Hertz deal (Hertz Rent-A-Car)

Member Name: REALTRAVELLER

Product:	Hertz Rent-A-Car
Date:	31/10/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap deal

Disadvantages: What will happen after deal?

I have a long experience in terms of renting cars both for business and leisure.

Personally, I found that Avis is normally the cheapest option, and because in the end all cars are the same, I tend to rent with them. When I need to book a car for business purposes, I go via our travel agent. They used to book me with Avis or Europcar or Budget (which by the way is not that cheap!)

However, last month we signed a deal with Hertz rent-a-car. They offered us to beat any offer we had for 6 car companies as part of a promotional deal. Since the company I work for is very big, I think it makes sense for them.

The way they structured the deal is a bit cumbersome since they offer our agencies what they promised would be "unbeatable rates" and if we find a cheaper rate, they offer to match it. The bottomline is that our travel agent is now booking cars with Hertz as part of this promotional deal and I know as a fact that they give us the cheapest rate since on our internal system I have loaded the offers from other car companies for comparison purposes.

So, last week I booked a car in Milan, Italy for 3 days. It was a class B car, an Opel Astra and it cost 93 Pounds with basic insurance for 3 days.

Picking up the car was easy, the contract was already ready and the car was brand new, with only 200 kilometres. I was told I was the first client. I went to the parking area, checked if there were any scratches, the car was really immaculate.

I did not have any problem with it, and when I returned there was one person in front of me, and I had to wait 5 minutes at the till. I then asked to inspect the car and close the contract, as I normally do with any rent-a-car company and left.

Having said all this,each time I asked for quotes in the past, Hertz was more expensive than other firms.

The service I received was great, but I believe that after the promotional period they may no longer be the best alternative. The other thing I did not like is that when I asked our travel agent if I could book through this promotion personally I was told that it would be possible, but only if I paid with our corporate card, which I cannot, because the deal is for my company and not the employees individually.

Summary: Cheap deal..and after?