Compare car hire deals

The freedom to explore at your own will, a practical way to transport the family around, avoidance of public transport… whatever your reasons for hiring a car on holiday, the most important thing is getting a good deal that works for you. Finding the best car hire deal goes far beyond price. Remember that the cheapest car hire offer may not necessarily be the best one for you. When you use TravelSupermarket, we give you all the information you need to find the right deal, whatever your budget.

While it’s likely that you already know where you’re going and roughly how much you want to pay, there’s a lot more to consider when it comes to hiring a car abroad. Fuel policy, car type, transmission, pick-up location, the number of doors, and whether the vehicle features air conditioning… there’s a lot to think about!

Luckily, TravelSupermarket is designed to make life easier for you. Simply type your destination and travel times into our search bar at the top of the page and we’ll do the rest. Once you’ve reviewed the range of car rental deals on your screen, you can narrow down your search results using our useful filters. We work with some of the biggest names in the business, such as Avis, Enterprise, Alamo, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt and National, so that you can compare a range of big name brands and find the best deal for you.

If you’re after something different to a traditional hire car, you can also use TravelSupermarket to compare mini-bus hire, one-way car hire, and longer term car hire rental.

Top tip! A larger car may not be as expensive as you think, so do check the costs of both small economy-size cars as well as larger models to get best value for money.

1. Pre-book online

Save a fortune by pre-booking your car hire online before you travel. Walk-up rates at airport and downtown locations are much more expensive. Not only can you save significantly, you get a range of options to browse in your own time, and can avoid the pushy sales pitch at the desk.

2. Arrange your own car hire excess insurance in advance

Car hire excess insurance is a must for car rental – it is designed to lower the expensive excess you would have to pay towards the cost of repairs if you had an accident. However, you can end up paying over the odds for a policy at the rental desk when compared to buying a standalone policy in advance. Book with our partner, iCarhireinsurance, and save up to 65%.

3. Take your own infant and child car seats

Most airlines will let you take a child car seat for free. So, avoid the over-the-top fees charged at the rental desk and take your own with you. Your child will be familiar with it and you’ll enjoy the savings pocketed.

4. Don’t bother with the rental sat nav

Renting a sat nav from the car hire desk can soon become expensive, so avoid this if you can. Instead, check if yours can be used abroad, take an old-fashioned map or use your smartphone – both Google Maps and the iPhone Maps app allow you to download the data required to use your phone’s sat nav offline.

5. Consider your fuel policy carefully

Think about the fuel policy that will be the most cost-effective for you. For example, full-empty policies mean that you’ll have to pay for a full tank of petrol, probably at an inflated price, at the rental desk then return the car empty. Instead, look for car hire firms that allow you to return the car with the same amount of petrol it had when you picked it up. On TravelSupermarket, you can filter your results by fuel policy type.

Fair fuel policy

A fair fuel policy (also known as full-to-full or same-to-same) means you’ll only pay for the fuel you use. All car rental deals compared on TravelSupermarket come with a fair fuel policy, so you can book your hire car safe in the knowledge there will be no nasty surprises at drop-off. More information on TravelSupermarket’s commitment to fair fuel policies can be found here.

No hidden fees

All rental deals compared on TravelSupermarket include mandatory fees (for example, one-way and young driver surcharges) in your rental quote at the time of booking, meaning you’ll know the full price of your car hire upfront.