Renting a car can be stressful, especially when you’re trying to save money on your trip. There are so many rental car companies and search engines out there that it’s hard to find the best car rental sites. How do you know if you’re getting a good deal?
After multiple combined decades of travel all over the globe, the team here at TravelFreak put our heads together to create this list of the best car rental websites out there.
Here are the top 10 car rental sites you should know about.
How to Find the Best Car Rentals
We’ve looked through ten different rental car companies, but how do you know which one to choose? Here are some tips to find the best option for your next car rental.
Know What You Want
Booking rental cars isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. Different people have different priorities, and it’s important to know what you want when looking for a rental car company.
For many people, finding the best deal possible is the top priority. If that’s the case, less traditional sites like AutoSlash, Turo, or Kayak might be good options since they can often find lower prices.
If convenience is more important to you, you may want to stick with a more established and full-featured car rental company like Rentalcars.com or Expedia. They let you reserve your car directly through their site and even have options for buying insurance when you check out. Plus, you can use the same company to reserve flights and hotels!
Or maybe you’re picky about the type of car you drive or want a more luxurious ride. In that case, SIXT is a great option for their luxury car rentals. You can also find a wide range of luxury vehicles on Turo.
Compare Rental Car Prices
This may seem obvious, but you should compare prices across multiple car rental companies. Tools like AutoRentals.com are great for comparing across companies, but even they won’t show every deal that’s available, so shop around.
Make sure you take things like taxes and fees into account. The best sites will show you the total price including taxes and fees, but not all of them do.
Sign Up for Rewards Programs
A few websites like Priceline and Expedia have their own rewards program that lets you save up rewards points for car rentals, hotel stays, and flights.
By creating an account with these sites, you get access to discount codes and can often find the best price that isn’t available otherwise.
Read the Fine Print
Whenever I book rental cars, I make sure to understand the policies of the rental to know what I’m getting. Often the best deals have restrictions or limitations that you need to know about.
It’s always worth taking a few minutes to read the fine print to see what you can and cannot do.
Does a rental agency offer free cancellation? Are there any extra taxes and fees? Do you need to return the car with a full tank? Is there a mileage limit?
Why Trust TravelFreak?
Here at TravelFreak, our goal is to give you the best recommendations possible to help you get out there and explore the world. We are all avid travelers ourselves, and we know first-hand how frustrating it can be trying to find an affordable rental car. We want to help.
I wrote this article to give you the absolute best tools to save money (and reduce stress) when you’re renting a car for your trip. To create this list of the best rental car sites, I searched relentlessly through dozens of the top sites, testing them out and comparing prices.
I did a deep dive so you don’t have to. You can be sure that the sites on this list will help you find the best rental car prices and streamline your experience.
