Avis (Avis Rent-A-Car)

Member Name: AGONYAUNT

Product:	Avis Rent-A-Car
Date:	16/09/09 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Normally cheaper

Disadvantages: Only one argument

Avis rent a car is one of the largest and worlwide firms for car and van rental.

Their uk website is www.avis.co.uk or www.avis.com from where you can select your own country.

I have rented with Avis in Germany, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland, Austria, Spain and Italy.

I normally reserve my car in UK, please note that their website is currently having problems and the reservation number displayed are not correct. The one which works is 08445 445 566 from within uk.

I normally check prices from Budget, Hertz, Europcar and Avis and most of the time Avis is cheaper. I also found that there are discrepancies in price if you reserve a car calling the UK number, or the local one. With the last booking I made in switzerland, for example, I paid 130 Pounds for 3 days for a small class A car and it was nearly 200 Pounds if I booked via the Swiss website!

As I said, I book over the phone, they are very fast and I normally do NOT prepay, unless I am 100% sure I will take the car. Some time i make the reservation in advance in the event that I will be abroad in that location for a long weekend. the difference bwteen prepaying and paying upon pick up is less than 10%

Once i arrive at the location, I go to the desk, fill in the contract and get the car. Most of the time there is no queue or little,, but in some cases, like Barcelona, the number of staff is ridicoulsy inadequate and I remember on one occasion I had 7 people in front of me.

I always check the car in detail. It is easier during the day than at night. Once in Finland we took the car from the airport, it was 3 of us, we checked for scratches and we missed a couple of scratches which we believe were there already because we had parked the car overnight in a place with no cars next to it. When we returned it, they wanted to charge us of it. We argued this, and they called the supervisor and in the end they gave up. It was good that we had arrived at the airport with enough time to discuss, otherwise I think they would have charged.

All the cars I got form Avis worked well, I cannot say the same of Europcar, more of that on the review on them, so in this respect, also taking into consideration that most of the time Avis is cheaper, I still think I can recommend Avis.

Summary: Recommended