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New year car hire costs?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Never skied over New Year but due to kids exams etc it's the only time we can get away.

I've been looking at car hire for 4 + bags, picking up and dropping off at GVA. Costs have been coming in at over £500, is that about right for a peak holiday week?

Tried skyscanner and a few of the bigger names.

thanks,

Greg
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
US car hire rates get jacked up about 50-100% from 15 December onwards so wouldn't surprise me.
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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?
£447 for a Skoda Fabia with Holiday Autos from the Swiss side, but that's still pretty steep. At peak times, the laws of supply and demand come into play very clearly - they have a limited number of cars, and those prepared to pay well above the odds will get them.

If you are prepared to take a car from the French side, the cost is less than half that for a Peugeot 208, but you'll then have to pay extra for winter tyres (€35 per day up to a max of €210!), chains (€52), and any vignette you may need if you are travelling through Switzerland. Or you could go with the standard tyres and buy a suitable set of chains on the way for €30 and hope you don't have to use them.
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@ousekjarr, I'll need something a lot larger than a 208 for 4 people, 4 bags, ski boots and skis!
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
€206 for a Skoda Rapid at Salzburg. Just change where you ski... wink
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@kitenski, drop a third of the rear seat, run the skis diagonally, then pile the rest of the bags on top and around them. It can be done unless you're all rugby pros, or if the skis are too long for that carry a set of magnetic roof mounts for them. If you simply must have a Volvo estate, quit whining about the cost wink
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Tip 1
If your good at navigating foreign language, it can be worth looking directly on french/swiss sites as they may be cheaper.

Tip 2
Try hiring from the next nearest rental garage to the airport (or next town, etc). Especially if airport has good transport links.
This can save quite a lot of money, as airport is premium. I saved about 50% in Boston by renting downtown rather than the airport.

Try tip 2 in tip 1 language.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
argus car hire from the French side came up trumps, Fiat Tipo @ £200, but splashed out on a Jeep for £300.
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It can be a bit tricky getting back to the French side, so give yourself more time then you think + if you do not want to pay for the Vignette, be prepared to navigate through Geneva, rather than go the quicker motorway option, both there and back.
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@Cheesie168, I've done it before, and did get lost Smile good tip on the Vignette cheers.
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It's always worth trying the ~.ch landing pages of the GVA hire companies, as sometimes they have rates/vehicles that aren't shown on the ~.com or ~.co.uk ones. This varies but it's worked for me a couple of times. Go to the GVA car hire pages at

http://www.gva.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-72/

and most of the links are to the Swiss sites. There are also useful maps of the airport environs, especially valuable for those using Fernay Voltaire for the first time. Obviously look out for the usual FV trick of not having a Swiss vignette, and not having winter tyres, or chains. You absolutely need the winter tyres is my advice but that's up to you.

Beware a trick some of the comparison sites were using last season: where you pick up at the main GVA rental area, but return to Fernay Voltaire - a friend of mine 'got a great deal' which turned out to be not so great when he didn't realise and returned to where he picked up - only to be told to take the car away and again and drive it to FV, almost missing his flight.

Also check and see if you can get a discount from your employer's travel agency if they use one. At my last employer, I could go to the firm's travel rep and say it was for personal use - they'd get me a better rate than any I could on the Web, but with the Ts&Cs for a private rental. Similarly if you're a member of a professional association etc. - I get a discount on Hertz through the IoD.
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