Hiring a van can be expensive, but it’s not impossible to make a few savings if you know where to look for them. If you’re working with a limited budget, use the following tips to save some money with van hire.
Hire In The Right Season
You might know about peak and off-peak seasons when it comes to buying flights at the airport, but the rental car industry experiences them as well. There are times in the year which are considered off-peak because fewer people are hiring vans around that time. For example, people enjoy taking road trips, hiking, camping or fishing holidays in summer, when the weather is warmer. In those peak periods, van rentals will be more expensive. Look out for seasonal rates, and try to arrange your van rentals around those times to make a saving.
Look Out For Deals
If you need to hire a van every two or three months, it would be a good idea to look out for discounted rates and deals you could take advantage of. Especially in the off-season, rental companies offer promotions and discounts, so before you start the booking process, try to find a rental company that has deals you would be interested in benefitting from.
Book Early
Once you’ve found your rental company of choice, it’s best to book your van hire sooner rather than later. Anything could happen – you might need to change the date that you need the rental for, and it might be sooner than you expected. If you haven’t booked a vehicle at all, you might struggle to find a van that is within your budget, which hasn’t already been booked by someone else.
Book Directly
There are two ways you could book a van hire – through an agency, or with the rental company directly. An agency typically hikes the rental prices, so that they earn a more significant profit. That means that not only are you paying the rental company for the use of their van; you’re also paying the agency – for merely bringing it to your attention. If you see something you like through an agency, seek out the rental company and book with them directly. It cuts out the middle man and costs you less.
Be Careful With Your Booking
Even though you’re already aware of seasonal rates according to popularity and demand, you still need to be careful when you make your booking. Regardless of the season, rental companies still set their prices, and change them whenever they see fit. They could offer a lower rate one day, and a more costly rate a week later. Make sure to enquire about which days are more affordable, and to get more than one quotation so that you can compare prices and work with the money you’ve got.
Fetch The Van The Day You Need It
You might think that fetching the van the day before you need it is just being well prepared; however, it doesn’t always work out that way. Maybe you want to avoid a problem so you’d prefer having it there in case you needed it. Perhaps you tried to take it out for a test drive to become more familiar with driving a van.
These are all excellent ideas; however, they’ll cost you money on an already limited budget. If you want to have the van for longer, you’d have to rent it for a full day extra and pay for it. That means it would cost you more to have the van sit in your driveway overnight. It would be an expensive test drive. In the interests of saving money, fetch the van hire on the day that you need it so that you don’t waste money that you’d prefer to keep.
Whether you need the van to transport goods to a new location for your business, or whether you’re planning a trip with your family for the Christmas vacation, a van hire can get expensive if you aren’t smart about it. Look out for deals, make sure that you book ahead of time to avoid a problem, forgo the rental agencies who want your money, and don’t waste money on hiring it for an extra day if you’re not going to use it. Your rental company can advise you on how long you should rent the van for, and they should also be able to tell you where you can save money in off-season bookings. If you’re smart about van hire, you’ll save.
