Enterprise Car Rental Online: An Easy Way to Reserve a Car and Compare Prices
Written: Mar 07 '04
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When we found we’d have to leave our Ford minivan with the dealer for a few days while a warranty-covered bit of body work was taken care of, I immediately decided that we would rent a car for the time, rather than accept a much smaller car as a loaner from the dealer.
The Enterprise Rent-A-Car website is quite simple for anyone to understand. The main page asks simply for your zip code, city and state, or airport near which you wish to rent. Add the dates needed for your rental, and narrow it down by the class of cars if you’d like. It’s that simple! The car classes are explained in greater detail by clicking on a link below this selection. Examples are given of the cars in each class, which made it easy to decide which class would best suit our family of five’s needs at the best price. I chose Show Me Everything just so I could compare prices of the various classes of cars.
Once that selection is made, Enterprise Rent-A-Car then brings up the nearest locations. This is where I found that rates can differ greatly. When I chose the Enterprise location closest to my home, the rate for a full-size vehicle was $284.99 for a week, $324.18 with all the taxes and fees. I like the feature that gives the total cost of the vehicle, rather than just the rate. It’s nice not to have the price suddenly jump when I get tot he counter.
However, because of the difficulty I would have in getting my minivan to the dealer and back to the Enterprise location nearest my home, I selected a location a few blocks from the dealer that was actually more than five miles from my home. The price for a full-size rental there was only $227.99 for the week, or $259.34 with all of the taxes and fees. That’s quite a big difference! The first location I had chose was not in an airport, nor particularly close to one, so I can’t imagine why there was such a great difference in rates.
Once I had decided the location to rent from and the class of car I was going to rent, making the reservation was quite simple. The basic information of my first and last name, my home phone number, my email address, and what type of credit card I would be using is taken over a secure connection. Optional information is gathered on this page as well, including address, driver’s license number, and date of birth. If you’re uncomfortable with sending that kind of information over the internet, that’s fine - you don’t need it to make the reservation. It does, however, speed up your time at the counter when you arrive at the rental location. All of my information was printed out on the form when I arrived - there was no reason to stand around and wait for the information to be taken down. A phone number to the location I’m renting from is at the bottom of the page should I want them to come pick me up.
Once I’d made the reservation, I printed up the confirmation page. A confirmation was also emailed to me. If I wanted to go back in and change anything or cancel, it was easy to just go to the main page and key in my confirmation number.
The way the site is set up really helps with being able to locate the lowest rate, as well as what would be the most convenient for me at the lowest rate. Of all the car rental sites I visited, Enterprise’s had the lowest rates and the most convenient locations for me.
My only complaint is that for reservations for many of the upper-end vehicles like SUVs and minivans, the only option I had was to call the rental locations directly for pricing. I would rather be able to compare the rental rates for these easily, to decide if I would want to choose them over the full-size rental, rather than making the phone call and feeling like I’m being put on the spot to decide whether or not to take the offered rate. I don’t know if this is true for all of the Enterprise locations, but it was for all of the locations I checked out in my area.
However, I felt the Enterprise Rent-A-Car website helped me a great deal in getting a car to suit my needs in a short time without it feeling like a tremendous chore. If I were to rent a car from Enterprise again, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it through the website.
© 2004 Patti Aliventi
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? car rental
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Member: Patti Aliventi
Location: Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire
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