A simplistic Site that offers some Great Deals!
Written: Feb 20 '08
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Needing to rent a car from the Baltimore/Washington D.C Airport (BWI), I looked around on the internet at the different rental agencies working out of the airport. Seeking just a basic car, and looking to save a little money, I was able to quickly determine that Dollar Rent-A-Car was the most inexpensive option online. On the web-site itself, it is pretty easy to find a car, simply by using their reservation search engine right on the front. You just have to enter the pick-up location (the airport) a pick-up date and the return date of your car. You can also check off that you will be returning it to a different location if that is what you plan to do. The final option you need to decide is what type of car you are looking for, but if you just want to peruse the entire list, just leave “all options” selected and precede to the cars.
On the second step of the reservation, you get to see all of the vehicles that are being offered at that specific location. At the top left they give you your information, just to make sure that you have done it correctly, and this is used to determine how many days (or portions of days) that are figured into your car rates. The one thing that stood out the most on the Dollar site, and one which I was very impressed with, was actually the car/rate page. On the page, they are able to instill a ton of information without making it seem cluttered, and making it very helpful to any users. For each car you get a listing of the car type, a quick description of the vehicle with a picture, a denotation of how many people it can hold, how many large suitcases it can hold, and how many miles per gallon it gets fills out the information provided. Finally, off to the far right, you get your rate per day, and slightly under that the total for your rental (combination of the whole rental). The only thing not provided on this extensive page is the tax rates.
Proceeding from the rate page, you are taken to the booking page with your selection denoted in the upper right. Going for a small economy car, the cost was only $31.79, and the prices went up from there to about $55-$60 for their most expensive option (a convertible I think it was). On the booking page you are presented with the total base rate, and then they figure in the concession fees, facility charges, state taxes, and vehicle license fees to come up with your estimated grand total. This does not include any insurance you might choose to put on the car, or gas fees that you might accrue. They do offer to gas up the car for you when your rental is done, but be aware that their gas prices mark up the convenience of having this, and sometimes just isn’t worth the extra cost. I prefer to gas it up myself, and save a few pennies here and there along the way. To finish up the reservation on the site, you just need to enter your name, e-mail, and phone number, along with any loyalty programs (frequent miler clubs) and you are good to go.
When everything is finished on the site, they will send a confirmation note to the e-mail that you left, telling you what your reservation was for, and giving you the confirmation code that could come in handy at a later date. You don’t have to use your credit card to do anything at the time, but you will need to present it at the counter when you actually pick up the car in person. The site made my life so much easier, because it took care of everything, and presented all of the options in such a clean-cut way. The site had a very quick load time, allowed you to go back and forward without losing any information, and was quickly accessible from my location. In fact the only minor thing that could have used improvement was when we have to decide when to pick-up the car or drop it off; I would have preferred 15 minute increments, but the site only allows 30 minute increments. Not that big of a deal in the end, and something that I can look past with the ease that this site provided me. For an unobtrusive and simplistic experience reserving a rental car online, I think Dollar Rent-A-Car is now at the top of my list.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? rental car at BWI airport
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