We will be renting a car in Edinburgh driving around Scotland and returning the car to Edinburgh. Are there specific car rental companies to avoid? Ones that are better than others? Or should we be fine with the usual companies--EuropCar etc? Thanks in advance!

Use rates offered by Autoeurope and Kemwel as a base to compare rates from local companies.

I almost always use AutoEurope and occasionally Kemwel. They are brokers that take your specific requirements and offer the full range of your collection/return dates and location, w & w/o full coverage, all size classes, and stick/automatic on one page and you can pick the one that fits best. No need to hunt around. I've found that probably 65-70+% of the time AutoEurope will be cheaper, close to 30% Kemwel is cheaper, and once in a blue moon you can get a better deal from a local agency. But as a check . . . see what your airline offers as a package with the flights.

This is a good point. It's often the case that a package of flight, hotel and car can save a lot of money compared to those things bought separately. Even if you only book a hotel for a couple of nights - say the first two or three before the road trip - the savings can often be dramatic, especially if you want to fly in a premium cabin, like business class. Look at this thread on Flyertalk for example (just addresses American Airlines, but can be replicated for other carriers.) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/prem...vacations.html

I've never found a package of flight + car rental to be less expensive that booking separately, but no harm to check it out for your particular scenario. Flight + accommodation= yes, cheaper in alot of cases.
As well as Auto Europe, I've used rentalcars.com, holidayautos and economycar rentals successfully, this is the extent of my shopping around. IME it does pay to compare the various wholesalers.

Two companies definitely to avoid are Green Motion and Easirent. There are two long running threads on Trip Advisor concerning them.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTo..._Scotland.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTo...d_Kingdom.html

>>I've never found a package of flight + car rental to be less expensive that booking separately,<<

Maybe because you are based in Europe?? Dunno . . .

Once I flew to Edinburgh and rented a car through the airline as a package deal, and the business class airfare plus car was slightly more expensive than the full fare economy fare. Another time I did Business class to London and 3 nights in a 4 star hotel for less than the business class fare alone. Both were huge bargains (any ground arrangements be it hotel or car or both make it a package)

BUT booking separately can sometimes be cheaper. Takes research . . .

We used Arnold Clark and were very happy with them.

​​​​​​Do price things separately as well as a package. Don't just assume that the package will save you money. I've tried it both ways many times, and have always saved money buying separately. I've rarely rented a car, though, and generally fly economy.

Of course this is good advice; I'd never recommend taking anything on faith.

However I just did a little tryout using American Airlines' vacation site for an imaginary trip to Scotland in June. Details:

Passengers/occupants: 2
Dates: 8 - 22 June 2020
Air: Round trip business class on BA, Seattle - Edinburgh (change planes at Heathrow outbound, Philly inbound)
Hotel: Jurys Inn Old Town, 4 nights (many hotels to choose from, with impact on the total price in the $0 - $1000 range, e.g. staying at the Caledonian)
Car: Avis VW Golf or equiv., automatic transmission, unlimited miles, full insurance, 9 - 22 June (so would need to pay for parking in Edin.)
Total cost from AA Vacations: US$6025 ($3013 per person)

Same items booked separately:

Airfare, same flights, same class of service: $9607
Hotel: $994
Car: $526
Total booked separately: $11,127 ($5514 pp.)
Difference: $5012 or 46%

If you were to hold the hotel and car costs constant (and there's no guarantee this would be the case, but possible as neither Avis nor Jurys are all that tied to AA) the net cost of the flights on the package would be $4505 for 2, or $2253 per person.

Now like I say, this might be a fluke or it might not be, but potential savings along those lines shouldn't be disregarded IMO. Certainly it's worth the effort to check things out.

That has been my experience as well. That's one of the reasons I'm able to fly Business . . . because the AA packages save me literally thousands of $$$. My latest trip (got home in the wee small hours Saturday) I didn't use a package but because I flew out ON Thanksgiving Day, Business over and First class home was not much more than Business over/coach home on other dates. But with typical fares/dates, packages can save easily 40-50% (or not -- that's why you need to check packages AND straight fares). One small detail -- If you need to accrue dollars to make or maintain FF status - the full amount of the package doesn't qualify -- they prorate and don't give you credit for the hotel or car $$$

And you don't need to book a car for the entire time - nor a hotel. Just a few days of car rental and/or a minimum 3 nights hotel.

Thanks so much for all of the options--we already have flights--booked them with miles so they are free.

I think the savings are mostly on the business class flight. The cost of business class is rather elastic. I almost never fly business class, and I don't often rent a car. When I make a comparison, I check the hotel cost on booking.com, and the air fare on various sites, including the airline web site. When I do book a car, I generally use expedia.it .

I tried to make a comparison with your prices, but I don't think it's possible, because they take location into account, and I'm in Italy. The cost of the car rental I found (same class of car) is much lower, but that may be entirely dependent on my location. I found a somewhat lower cost for the same hotel and flight (Aer Lingua) as well.

All I can say is that when I make a comparison with my parameters, I rarely save money with a bundle. One of the reason is that they propose a limited selection of hotels, usually with chains, and searching all hotels on booking.com, I find a number of better prices for hotels in the same category, and with higher ratings.

>>One of the reason is that they propose a limited selection of hotels, usually with chains,<<

That has not been my experience at all. AAVacations for example offers MANY hotels in all class/star/price ranges and definitely not just chains. And it usually works just as well for economy fares. I just mentioned the discounts make Business Class more affordable for me.

But the OP already booked their flights so not a viable option for him.