with all the insurance coverage is about $400 cheaper for 10 days than autoeurope. Their website looks really good and they have answered all my e-mails promptly. They do require that I make the full payment now to secure the reservation.

m_kingdom2

If you've spoken to them, then there's no problem. If the car is relatively new and modern, no safety issues. Smal companies like money in advance as they cannot afford to cover losses with short notice cancellations!

Singletail

i think it would be fair to say that the LARGE MAJORITY of travelers do not rely on "travel boards" for any information whatsoever. Call it a difference in need levels, self-sufficiency, or whatever. If you are concerned about not getting an asnwer to a post about the car rental it could be that nobody has done what you did, has an answer, etc., which could be another erason why most folks don;t rely on travel boards, too.

But I've decided to come to your rescue:
since you feel so good about your deal I say GO FOR IT!!! (and enjoy your trip, too).

SiobhanP

It could be a small family business on the Island who do not want to strike a deal with autoeurope. Go for it.

AP6380

Thanks for the reality check- most people definitely don't use boards to research. Also, they don't necessarily seem like a small business, they appear to be partnered up with many other companies (or they represent these other companies).

AP6380

2 months later- has anyone here used this company?

cmt

I don't know anything about this, but I can sympathize with the problem of needing an automatic car in an area where they're almost impossible to find. I thought there might be opinions posted about this company on various Internet forums or on sites that compile ratings of tourist businesses. But my Google search was unsuccessful. It's very hard to do a search for "rent.it," "rentit," or "rent it," as I'm sure you already found out before even posting this question. You can just take a chance and rent with this compnay, and probably it will be fine, but have a "plan B" (or several) just in case things go wrong and you end up carless. (That's usually a good idea in Italy anyway, since often things don't go as planned, because of assorted screwups, but there are usually interesting and enjoyable alternatives and nice people willing to help.)

Christina

I found tons of web sites mentioning that company on the internet, most in the UK or Italy. But, they were just listings of the company or ads. I don't think you are going to find very many consumer reviews of local car rental companies, or even big rental companies.

I usually book hotels that aren't praised on travel boards -- almost exclusively, actually. I prefer hotels that aren't recommended by a lot of folks. I do my own research based on what I want to spend, features, and the location I want, make common-sense judgments on my interaction with them and the rates/presentation, and then just book based on my gut feeling. Maybe just luck so far, but I've never had a bad experience yet. I do review some guidebooks for hotels, but I think I have usually ended up with ones that aren't popular.

Anyway, it's just a car rental, I don't think that much can go wrong unless they just don't have the car you reserved. I don't know what kind of rates you are getting, but that rate difference alone is rather amazing as that's about the bottom line of what I've paid per day to rent an automatic with insurance in France (about $40 per day). I think there is just not as much in Sardinia, of course.

It's clearly not a fly-by-night company out of some guy's house or it couldn't be advertised in so many places.