Alright, you think I would have figured this out by now... got turned onto this site...they quoted me a price of $640, for 1 week automatic, still pricey but $200 less than the Auto Europe. They say they are affiliated with them,and get good deals because of larger transactions.
Has anyone heard of these folks...good, reliable? I would hate to get to Florence and find there IS no car reservation...
thanks for any help (hope I can make it for the next 7 weeks until we leave!!)
Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.Many of the companies will quote a price without tax,VAT,collision damage etc.If that is included auto europe will match the quote.I am guessing it is not,hertz also gives a lower quote but it is not inclusive.Credit cards almost always do not cover for collision damage in Italy.RR
Posts: 6501 | Location: Culver City, CA, USA | Registered: 08 November 2002
Never heard of them and don't find them on Google. Have you got a web site? www.initaly.com is for a vacation rental agency. Be sure you are comparing apples to apples - are all costs included in the bid? You could also try calling AutoEurope to see if they will match the price.
I have used InItaly.com for rentals before and I got a car thru Eurpoecar with no problem. I have used Autoeurope and found the same or similar pricing. I think the advice to make sure its apples to apples is right on, as the extras are almost a third or more of your rental. Look at air[ort pickup surcharges as well (14%).
Meet my lawyer-- Gianni Schicchi!
Posts: 4611 | Location: Casa del Fenicottero Rosa, Silver Spring, MD USA | Registered: 06 August 2002
But www.initaly.com is the vacation rental agency. Do they also do car rentals? I was just on their site and did not see anything about that.
Someone reported earlier that the Parker Company got better rates for AutoEurope than if you book with them directly. Perhaps this is the case with In Italy.
Are you booking hotels or vacation rentals thru them too?
My only experience with Parker is over an apartment that we found on the net: Torre del Sasso in Cagli, Marche. We rented the apartment for about $600 direct from the owner and it was almost $1000 thru Parker. Same flat. It would have to be a HIGE discount on the car to justify renting thru Parker in my opinion. Printing those huge catalogues must cost them a fortune!!!!!
Meet my lawyer-- Gianni Schicchi!
Posts: 4611 | Location: Casa del Fenicottero Rosa, Silver Spring, MD USA | Registered: 06 August 2002
quote:Originally posted by Pauline: But http://www.initaly.com is the vacation rental agency. Do they also do car rentals? I was just on their site and did not see anything about that.
Yeah they do rentals . Their price though works out to about the same as Auto Europe though so I would cut out the middle man. BTW, I dislike them (In Italy) so I am a bit biased. Don't like Parker either as Dean has confirmed their price gouging. I rented directly through owner and it was $750 for a villa but Parker wanted $1850.
I leased a car through InItaly last year and had no problems at all. So, pricewise if you are really looking at "apples and apples", I wouldn't hesitate to work through them.
Posts: 73 | Location: Bangor, ME USA | Registered: 27 October 2002
Initaly.com is a wonderful company and an even better web site. I have advertised with them for years and find them very capable. However, Autoeurope will match any quote and are hard to beat for problem resolution after the fact.
BOB THE NAVIGATOR blittle@net-magic.net
Posts: 1844 | Location: Chapel Hill NC | Registered: 25 October 2001
Yeah, Parker Company is amazing for how much they mark up the rentals. That is why they give them different names - so you can't Google and find out what someone else lists them for.
But they are the largest vacation rental agency in the US and they do have good listings - we have many good reviews.
Ron, okay, I know this was none of my business, so I hope you're not offended that I butted in, but I had to call Hertz today for another client, so as long as I had them on the phone I asked about rates for your case just out of curiousity. Of course, I have no idea what car you want, where you'll be picking it up, and when you'll be in Florence, but they gave me an Opel Corsa 1200 automatic transmission the week of 21-28 June with pickup and dropoff at the Florence airport, unlimited km, tax, insurance, airport fees etc. incl. for 304 Euros. Is this what you're looking for?
Big secret announcement right now: you can save a significant amount of money by calling rental companies directly in Italy. I have guests who ask me all the time to check out prices for them, and I usually just call up the big three (Avis, Hertz, Maggiore (National)) and get rates hundreds of dollars less than what they find on the net, especially if they are renting out of Perugia, where we work with them often enough that the guys will throw in upgrades and free second city drop off and stuff. It is definitely worth the cost of an overseas call, if you can muster enough Italian (though they usually have English speaking operators, too). This is not to undermine either In Italy or AutoEurope, which I have never worked with so have no opinion of at all.
quote:Big secret announcement right now: you can save a significant amount of money by calling rental companies directly in Italy.
And for any lurkers out there: the same applies, very much so, to house rentals; Web prices are similarly inflated, double and more. If somehow you can manage to rent directly from Italy, you'll spend half, or less.
[As for how to do that: pidgin Italian, and a phone call -- not mail, nobody answers! -- to the APT in whatever town you're looking at; have them postal-mail you the free list of rentals "mini-appartamenti, appartamenti di vacanze, affitti" they maintain; then phone calls to the properties on the list. Yes, a bit of time, and yes, you'll probably have to manage in Italian, but isn't that part of going to Italy?]
InItaly is a huge website which has a ton of info, AND they do rentals and car rentals. I hv been using them for my cars for 4 yrs (2-3 times a yr) and have had nothing but good experiences with them. The nicest thing is - everything is included, never a hassle with a little ding or anything..you are totally covered. The cars are good. I would highly recommend them. I am sure their rentals are good to, I know they take a personal interest and that all of the sites are personally visited and rated. I would think they are even better than Karen Brown, who does not update the listings.
Janice
Posts: 71 | Location: Orient Point, Long Island, New York | Registered: 05 September 2001
quote:Originally posted by ciaojanice@aol.com: The nicest thing is - everything is included, never a hassle with a little ding or anything..you are totally covered.
Yes but you get the same coverage just going directly to Auto Europe and cutting out the middle man (since that is all In Italy is with AUto Europe).
While InItaly does have a lot of good info they also have some bad stuff (but then no one is perfect). My problem is that when pointing out something to them (a simple thing in a nice way), odds are you will get a very rude response from the site owner. That alone will turn me off of a site faster than you can say Ciao!
Hi, I just checked for same time period and days using initaly vs.connecting throurg slow trav.I am a little confused since they are both Auto Europe. But it appears they are still offering a free upgrade on initaly.Initaly was 34% cheaper! $315 dollar savings on a two week rental which was $920 on auto europe clicking through this site and $605 on initaly.Do we have enough traffic here to generate this same discount? Help! I would like to use slow trav but I am sorry $315 is real money. I understand they will match the price but autoeurope matching autoeurope dosn't make sense.RR
Posts: 6501 | Location: Culver City, CA, USA | Registered: 08 November 2002
Topic Closed
. Their price though works out to about the same as Auto Europe though so I would cut out the middle man. BTW, I dislike them (In Italy) so I am a bit biased. Don't like Parker either as Dean has confirmed their price gouging. I rented directly through owner and it was $750 for a villa but Parker wanted $1850.
