 Poster: A snowHead
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I've been on many self propelling ski trips - flight, car, apartment. usually I book the car through holiday autos and have had no problems. I've also used them many many times in the UK and in the US and been very happy.
I recently booked a car from stansted and noticed things had changed in the documentation, but the most serious flaw was that the car wasn't from the airport but offsite and the bottom line was it was an hour and a half between landing and sitting in the car, I was not happy! But I put it down to a one off.
The relevance to here is that a couple of weeks ago we booked a holidayautos car for the christmas trip, 10 days from GVA. The price came back as reasonable and chains and a ski rack were quoted asnthe usual of about 30 euros for the rental period. Then the documentaion arrived. car from sixt. snowchains 165 euros, ski rack 165 euros!!
I reckon I could get more than 5 sets of chains from the supermarket for that. We cancelled it. Then I did a little digging. As of the 19th June this year the whole holiday autos brand were sold to another company, car trawler, I'll leave the reader to google their reviews....
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I got a car through them from Stansted 2 weeks ago and it was just as normal, go to the Alamo / Europcar desk by the exit and then walk down the ramp to the car park. I would not have been very pleased either if it was 1 and half hours to pick a car up.
The chains and rack charge does sound a complete rip off.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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We've booked several car rentals from Geneva over the years using the generous discount code via snowheads. Noticed the change in ownership when looking to book car hire for the coming season and were taken to a page which said something like 'thanks for previous custom, holiday autos now no longer operating etc etc' can't remember exact wording. So it's been back to scouting around for best deals ................ Anyone know of a current discount code?!!! By the way, many thanks for the discount code which was so useful for such a long time.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Booked a car at cologne airport through them in July and had to deal with an offsite company - total pain
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Tue 8-10-13 8:36; edited 1 time in total
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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While the overall experience was fine, we hired a car at Edinburgh in August and the final price, while better than booking direct, was significantly higher than originally quoted...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I've just discovered the cartrawler thing, too. I am without a car at the moment and need to hire one for family visiting next week and flying into Gatwick. Booked car through Holiday Autos, free extra driver, seemed a good price - too good as it turnes out. The documentation made it clear that it was a schlep from Gatwick to pick up the car. But "free cancellation" was part of the deal, so I have cancelled.
Looking again, the website does distinguish between those cars which are picked up from the airport terminal (more expensive) and those picked up from the back of a barn in a field 5 miles away (cheaper).
I am not always an avid reader of small print but, to be fair, the printed directions for how to get to the car weren't very small.
I haven't read the reviews (I will do though) but once you know the ropes, it strikes me that having cheap "off site" car hire will suit some people well. You get what you pay for. But clearly it's essential to be very sure what you are getting, and what you are paying for. Caveat emptor.
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hasn't on offsite rental always been a risk with HA?
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HA with the discount code always used to be the most reliable consolidator so much so that I often didn't bother shopping around. For a recent trip however they were vastly more expensive than Auto Europe and others. Notice that they've stopped emailing me promos too(maybe purchaser only got the name not the database).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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hasn't on offsite rental always been a risk with HA?
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Never in my experience, with dozens of HA rentals at stansted (usually Budget) and Chambery and GVA. My last stansted one claimed to be onsite. It was from the Hilton which is only served by a bus every 30 minutes AND you had to pay for it to get back to the airport at the end.
I forgot to say, for our GVA one, when the documentation came it was for a much smaller car than what we thought we were booking.
In the end we booked directly with Sixt at GVA french side, which seemed a reasonable deal.
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I've been getting lots of emails on several accounts from CarTrawler and I just assumed that everyone knew.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I had a few bad experiences with HA with offsite rental at Munich (a good 10 miles offsite). At least they (and other consolidaters) are now identifying where the car is, which is progress.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Never again - switched back to the big players, not brokers, other than going through airline websites for initial access - they're all much of a muchness on price anyway and very competitive these days IMO. They get it back on extortionate insurance charges - if you accept them.
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