 Poster: A snowHead
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hi all - good thread - have any of you used carhire.co.uk - seems to be a lot cheaper from the french side - £188 for a citroen berlingo for a week in march
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Has anyone figured out how to tell Alamo from Budget on HA this year? HA seem to be wanting to add £10 per day for winter pack (tyres/chains/scraper) and saying you pay locally if you don't take this. I am going to ring Alamo & Budget now to see what they would charge locally, and indeed if they would charge locally when you turn up (maybe they have no system in place to charge locally for an obligatory feature like at least the tyres, although I know it's been said before that Sixt do). I will post up what I am told.
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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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National/Alamo say 9chf (plus VAT @ 7.6%) for winter tyres and chains - this compares to tyres and chains being included with Alamo last year - but is less than HA are charging.
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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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Budget say 10chf (plus VAT @ 7.6%) for winter tyres and chains - this compares to tyres being included with budget last year but a charge being made for chains (about 10chf I think it was - probably the same charge) - again this is less than HA are charging.
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Wed 25-11-09 17:55; 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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conclusion of my two posts above seems to be don't pay HA for winterisation and either pay locally (or see what happens). Best case, you get a car with tyres (and maybe chains) for no charge. Worst case, you pay about £6 per day locally for tyres and chains.
Unless HA is supplying cars through other than Nat/Alamo & Budget in 2010 - anybody know anything on this one way or the other?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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midgetbiker, we've always had a car from Alamo for the class we hire, apart from one occasion when it was Avis, but I think we booked that one through Autoeurope or Carhire 3000. Often been upgraded to 4WD too if snow was forecast.
On all occasions in winter, we have had winter tyres, and on only one occasion did we not have chains. Assistant at desk insisted there was no snow forecast anywhere in the Alps. Three hours later we were in an April blizzard on the Col du Lauteret in an automatic Astra . 
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Helen Beaumont, last year booking through HA I got 3 cars through Alamo & 3 through Budget. The cars will all be sat in the garage with snow tyres on (and in Alamo's case with chains in the boot, but until we've had a few people pick up cars without having paid HA's new £10 per day winterisation we won't know if Alamo will charge for the tyres/chains or Budget for the tyres. My feeling is that Alamo will charge (as they did for the bus) but Budget won't unless you ask for the chains (this feeling is reinforced by the way Alamo fired off the charge of 9chf whereas Budget insisted it would be included and had to be badgered to give the 10chf rate.
I would really prefer to book with Budget, but the question is has anyone figured out how to tell who your booking with since the rate page changed?
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Tue 8-12-09 14:08; edited 1 time in total
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midgetbiker, good question. It's one reason why I've booked with easycar for the three trips this year, and been given Sixt each time including winterisation. I had a look round the Holidayautos site and couldn't find any way of differentiating between the hire companies before paying.
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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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Just rang HA and asked about a couple of sample dates (a fri to fri in March & a mon to thurs in Jan) all the cars offered on both rentals were Alamo. Budget is still a supplier at Geneva apparently but did not come up on the searches. So I'm now thinking book the car with HA, expect it to be Alamo, budget for 9.70chf extra per day (plus bussing maybe).
Boo, Budget were much better for upgrades 
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mfj197, how did easycar compare on price?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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mfj197, never mind, i just checked and they seem dearer even with the addition of tyres by HA
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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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Anyone got any tips for cheap carhire this year from Geneva airport? I'm been quoted £300 for 10 days for a Ford Ka, last time (ok it was 2 years ago) I got an Audi 4wd turbo diesel for about £200 ( this was only a week though).
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davejsy, Car hire costs seem to have gone through the roof - a lot to do with the exchange rate I suppose . Travel supermarket.com had the best rates when I looked up Basel a few days ago.
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You know it makes sense.
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pjd, thanks. Tried them and they are also around the £300 mark 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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We usually find that www.fleeteurope is about the cheapest - it gives you a 10% discount on Holiday Autos prices, When hiring from GVA we as often as not book from the French side because it's much cheaper and, on most cars, if you request it in advance, an additonal driver is free, which is always useful. The Swiss vignette is usually on the car, saving us from having to buy one. The cars don't always have winter tyres admittedly but even when we pay the extra for chains, it still works out cheaper than hiring on the Swiss side
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Poster: A snowHead
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you can sometimes fail to get chains on the French side, even when you've ordered them. I've only hired 3 times on the French side, but got no Swiss vignette. It's still worth it if there's a big price difference - you can always pick up a cheap set of chains in a supermarket and keep your fingers crossed that they don't snap if you have to use them (the ones you get with hired cars are usually cheap ones anyway).
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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 don't seem to be able to get on the FleetEurope site at work, so will give that a go later at home.
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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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davejsy, Try www.carrentals.co.uk , for most dates it is currently £240 for 10 days for an economy car (Renault Clio) from the French side.
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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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hi
im travelling to the french alps in a few months and car hire is over £100 cheaper from the swiss side for my dates.
is it simple enough to do this and just travel to france?....
is the only CON that you have to take a shuttle bus to the car hire center?
thanks
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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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@Rom77, yes, take the Swiss side. It's not far to the car hire centre, much easier to get in and out than the French side, and will give you winter tyres. If it's snowtime, make sure you get chains too. Might cost extra. Sometimes Swiss is cheaper, sometimes French is cheaper.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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cheers pam
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Just walk from the terminal to the car rental car park. It's much quicker than waiting for the bus - literally a 2 minute walk.
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Have the EU law legality issues recently raised of taking a Swiss hire car into France been resolved?
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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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| musehead wrote: |
| Have the EU law legality issues recently raised of taking a Swiss hire car into France been resolved? |
. Not as far as I know. I hired from the French side on Saturday and I think that they don't have the desk or car capacity to cope with the winter hordes.
Ps. Snowing at 1,000m in PDS just now.
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Hired from The swiss side over the weekend. Nothing was mentioned regards to travel into the EU but they did give a German registered car.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| musehead wrote: |
| Have the EU law legality issues recently raised of taking a Swiss hire car into France been resolved? |
I believe so, yes.
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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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I've hired 20 times this year from the Swiss side and this whole EU law issue has never raised its head. It frankly confuses me! I've been stopped a couple of times crossing into France but have never been questioned on the vehicle!
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I never book through intermediaries. Yes, I know many people happily use them but they can be the source of problems which I'd rather avoid. Like most airports, GVA has a fixed set of retailers - you'll end up using them whatever intermediary you choose. I first go to the GVA.CH website and use the .ch link to each hirer to get an idea of prices: http://www.gva.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-72/ Then if I don't like the prices, I'll try the UK and .com landing pages. The .ch pages sometimes have offers not available via the .com pages, especially things like minivans or cheaper offers.
I never use the French side - over the years I've seen too many posts of problems with surcharges for winter tyres, no vignettes, no chains etc. etc. Again, some people swear by the French side but it's not for me, especially given the circuitous route needed to access it. Cue 'I've never had problems navigating to Ferney Voltaire' but I've seen just as many complaints of problems as such comments.
Joining Hertz Gold Club can be helpful in avoiding the queues (it doesn't cost anything), but not always, and they're often not the best rate. If your employer has a special car hire arrangement/code then sometimes you can use that to arrange a rental, but need to be sure it includes the appropriate cover. If you're a member of the Institute of Directors you can get a discount on car hire - this applies to lots of professional associations as well, so it's worth checking there's not a member's discount code available. However, if there are special offers on (like Hertz's recent autumn sale) then you can still find that the public rates is cheaper.
If you're going to a Swiss resort then do check that the train/gondola/bus isn't going to be competitive: see http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html - generally, we use the train+gondola to get to the 4 Valleys about 1 in 3-4 trips. But it's very dependent on the flight arrival and departure times, and how many people are going (i.e. for 4 people sharing, a car is usually cheaper). On the return trip, I find that the bus/train journey right into the airport terminal is much less stressful for the driver than the usual search-for-a-fill-up and car hire return, especially at the point when you see your car driven off to the carwash at Warp Factor 9.9 by some nutter attendant.
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FAQ
