Booking.com car rental

Just in September, I rented a Sixt car at the Ljubljana train station through AutoEurope. I think if you enter the pick-up time for 8am or afterwards, you will see cars available at the train station location. If you try to pickup or dropoff outside of the office hours it will show no cars available at that location.

BTW, the Sixt rental location is now located on the same main road about one-half mile east of the train station building, due to adjacent construction of Ljubljana’s new train station.

Not booking.com, but I almost always use expedia for car rentals. I never use it for anything else, but it often has so much better prices that it is worth the risk of having to deal with them if something goes awry. So far it has always been fine.

Having said that it is usually North America, we seldom rent a car in Europe.

I used a booking to rent a car in Brazil and it went really well.

You don't say how soon you are going, but I hope you will give a review of your experience when you return. I have not used Booking.com (Always autoeurope) but would like a back up. I believe that Autoeurope uses a third party for the insurance as well. At least a car rental agent said that is how they did it. J

Perhaps this is unfair on my part, but ever since my flight to Florida was canceled in March of 2020 (hello, COVID!) and I could not get to my destination where my rental car awaited, and Booking wouldn’t give me a refund or credit in any amount, I’ve avoided using them. When I’m in Europe, I generally use the train or coach to get around, preferring not to drive. We did, however, rent a car in 2024 in Puglia. It was not with Booking.

One of the reasons for getting CDW from the rental company is to have a "walk away" situation, regardless of what condition the car is in upon return. (Maybe not so easy in Iceland, but we're not talking about wind and gravel here ... ... ) Anyway, the fourth-party insurer you are proposing to use is not going to be such a seamless (or today, "frictionless") situation. You may even have to present evidence of coverage to rent the car in the first place. I have not rented a car in type of country where credit card insurance (for instance) might be withheld by the card company, if you get my meaning. This seems like a poor source of economy to me. (Age 74).

Tim, good point, I just reviewed the purchased CDW coverage, and would work the same as my chase card (at no cost). I’ll give auto Europe a call.

I’ve used booking.com for the same reason you mention - it was cheaper. Had no issues. I never take additional insurance and have my own separate policy that covers hire cars. This is very commonly known about in the UK as the most cost effective way to insure yourself. My policy is £50 annually for Europe only.

I have only had to claim once after I scraped a door in a tight underground carpark and it was straightforward. In Europe you are only ever liable for the excess on a car which is typically €1000 or so. Any credit card will cover this while you put in your claim on your own policy.

I haven't rented a car in Europe in several years, since we do group tours now (we are. in our late 70s), but previously I had great success with US car rental companies.
Had a bad experience with Autoeurope booked us with Europcar.
Europcar didn't provide us with the car that we booked, but an "equivalent."
The equivalent wasn't satisfactory and didn't have a nav system. Renting a GPS was going to cost a ridiculous cost.
We had to upgrade to another vehicle that cost double what we had booked.
Never had that problem with Budget or Hertz.

Someone mentioned opening hours. Sure enough, Europcar closed at noon on Sunday and I entered 4 pm. Autoeurope still doesn’t show a zero deductible, but I was able to book direct through europcar with zero deductible for $317 for 6 days, picking up car on a Monday instead.

Thanks for the advice.

I have never rented a car outside the United States. I rented a car 3 times. I reserved the cars on booking dot com all 3 times. I selected the option for a specific model car or similar or best available. I picked the cheapest option because a single person traveling alone would be a fool to request a vehicle that is bigger or higher class than necessary. Two of the rentals were in Florida. One was in California. I never selected the option for extra insurance on booking dot com, but then at the car rental counter, I got the extra insurance. I thought that in the unlikely event I had a problem, it would take me more effort to make a claim with the extra insurance from the affiliate of booking than to just pay extra for the maximum amount of insurance the rental car company could sell me. I suppose if you get the polity from the affiliate of booking, tell the rental agent that you do not need any insurance and you already got extra insurance from the affiliate of booking.

I just returned from Greece where I used Booking.com for my car rental and a couple hotels. The more I use the sight, the more I like it. I have had zero problems with reservations and the pricing seems good.