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Rental car availability at Heathrow

Seems that the stock of rental cars is greatly depleted since the last time we arrived at Heathrow before the pandemic. Has anyone tried to book a car for May or June 2022 yet? Any insider info on the rental car situation?

Posted by
1117 posts

Angela
You might do better posting this on the England forum?
Jacqui (Skyegirl)

Posted by
6534 posts

Not sure where you got your information, but you should have no trouble reserving a vehicle for those months, right now. If you reserve a car, the company is obligated to get you a car, even if it gets it from another company. If you want an automatic, I definitely suggest reserving now as there a fewer of those, and always have been. The closer it gets to May/June is when you could run into availability problems.

Posted by
565 posts

I have a month long rental in May booked through Auto Europe for pickup and return at Heathrow. The booking was made months ago but I check regularly to see if the price has dropped--it hasn't. There are cars available but they are pricey.

Posted by
2822 posts

Our experience parallels Katheryne's: ie limited availability and high prices for a 2 week one-way rental in June.
I continue to try different providers for better deals with no success - AutoEurope continues to offer the best options and pricing.
The only trick I can suggest is to broaden your search if possible - to compare picking up and dropping off at city locations versus at a nearby airport. I saved some money by returning our car at Southampton Airport versus in nearby Portsmouth which is our final destination for example.
Might also be worth exploring whether it would be cheaper and easier to just take the train to your first stop and commence your rental from there.

Posted by
184 posts

We have a 19 day rental booked for May, picking up in Inverness, dropping off at Glasgow.

We booked it in November, and the price appears to have almost doubled for it since then.