Properly arranging a car rental will make your trip even more enjoyable
As Deutsche Welle notes, most of the advice is universal, meaning it makes sense to familiarize yourself with it regardless of your place of residence and purpose of travel. Only the first piece of advice is addressed directly to residents of Germany, but it is also universal if you replace Germany with the country where you live.
1. For German tourists traveling abroad, the ADAC club recommends booking cars through companies operating in Germany in order to have all contracts and documents in German, and in case of misunderstandings or disputes, to resolve issues directly with the rental or intermediary company in your home country.
2. The rental day for a car is 24 hours. If you pick up the car, for example, at ten in the morning, you must return it on the corresponding day before ten in the morning. If you can pick up the car later or plan your trip schedule optimally in advance, you can save a whole day of rental instead of paying for an extra day due to a few hours.
3. When concluding a rental agreement, ADAC recommends the "full-to-full" option, i.e., taking the car with a full tank of fuel and returning it with a full tank, as the refueling rates of rental companies can far exceed the actual costs. To further protect themselves, German experts recommend filling the tank completely just before returning the car and keeping the receipt – to have something to show in case of any claims.
4. When choosing insurance for a rental car, you should not skimp, i.e., it is best to take out a contract for full coverage of all costs without deductible (German: Vollkasko), including full protection against theft. The liability insurance amount (German: Haftpflicht) should be at least one million euros. According to statistics, insurance problems most often arise from broken glass, scratched rims, and damaged tires, so these points should be given special attention when concluding the contract – i.e., the insurance policy should cover them.
5. The ADAC club recommends choosing tariffs without mileage limits, so that if you exceed the limit, you do not have to pay inflated prices for extra kilometers and do not have to think about it at all, because on vacation, as they say, a detour is no big deal. Who knows where you might suddenly want to go?
6. Be sure to discuss additional services in advance – for example, the provision of a child car seat. Rates for these services can vary greatly between companies and can lead to a significant increase in the total rental cost. For example, renting a child car seat on the Spanish island of Mallorca costs between 50 and 80 euros per week in the summer months.
7. If you need a navigation system, also find out the cost of this service in advance or take care of an alternative: bring your own navigator or download maps for an app on your mobile phone, keeping in mind data charges. The savings can be up to one hundred euros per week.
8. When completing the booking process, the contract must specify the total final amount, including all insurance and additional options. Otherwise, unexpected additional costs may arise on the spot, sometimes very significant.
9. If the rental location does not have cars of the booked category, companies offer customers a free upgrade. Before accepting this tempting offer, ADAC experts strongly recommend making sure that it will not entail unplanned expenses.
10. After receiving the keys, before the first trip, you should carefully inspect the car and check whether all existing scratches, dents, and other damages have been entered into the vehicle handover protocol. The inspection when returning the car should be carried out in the presence of a representative of the rental company, after which you must obtain a written protocol confirming the absence of new damages or containing accurate information about them.