Just booked a car rental from Auto Europe in France for 10 days and was looking at booking one for Portugal
Pickup and return at Lisbon airport in July for a 5 day rental and shocked at the pricing 6 months in advance.
Not sure if the pricing will come down in a couple of months or this is normal but the rates are double the Nice, France rental for half the time from the same companies with the same level of car and services offered!!!
Maybe it is just a high seasonal premium?
We have found car rentals in France to be less expensive than other nearby countries.
Yeah but Italy last year was similar to the France pricing (maybe 25% higher but same ballpark) and even very pricey Norway when I went 5 months ago was a good amount less than the rates I am seeing in Portugal.
On a daily rate this looks to be 4x the Nice, France rental for like vehicles. Actually more 4.5x for midsize and about 3.5x the daily rate for compact.
I was planning on renting Midsize but may go with Compact since the costs are unexpectedly so high.
Approx. 125 euro per day on the lowest cost midsize with manual and no insurance or extras ; that does not sound right and that is with a 6 month in advance purchase!
This is with AutoEurope but I tried other sites and seeing similar pricing. Was hoping for Europcar, Avis or Sixt.
For whatever reason Hertz seems to have a really bad reputation at Lisbon so I am avoiding looking at them.
They don't even come up on AutoEurope's Lisbon search and I think there is a reason for that.
Not interested in dealing with some low cost scam place, just complaining, letting others know and curious if there is logic to the madness.
This does seem excessive, I have never paid more than $70 a day and that was with super CDW and an automatic in Ireland. I think you are looking at a seasonal premium. You're better off with a compact, and look at different sites as well. Costco used to do rentals but not sure about international. Also look at minimizing time with the car to the days you really need it.
Yeah, think I will go compact ; don't want economy size cause there are 3 of us plus luggage so compact is as small as I would go.
Usually I pay the extra for midsize as you often get a car that is fully equipped with midsize rentals in Europe, which if you are driving a good amount can be worth the expense.
Already booked hotels for 5 nights in out of the way places along the coast so the days we must have a rental car are fixed.
Probably going to just wait a month or two and see what happens, I cannot imagine the pricing going higher in the short term.
I don't know the reason, but I do see lower rates in May for example, at $425 for 5, 6, or 7 days. I would wait and check again in a month or so, especially if you're open to more than one size. While they're always promising best price, we have seen "Sale!" promotions on AutoEurope's site in the past year.
Did you take look at Sixt. I just put in dates in July and got lower prices that you are quoting. We have had good luck with them
I did go to their site and got the same high rates
There site the first price does not include taxes then you proceed to checkout and it adds huge taxes to the total
Are you seeing good rates from them on their site or elsewhere?
I saw good Sixt rates on discovery rental or something similar to that name through Kayak but I am not sure that is a trusted source
I once read on this site to try AutoEurope.eu website. I just compared the two and vehicles are available at substantial savings on that site compared to their .com site.
Another thing I learned about AutoEurope is to check the current cost of your rental periodically. My past two rentals with them dropped substantially and they adjusted the price.
I have used autoslash.com in the past for many different car rentals, in the Azores and mainland Portugal as well. Saves me money and time by not having to continually check if the price goes down. It is a very easy website to use.
Wanted to update this thread with the latest update as I found both the information Philip and Carl provided to both be quite valuable.
Thank you both Philip and Carl!
So I tried Auto Slash per Carl ; had read something about them previously and seems a cool service.
They showed some great rates from Avis booked through Priceline. Much better rates than I had seen elsewhere and with Avis who is usually higher priced.
I booked and felt it uncomfortable they took nothing down on me of importance, no payment at all, no credit card, no DL or anything other than my email.
I felt like it was a great deal but had this fear in the back of my head that I could show up at the counter to bad news, a rare case where not provided a credit card or payment made me feel worse.
I have an Avis confirmation# but seemed odd they did not want anything from me to secure the reservation.
Auto Slash though did prove quite valuable and it is not their fault Priceline didn't want a credit card or any type of payment guarantee from me. I will use Auto Slash in the future, especially for US rentals where I am more comfortable with the whole process due to no language barriers and unfamilarities.
So with that fear in mind I tried what Philip said and went to Auto Europe.eu
No clue why but the rates for Lisbon where much better than on the .com site
Rates I could stomach and much different for both Compact and Midsize cars.
So I booked with Auto Europe.eu a Europcar and then went to Priceline and cancelled my Avis reservation.
The Avis through Priceline rate was less expensive for same car class, about 40 euro less! But since I was comfortable with the cost and been happy with Auto Europe when I have used them previously I decided to go that route.
Hopefully my loyalty to using them does not bite me back by using their EU site.
Interesting, I plugged my already booked dates for Nice, France into Auto Europe.eu and the rates are actually higher than those on Auto Europe.com for both car types ; so EU is not always cheaper.
Car is now booked, problem solved and Thank You to all who responded. Some good info in this thread
Hopefully no downside to using the .eu site for USA based address customers ; but I will over the next few months occasionally check both sites to see if either rates drop.
They both are fully cancellable without charge.
I recommend no car rental at all. The taxis are reasonable and the buses to the outlying towns (like Sintra, or Fatima) are super. Don't drive in Lisbon. Subway system is easy, but for several people a taxi is almost as cheap.
No plans to drive into Lisbon.
Have booked 2 nights at a remote resort hotel in Lagoa on the Algarve Coast ; no public transit will bring me there
and then 3 nights in a hotel in or next to Azenhas do Mar ; a place where possibly a bus may go to but no way am I going to navigate to the remote beaches along the coast and in the sites in Sintra on a bus from that spot.
So assuming I am happy with my lodging plans and daily plans of what to do ; which I am. My only option is to rent a car.
Will drop the car off back to Lisbon airport after Azenhas do Mar so will not be driving into Lisbon at all or any city while in Portugal.
I should mention this is a photography based trip, so my needs and wants are a little different than most.
If I want to be at a place for sunrise at 6:00 ; that means I want to be on location at 5:00, for me to do that I often need rental cars where others may be able to get to the same spot at 9:00 with other means of transport.
