Why is car hire in Italy so expensive?
Written by Karen Bryan
I’ve been looking at car hire prices from Rome Ciampino airport for nine days in mid May. I’m taken aback by the high prices, the best price I can find for petrol supermini such as a Renault Clio is £254 with Econony Car Hire, including two drivers and no insurance excess to pay.
by casewell_tom
I recently booked a diesel Renault Clio car in Spain for 10 days in February 2009 for our reccy trip to search for Our Own Place in the Sun for only £82 through Economy Car Hire. Now I know that May is higher season than Feburary and the pound has fallen by around 20% against the euro since I booked the car hire in Spain at the beginning of December last year.
In the interests of fairness I went back to the Economy Car Hire site to check the current rental price for ten day hire in Spain for our dates in Febraury and it’s now standing at £101 for a petrol Ford Fiesta. I then checked the price in Spain for our proposed dates in Italy and the lowest price for a Ford Fiesta was £158.
However I still think that £254 for car rental in Italy, more than 50% higher than price of £158 in Spain is unjustiably expensive. For the trip we had in mind a car would be essential but the high price of car rental in Italy is a deterent to visiting Italy.
I share your frustration, as I’m planning a trip to Italy in May as well and had considered renting a car for part of our trip. Our inability to drive a car with manual transmission is especially frustrating, as the prices jump tremendously.
I’m unfamiliar with car rental companies in Europe, do you find the conglomerate sites (like the one you mention) offer comparable prices to individual companies? My frugal self always assumes that going straight to the source is always the cheapest option, but perhaps this isn’t the case. My dreams for driving in Italy this trip may have to be put off until another trip.
Kelly, I have always found that car hire internediaries such as Economy Car Hire and Auto Europe are cheaper than dealing directly with the car hire company, illogical I know but the same is often true for accommodation.
I’m sure that the prices charges for automatic tramsmission must be high.
I have just booked car hire in Italy for a week in June and found it for £92. This is for a small economy car but adequate as there are only 2 of us. I booked this through Expedia which after looking at loads of websites was the cheapest I could find.
Abby, that’s a great price for car hire for one week in Italy, can you tell us that name of the car hire company? Does that price include no excess insurance as some companies have excesses of several hundred euro if your hire car is stolen or damaged.
Oh, but we actually find car hire in Italy so reasonable compared to many other destinations in Europe – and especially compared to Australia where we’re currently researching a book.
We’ve hired several cars in Italy this year and we’ve booked all of them online with Holiday Autos – we use them a lot all around the world and they are generally pretty good – however, we had a few problems with their partner in Italy, which was Thrifty from memory (different countries, different agents), and on one occasion the car we booked wasn’t there to pick up and they took no responsibility – it through our plans completely out of whack and wasted a day, however, Holiday Autos told us to get whatever we could find in Rome and they would refund the difference – and they did. Another time we turned up without printing out our reservation confirmation (we’d never had to show a print out before) and there was no way the woman in the Milan office was going to hand over the keys even though I was showing her the email confirmation on my laptop. I phoned Holiday Autos and they had to fax the confirmation. They did and it looked exactly the same. Bizarre. Aside from those hassles, we’ve always found their prices to be the lowest.
I work for Auto Europe. Naturally price depends on the time of travel and pick-up location, but there are some really good prices available for car hire in Italy this year, so please don’t let the prices you’ve seen so far deter you from visiting that beautiful country. A self-drive trip is definitely the best way to make sure you don’t miss out on some of Italy’s less obvious best bits.
Lara – I have used Holiday Autos in the past and was happy with them. However I haven’t found a good price on their site for ages. I prefer to book through a UK based agency which gives me some reassurance and come back if I have a problem with the supplier and it does sound as through Holiday Autos have offered great customer service to you when there was a problem.
Gemma – I have used Auto Europe several times but have found that the price never includes a 2nd driver and there is an additional charge of around £5 a day for this which pushes up the overall price.
Hi Karen – Holiday Autos is a UK company actually (I think it’s affiliated with Last Minute although don’t quote me on that.), so if there’s a problem I call the UK and they’re good about phoning straight back. I’ve never found a price that beats them – and I think they may have a policy on that, that they’ll beat prices – but as I said, they use so many different agents around the world, from reputable ones to dodgy ones and that’s where the problems lie.
I’m just trying to hire a car in Australia at the moment for 2 weeks, and it’s interesting – you look at the websites, and you’ll see the results of your search come up and the prices are $47 a day for instance for an all-wheel drive, but then when you get the total it’s $800 (!) after all the taxes and charges have been added. Ouch.
I love hiring in Dubai, where I’ve lived for 11 years and where residents get discounts. I just ask them what’s the cheapest price you can give me at the moment, and they’ll quote something, and I’ll say, you can’t go lower than that? C’mon what’s your best price? YES, we even bargain over rental cars there! Syria, Lebanon and Morocco are the same. And then they’ll even deliver the thing to your door and do the credit card swipe with the machine in your home. Heaven!
WOW what a price. I have just rented a car from Rome airport via Gostar Direct and I only paid €79 for the week.
http://www.gostarmedia.com/car_hire_Italy/Car_Rental_Rome%20Ciamponi%20Airport.php
Hope this helps some people to make savings
Adam,don’t know how you managed to find car for £78 for one week, I8 just checked on your link and lowest price for 7 days in May was£`60 with 6.5 euro extra per day for additional driver and 23 euro per day for all inclusive insurance.
[...] know it, we were thinking of a trip to Italy in May but between the high prices for things such as car hire and the low value of the UK pound against the Euro we decided against [...]
Auto Europe can’t be “beat”…for either the final price/price matching/price-beating they’ll ultimately give to you or the terms. Check prices on all the sites mentioned above, as Holiday Auto might show a cheaper rate than Auto Europe for your dates. If it is, have that lower Holiday Auto quote sent to you by email (they have a user-friendly site that allows for this), but then call Auto Europe to tell them you can get the rental lower than their price. They’ll ask you to email the quote. Don’t just ask them to “match” that quote; ask them to “beat” it. I did, and it worked! Not only did they beat the Holiday Auto quote, but the lower price they gave me was on the usual Auto Europe terms (can cancel/change at any time without penalty v. Holiday Auto requiring you to buy cancellation insurance) AND the price was ALL inclusive, even included the daily road tax that is usually charged locally and appears on your credit card after you return the car!
Stephanie- thanks for your comment. It is well worth challenging the car hire firms to beat a competitor’s quote.
I have just looked at the price between Gostar and Autoeurope gettign a quote for inclusive car rental, same week, same car. Ford Fiesta inclusive with Gostar 174.05 Eur with Autoeurope the same car is priced at 185.60 GBP which on todays exchange rate is 197.95 EUR. Gostar do seem to be the cheapest and you dont have to send emails for them to be the cheapest. I have used Gostar 7 times in the last 7 weeks on my business travels and have always found them to be cheapest and the services is fantastic and they are correct in their statement “What you see is what you pay” I will continue to use Gostar http://www.gostarmedia.com
Marcus – thanks for your imput comparing car hire prices.
If renting a car is expensive in Italy, wait until you get the final bill.
We rented a car from Europcar last summer and are still paying their administrative fees. Total extra charge is now 120 euros with taxes. We did not pay a highway toll and will get a fine for that, that is understandable. Still, after one year we have not received the invoice for this traffic violation. However, we have received two administrative fee invoices from the rental car company. I don’t know what the other fee is for.
Rental car companies do not have to explain anything about the traffic violation caused charges they are invoicing.
Well, that is what you can expect from a Berlusconi land, I suppose.
Raija – thanks for your comment. I know exactly how you feel, we commited a traffic viiolation (but we don’t know what) in Pisa last May and yes the car hire company just charged you us informing us. When I saw the admin charge and the fine on my credit card statement I thought it was some sort of fraudulent transcation by someone who’d managed to get hold of my credit card details because it was almost a year after the car hire.
However when you sign the car hire contract, you are giving your consent for payments like this to be made without prior warning or explanation.
Hi there,
I work for Auto Europe and have to say that we have very competitive prices for car hire in Pisa.
The best time to explore the Tuscany is in Autumn and Spring. In September a car for a week will cost you £112. That is not bad?
I love Tuscany, it is my favourite region in the world!
Hope it helps
Maria
Maria – thanks for your comment. Does the price of £112 include only one driver and is there any insurance excess to pay? What type of car is it for?
Karen,
The price I gave you does not include refundable excess and it is only for one driver. An additional driver costs around £4 per day.
The car is a Fiat Panda 2 doors.
I always recommend to get refundable excess! Normally, it is an extra of £10-£12 for the whole duration.
Hope it helps
Maria
Thanks
Maria
Another thing about Italy, make very sure you fill the thing up all the way before returning. Highest costs I’ve seen anywhere!