Between the rental automobile scarcity, already-inflated gasoline costs, and elevated demand because of the pandemic, automobile rental companies have gotten costlier (and troublesome to search out) over the previous few years.
Whether or not you’re touring for leisure or enterprise, there are nonetheless a couple of methods to search out nice offers on rental automobiles. One of many best is to make use of an app that exhibits you a full record of accessible automobile rental businesses that will help you examine and choose the very best ones to your journey.
On this article, we’ll break down the very best automobile rental apps for each enterprise and leisure vacationers, based mostly on pricing, availability, flexibility, journey administration instruments (for enterprise vacationers) and extra.
To higher examine every of those low cost automobile rental apps, we searched every app for a 3-day midweek rental in Chicago, IL for dates two weeks out from the time of writing. We’ve included comparability particulars for these searches inside every part.
Finest general automobile rental app for enterprise journey: TravelPerk
For enterprise vacationers, TravelPerk is the very best general automobile rental app. As one of many few automobile rental apps that caters on to enterprise vacationers, TravelPerk has all the options and options it’s essential to make enterprise journey seamless and stress-free.
Not solely does TravelPerk supply the widest number of company leases and charges, however it’s a user-friendly, all-in-one platform that permits enterprise vacationers and journey managers to guide automobile leases, flights, lodging and extra. Groups can even handle journey itineraries, prices, enterprise bills, VAT refunds and so forth.
Talking of VAT, firms who guide by TravelPerk have entry to their VAT restoration resolution, serving to you save as much as 25% of your annual journey price range for journey all through Europe.
Key Options:
- E book, handle and report on enterprise journey and bills multi function platform—seamlessly join your automobile rental to your different enterprise journey plans.
- Entry the largest worldwide company stock for automobile leases, with firms like Avis, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz, Nationwide, Sixt and extra. Plus, with unique charges, you may get the very best offers each time.
- 24/7 buyer assist offers assist for you or your workers in a median of 15 seconds.
- Get 80% of the associated fee again for canceled journeys with FlexiPerk, with out worrying about particular person cancellation insurance policies.
Pattern Pricing:
Charges for our search began at $47.60 / day, for an estimated complete of $142,81 for the whole rental interval.
What’s Included:
- 3-day rental for a midsize sedan
- insurance coverage and legal responsibility safety
- cancellation coverage
- limitless mileage
- VAT restoration resolution
Finest general automobile rental app for leisure journey: Priceline
For those who’re touring for pleasure slightly than enterprise, Priceline is difficult to beat for the very best automobile rental choices. Priceline’s intensive community, together with rental automobile firms like Avis, Alamo, Hertz, Enterprise and extra, units it aside by way of ease and affordability.
Priceline is a web-based journey company that helps you discover low cost automobile leases by metasearch capabilities—that’s, looking many automobile rental manufacturers and reserving web sites directly and delivering the outcomes to you in aggregated outcomes. With so many choices, you may simply type and filter by insurance policies that matter most to you. As well as, they provide unique offers and bundle choices so you may guide your automobile rental together along with your airfare or lodge to save lots of much more.
Key Options:
- Categorical Offers assist you to save as much as 40% off record costs by reserving an “unbranded” rental automobile. You’ll discover out the model of the rental automobile after the reserving is full.
- E book your automobile + lodge collectively for extra financial savings.
- Type and filter outcomes based mostly in your rental and coverage wants.
Pattern Pricing:
Charges began round $25/day for automobile leases, for a complete rental value of round $140 for the journey. The most cost effective automobile rental consequence for our search was an Categorical Deal for a rental automobile from Ace, Economic system or Fox, however there have been 15+ automobile rental manufacturers included within the outcomes.
What’s Included:
- Mid-sized sedan
- Limitless mileage
- Airport shuttle to rental automobile pickup location
Finest automobile rental app for normal, short-term leases: Zipcar
For those who usually want a rental automobile—whether or not for driving to fulfill shoppers across the metropolis, taking weekend street journeys or simply getting extra provides for the workplace—Zipcar is one of the simplest ways to get low cost short-term automobile leases frequently and a nice different to ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft.
Zipcar operates on a membership mannequin, so all customers pay both $9/mo. or $90/yearly for a membership. From there, charges begin round $11/hour for drive time.
Key Options:
- Positioned in most main metro areas within the US (at present 500+ cities).
- All the things’s included—insurance coverage, gasoline, roadside help, and extra.
- On-demand leases from the Zipcar app.
- Leases are parked at varied Zipcar areas across the metropolis—get fast leases with out having to drive to the airport.
- Extra financial savings for enterprise accounts makes Zipcar a straightforward possibility for on-demand “firm automobiles.”
Pattern Pricing:
Charges for our search began at $83/day, for an estimated complete of $249 for the whole journey interval. Whereas Zipcar is unquestionably one of many most cost-effective choices for fast journeys, its every day charges will be larger than different choices.
What’s Included:
- Insurance coverage for all journeys
- Gasoline (as wanted)
- 180 miles per day ($0.58 per mile after that)
- On-demand rental system, with hourly (as a substitute of every day) charges
Finest peer-to-peer automobile rental app: Turo
Turo is a peer-to-peer automobile sharing app that permits you to hire automobiles instantly from automobile house owners in your metropolis—like Airbnb, however for automobiles. Two main advantages? Flexibility and price financial savings. Renting a automobile by Turo is commonly less expensive than renting by a conventional platform.
Turo is especially handy for those who’re not heading to an airport throughout your journey. Because it’s a peer-to-peer service, you’ll sometimes decide up your automobile rental at a location across the metropolis. In some circumstances, you may even have the automobile delivered to you for a price.
Key Options:
- Cheaper costs than conventional automobile rental firms.
- Plenty of last-minute (same-day or next-day) availability.
- Availability in 7,500+ cities throughout the US, Canada and the UK.
- Reductions for prolonged journeys (7+ days or 30+ days)
- Automobiles situated all through town, versus a single pickup location.
Pattern Pricing:
Charges for our search began at $27/day, for an estimated complete of $82 for the whole rental interval. This was the most cost effective automobile rental possibility we discovered for our search.
What’s Included:
- 3-day automobile rental for a midsize sedan
- Fundamental insurance coverage + legal responsibility safety
- Free cancellation as much as 24 hours earlier than the journey
- As much as 600 miles (extra miles billed at 0.14c/mile)
Finest automobile rental app for flexibility: Getaround
Significantly for leisure vacationers, it’s powerful to beat the flexibleness of Getaround. Getaround is a peer-to-peer automobile rental app, just like Turo. Whereas Getaround’s search and reserving UI isn’t as intuitive as Turo’s is, they do supply extra flexibility than Turo (and most conventional platforms).
As a peer-sharing platform, it doesn’t supply all of the “perks” related to conventional automobile rental platforms. For instance, many more moderen automobiles (2018+) on Getaround cost premium charges, way more than you’ll pay for the same automobile with a conventional rental firm. Nonetheless, for those who don’t thoughts driving an older mannequin, you may rating some wonderful offers.
Key Options:
- Means to guide a automobile hourly slightly than by the day—solely pay for the time you actually need.
- Get monetary savings by reserving older automobiles.
- Obtainable in 300+ US cities and extra worldwide.
- Plenty of last-minute reserving choices by way of their iPhone and Android apps.
- Automobiles are situated across the metropolis, so you’ll find one close to you.
Pattern Pricing:
Charges for our search began at $4.50 / hour, for an estimated complete of $100 for the rental interval.
What’s Included:
- 3-day rental for a fundamental midsize sedan
- No charges for cancellation made a minimum of 24 hours earlier than your rental
- As much as 200 miles per 24-hour interval (so our instance journey would have as much as 600 miles included)
- Fundamental (restricted) insurance coverage safety, with the choice to buy extra insurance coverage
Finest automobile rental for European journey: Europcar
With over 3,000 areas throughout Europe and worldwide and common reductions for well-liked areas, Europcar is a superb possibility for vacationers in search of low cost rental automobiles in Europe from a dependable supplier.
Europcar additionally presents options for enterprise vacationers comparable to journey administration instruments, contactless key pickup for sooner check-in, self-service instruments and extra reductions.
Key Options:
- Privilege members save a minimum of 10% off all leases between 3-21 days in size and might earn factors in the direction of free leases.
- Fewer charges than different conventional rental automobile manufacturers.
- On-line check-in by way of the Europcar app lets you save time on the counter and begin your trip even sooner!
- Extra reductions and hassle-free check-in for enterprise vacationers.
Pattern Pricing:
Charges for our search began at $68/day, for an estimated journey complete of about $204.
What’s Included:
- Midsize sedan
- Limitless mileage
- Fundamental legal responsibility and insurance coverage safety
- All driver charges
- VAT restoration
Finest automobile rental app for frequent flyers: Hertz
For those who’re on the street typically, Hertz is among the finest rental automobile apps for you.
Not solely do they provide low cost automobile leases and an intensive community, however their membership program lets you earn factors in the direction of free automobile leases, free upgrades, frequent flyer miles (for taking part airways) and extra. Membership is free, so it’s completely value becoming a member of for those who journey and hire automobiles continuously.
As a conventional automobile rental model, Hertz additionally has automobile rental areas on the majority of main US airports, so you may hop off the airplane and hit the street ASAP—no managing pickups at your lodge or different secondary areas.
Key Options:
- 8,500+ areas worldwide.
- Finest Fee Assure—they’ll value match for those who discover a cheaper Hertz automobile rental value on another web site in addition to theirs.
- Gold Plus Rewards program enables you to earn rewards with each rental.
- Speedy pickup and dropoff utilizing their cellular app—skip the road on the counter!
Pattern Pricing:
Charges for our search began at $65/day, for an estimated complete of $272 for the rental interval.
What’s Included:
- Normal sized electrical automobile
- Limitless miles
- Free cancellation for the primary 24 hours after reserving
- Fundamental legal responsibility and insurance coverage protection (in some states)
Finest automobile rental app for evaluating choices: Kayak
Kayak is a third-party search aggregator that searches each direct reserving platforms in addition to different third-party websites to provide you as many choices as attainable.
Since Kayak is aggregating so many outcomes, you may simply filter and discover the best automobile for you. For instance, you could possibly type your search by rental model, automobile choices, coverage choices (comparable to limitless mileage or free cancellation), pickup location and extra.
When you’ve discovered your ultimate automobile rental, you may examine costs for that automobile throughout varied websites, such because the direct supplier and different OTAs, after which resolve the place to make your reserving.
Key Options:
- Extensive community of each rental automobile and reserving choices—you’re certain to search out one thing that works for you.
- Value alerts notify you if the value drops.
- Search and examine throughout a number of reserving websites directly to search out the very best deal.
- See non-traditional choices, like Turo and business automobile choices, proper inside the search outcomes.
Pattern Pricing:
Charges began round $40/day for a complete of $115 for the whole journey interval. The most cost effective conventional model discovered was Routes Automotive Rental.
What’s Included:
- Free cancellation for as much as 48 hours previous to the rental
- Limitless free in-state mileage
- Airport pickup choices
- Insurance coverage insurance policies and extra charges can differ based mostly on rental automobile model—examine prematurely what will probably be required earlier than reserving