avoid common car rental mistakes

We have all heard the famous quote "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it",
thus we have written this short to remind you of a few common issues when renting a car and share tips for how to avoid them.


Pick-up requirements
Our experience shows that the most common error is simply forgetting your driver's license at home,
thus our first tip of the day is to add the driver's license to your packing list.
Additionally, you must review the rental's terms & conditions before you book, to make sure you can meet them, and before you head out, to make sure that you will meet them.
At Upfront-Rentals, we help you avoid this pitfall by displaying the pick-up requirements at the center of the "offer details" screen and providing a link to the rental terms and conditions document before you book.

Trunk size
In our experience, the second most common problem is finding out at pick-up time that your luggage does not fit in the trunk of the rental car.
It's easy to step into this issue, as most car rental websites describe trunk space using the non-standard units of measure, "small suitcase" and "large suitcase", which can mean different things to different people.
Making things worse is the fact that most rental companies do not guarantee a specific car model, only a group/class of cars that share core traits.
To reduce the chance of encountering this issue, we suggest searching online for the offered car's official trunk size and checking to see if it meets your needs.
If you own a car or can get access to one, you can check if your luggage fits in its trunk, then find its official trunk size and compare.
Admittedly, this is not a foolproof solution, but as long as you leave sufficient room for error, you should be able to avoid this happeing to you as it's unlikely a rental company will provide a car who's trunk is significantly smaller than the one offered.
At Upfront-Rentals, we try to help by showing the offered rental car's trunk space in liters,
just keep in mind that we can only shown an estimate for the trunk size, as the car rental companies do not provide this information, they only provide the car's name, not the specific make & model.

Location location location
Location is a known pillar of marketing, and the car rental sector is no exception.
But prime locations can be very expensive and not all rental companies can afford them.
Common pitfalls include location names that give the impression the office is at a popular location like an Airport or Downtown, while in practice the office is located far away from those locations.
Sometimes the listed address is exactly where you need to pick up the car, however the address provided is for a check-in desk or a meeting point with a representative, while the cars are actually parked at a remote location to which a shuttle must be taken.
At Upfront-Rentals we check each location offered on our platform, we make sure the information provided is accurate and not misleading.

Office hours
Comparing travel products can be a long and tedious task, so many properties to compare, so much fine print to review.
It's very tempting to underestimate the importance of checking the business hours of the rental office, to simply assume that it will be open when you need it to be.
However, in practice, especially for offices located in small airports or towns, many car rental offices are not available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Flight delays and traffic jams are common and so is being late for rental pickup or return.
Our advice to you: don't underestimate the importance of checking the business hours of each rental offer, favor ones with longer hours.