Disappearing Car Hire: wot's going on, guv??

[Hotpot]

I know times is 'ard, but this is getting ridiculous.

AVIS, who I wouldn't normally use unless working for a company whose customers ultimately finance the overseas indulgences of company employees, recently had a big discount offer on for car hire in Spain, including Lanzarote. I think it brought the price of a weekly rental down to less than a thousand quid.

Anyway. Every single attempt to get an online quote for Avis Arrecife has failed due to a "reported error" on the Avis website.

That's gone on for nigh on three weeks. So is it bye bye, Avis Lanzarote?

But I've not been bothered because several trusted posters on this forum have highly commended Anthon Car Hire. However: every attempt to get in touch with Anthon online has also failed. . . for the past three weeks.

I've just tried again tonight. No joy. So is it bye bye, Anthon Lanzarote?

If anyone has any information, or can recommend an alternative Lanazarote car rental outfit,* I'd be grateful. Thanks!

* Not CarJet, which hooks a small supplier into its franchise and then loads its "bargain" prices to a level not much lower than the distinct non-bargain Hertz. . . and certainly not Autoreisen, who may be cheap as chips but whose airport operation was a shambles (unless it's improved????)

Hotpot

PS: and please don't tell me Lanzarote is closed. We're due back out in a fortnight's time.

[Hotpot]

Anyone?

Any news about Anthon car hire?


Failing that. . . ORCAR? Anyone with recent experience?

Thanks. . .

hotpot

[Hotpot]

Well, I seem to have this thread entirely to myself.

If the following information is of any use to anyone at all who may be using this forum, or is thinking of visiting Lanzarote and is in need of a hire car, here goes:

1) CarJet, the online rental company, is anything but the bargain it once was and still pretends to be. Its online tariff is ostensibly subject to a 10% discount but as competitors offer a lower base price to begin with, the bargain isn't what it may seem.

2) Avis and Hertz rental rates are laughable.

3) Anthon car rental has been frequently recommended on this forum but the current situation is that there is no English language website and even on the Spanish-only website, none of the links for tariff, quotations, or contact are live. To all intents and purposes, Anthon, based in Puerto del Carmen, has no online / English language presence, and not much of any online presence at all.

4) Cabrera Medina is a long established rental company on Lanzarote and prices are only marginally lower than Avis and hertz. Hardly a bargain buy there then.

5. Europcar as well as Holiday Autos, both of which have UK websites, are not worth bothering with: their quotes are higher than Cabrera Medina and they don't appear to actually operate anything anyway, just act as an agency for some unknown vehicle provider or other on Lanzarote.

6) Autoreisen used to be the number 1 best buy on Lanzarote for price, vehicle, and customer service. Then two years ago it took on the agency for TUI, the Europe-wide travel company, and so what was once a small queue of Autoreisen customers at the airport office counter turned into a HUGE queue of customers with rental bookings via TUI from various parts of Europe.

Autoreisen seemed not to want to take on extra staff to cope with the massive rise in business. Queues not only built up inside the baggage hall but also in the outer, reception hall of the airport -- as well as chaotic scenes inside the garage opposite the terminal entrance, with booked cars failing to appear on time, or being readied for rental, due to the sheer volume of hirers and vehicles involved. I once spent six hours getting to Lanzarote: the flight lasted 4 hours, getting my car from Autoreisen took 2 hours. Similar chaos occurred when I attempted to return the car: the queues of people trying to collect their car were so long, people bringing 'em back were faced either with standing around for ages until an Autoreisen employee took the keys, or just going to the counter and chucking the damn things down and leaving 'em.

7) Orcar rental cars has, like Anthon, been highly recommended on this forum in the past and as we don't want to risk yet another run-in with Autoreisen's airport operation we have been happy to make an online booking with Orcar.

8) We have now received confirmation of our booking from Orcar. . . and told to report to the Autoreisen office to collect the car.

9) Orcar omits to make any mention of the fact on its website or in any of its booking processes that the airport office which it claims to have doesn't, in reality, exist. The office is Autoreisen's.

10) By booking with Orcar we have incurred a small premium over and above that which we would have paid for the same car, on the same date, from the same airport office, from Autoreisen.

11) On which basis, there's no point at all in booking with Orcar for airport collection / airport drop-off. You're going to get your car from Autoreisen's airport office anyway so why unnecessarily waste your Euros.

We are now resigned to having to deal with Autoreisen yet again.

If it has improved its operation since the last time we looked -- by recruiting more staff and giving them more office space within which to work (they seem to spend most of their time frantically rushing from one telephone to another in order to ring Autoreisen head office to check the details of confirmations which hirers already have from the company and have already presented at the counter, so the reason for all that activity escapes me) -- then I shall be happy to post an update here.

Note: as it's easy to miss the timing of posts on any forum, this note was penned on October 22nd, 2008, a week prior to our departure for Lanzarote.

Hotpot

[seanieboy]

Hello/ola everyone, great forum you's have here.

1st time to PDC and this island and 1st time to hire a car over here.


Hotpot, thanks for the advice you have posted here. I am going out on sat the 8th Nov and I've just booked a hire car for a week off Autoreisen's @€80

Can I pay cash and do I need a large enough credit limit on my card? I would prefare to pay cash there if anyone knows if that is possible!

I'll be arriving around 6pm and will be in a bit of a hurry to get to PDC, so is it likely there will be a large queue?


Thanks in advance for any help.

[willow]

We've been using Autoreisen for several years (several times a year) and last year they went through an awful patch that made me start considering changing.

However for the last 6 months they have been absolutely fine. Yes, their desk is busier than the other rental companies but they are also a lot cheaper.

We're in Lanzarote at the moment and our collection on the 16th October was fine - no queue.

Our family came out on the 23rd and collected 2 cars from them with no problem.

Yes, you definately 100% need a credit card in your name. 99% of hire car companies insist on using a card.

[seanieboy]

Thanks for that Willow. I do have a CC in my name but I always prefer paying cash or debit card.

I just don't like bills and try and avoid them at all costs :pbat

[DrRobert]

I've used Auto Martinas in Costa Teguise for nine years and they've been absolutely fine. Competitively prices (about 120 euros pw for a Corsa) and they will often bring the car to the airport for you and let you leave it theri on departure. Phone/fax no is 0034 928591737.

They're a small, family company and very helpful.

[seanieboy]

It's okay Doc, I've now booked with Autoreisen, a weeks rental is €80 so I'm delighted with that.

As I live near the border with the R.O.Ireland. I get a really brilliant rate for my sterling. So it's working out at £56 at todays local rate here :wow

[Hotpot]

Willow / Dr Robert:

Belated thanks for that info, much appreciated!

Have filed away Auto Martinas details.

I'm wondering if the forum might in 2009 consider running a listing of recommended car rental companies on Lanza, at the moment it's all a bit piecemeal and some posts are inevitably out of date.

seanieboy: have a great trip and bring some good weather with you. . . :cool

[new boy]

a bit late to help those already posted but for any future car hire needs try www. playa-blanca-car-hire.com i use them every time, you don't need to queue at the airport and if you prefer they will drop you a car at your hotel, apartment, villa and you don't have to pay on-line. brilliant service and very friendly, english speaking staff.

[sheik]

Visit http://www.lanzarote.com/rent-a-car/ .
Lanzarote.com work with the best agencies vehicle Canaries

[michellediva]

Why are you deleting my posts? :sigh

[RobertK]

I know the feeling m8, figure it out.

[MADSTOCK]

Methinks this Forum is going to get even quieter than it has been!!!

[grav888]

I tend to agree. Shame really.

[Shaz1509]

I had my best experience yet with car hire in Lanzarote in Feb/March 2008, after having been there four years running. Try PlusCar using this page: http://www.reservas-pluscar.com/res/booking.php?lang=en. Just put in your dates and it comes back with all their cars and prices. If you are just after a small runaround for two of you, they are very competitive. The car we were given last year, a Peugeot 207 if I remember rightly, was in perfect nick, having only about 4k on the clock - yes, it was virtually a brand new car! They have offices all over the Island and their staff are very friendly and helpful. Hope this helps!

[bobby]

We used elizabeth cars up behind the top gun bar but i have heard it has gone now sham it was a good company for a mini bus or a seven seater:sigh

[Hotpot]

Thanks to bobby and shaz for updating this thread; car hire is an important topic where visitors are concerned.

On our last trip -- when we were conned into using Orcar because it seemed an independent company but then turned out to be part of Autoreisen -- we did note a couple of new operators at the airport itself (offices, I mean, not people with clipboards.)

I did write down the details but of course have now lost 'em. But at least one seemed comparable with Autoreisen. Then again though, Autoreisen may by now have gobbled that up as well.

Hopefully there'll be a continuing range of hire companies to choose from and not a contraction because of the Brits realising car rental's now around 30% more expensive than a couple of years back.

And hopefully Lanza will continue to draw in visitors whether their native currencies are the sodding awful £ or the bizarrely over-rated Euro.

We won't be back though for a few years: Lanza's always going to be our "best place under the sun" but the time has come to stop forking out loadsa money for airborne cattle trucks disguised as planes, for the tedium of airport check-ins and the steely gaze of security controls, for the feeling that you're as much a piece of baggage to be processed as any other baggage, and for the expense of car rental at journey's end.

Sod flying, we're going back to the open roads of rural France: until last summer's return after 25 years we'd forgotten how cheap it still is for two people to use their own car and settle down in places just as much off the beaten track as the haven we have in Lanza.

C'mon on, Tourist Board. Build us a Euroroute link from Ashford to Arrecife!!

[cartecredit1212]

car hire is disappeared.. why?

carte de credit